Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2354 readers

100 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What works for treating the common cold? Many doctors say 'not much' (www.wsiu.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When you stroll down the cold and flu aisle in a drugstore, it's easy to get lost in the dizzying array of products promising to clear sinus pressure, dry up sniffles and stop plaguing coughs. Some concoctions even offer it all in one magical pill.

But doctors say the science behind some of those claims is lackluster.

"There's just not much that's very effective for treating the common cold," said Dr. Lauren Eggert, clinical assistant professor in the Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Division at Stanford University.

"Most of the things out there — antihistamines, decongestants, cough medicines — none of them have a lot of evidence that they're super effective at improving cough or common cold symptoms."

Headlines blasted that message in September when advisers to the FDA found oral phenylephrine, which is an active ingredient in some Sudafed, Mucinex, and Dayquil products, is simply not effective. The review was prompted by inquiries dating back nearly a decade.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is the main thing with supplements in general. If you're deficient and the supplement is in a bioavailable form then it will help you (though not necessarily with the specific issue you want to resolve, and with illness it's better to be prepared ahead of time rather than try to catch up once you're sick). If you aren't deficient, you're just giving your kidneys more work for no benefit.

And this is just speculation, but viruses and bacteria also use vitamins and minerals to replicate, so it's possible that certain supplements could benefit the infection. That said, your cells vastly outnumber infection cells unless you're doing very badly already, so odds are your body still gets more benefit from not being out of something, even if the virus needs it.