symptoms of a cold-do you suppress them with drugs?

[brimfull]

Do you take over-the-counter remedies for a cold,such as day nurse or other antihistamines and suchlike?
Do you think suppressing the symptoms only prolongs your recovery?
I am in two minds ,battle through the aching and sore head/throat etc and let my immune system do it's thing or take drugs.What do you do?

Symptomatic relief makes no difference to the course of the illness at all.

not if i can help it, paracetamol and home-made homey and lemon (and maybe a quilt to snuggle with)

I don't tend to take stuff during the day, but do take nose drops before bed if my nose is so bunged up I can't breathe through it. Helps me get to sleep.

Is that scientific fact aloha,or your exp.Am angling for the drugs here.

Well, colds are caused by a virus. You cannot affect a virus by taking an antihistamine or some paracetamol, for good or ill. Neither do paracetamol or antihistamines affect your immune system. I like Lemsip with honey best! and hot ribena...yum.

Steer well clear of cold remedies with pseudoephedrine in. Very bad for heart palpitations etc.

how funny aloha - I've been surviving on lemsip with honey and hot ribena this week

if it makes your life easier ggirl, take the painkillers. No point in suffering!

Right you've persuaded me,am off to the medicine cabinet.

oh, absolutely! Lemsip Max & Nightnurse for me.

As Aloha said, it makes no difference to how long it takes to go away... might as well make it more bearable.

Well, don't end up like me, in hospital with atrial fibrillation due to over-reliance on Nurofen Cold and Flu!

olbas oil for night breathing

ibuprofen for headaches

lockets for the throat

calpol for the girls and medised at night

mean mummy drugging herself and the kids,but my word, its made my life SO much easier this week.

i've only taken pulmo bailey once, when my cough made it impossible to sleep. it worked straight away, but i'd only use in extreme situations!

It's rank, isn't it? Does a job, though.

oh dinosaur !!

how many/how long did you take it for that it made you feel that way?

fis, I took it for about a week, and didn't eat properly and drank lots of coffee and stressed myself out instead of resting!

I certainly don't take painkillers at every niggle but if, like ggirl, I had aches and a sore head and had to get on with things, I think I'd reach for something.

OMG, you poor thing!!

you must have got such a fright!

Yes, I did.

It cleared up for a couple of years, but came back last winter/spring and now I'm on meds for it.

A week is not long. I take those when I have bad sinuses (which is quite often) - they used to be branded Nurofen Sinus.

Was the atrial fibrillation entirely due to the medication or was it something you may have ended up with anyway?

what do you take for it?

blimey dinosaur that's awful.

foxinsocks - who knows? I didn't even realise that it might have been the trigger until I was talking to a friend who is a nurse, a few weeks later. Just having a virus can itself be a trigger, I think.

I take Flecainide for it now, which is an anti-arrhythmia drug, and baby aspirin.

I meant (re the week is not long) that I bet some people take it for longer without thinking of the consequences.

Glad it's under control now.