Do medications that fight a cold’s symptoms prolong the cold?
Most of the symptoms of a cold are not signs that the body is fighting off the infection so much as responses engineered by the virus to help ensure its spread. Runny nose, streaming eyes, coughing and sneezing are all ways to get virus particles outside your body and spread them as widely as possible.
The only symptom that could be considered part of the immune response is fever. This is more usually a sign that you have flu, rather than one of the upper respiratory tract infections lumped together as ‘a cold’. Fever has been shown to make the body a less favourable environment for some pathogens and also to increase the proliferation of white blood cells. But evidence that using drugs to reduce the fever prolongs flu or a cold is much less conclusive. Virtually every alternative and conventional medicine (with the exception of anti-virals for flu) appears to have no significant impact on a cold’s duration.
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I don't actually agree with
I don't actually agree with the statement above. Maybe the majority of medications do not prolong the cold but there are some of them that actually do that. Maybe it is only my own experience but that's my story. I am using Retin-A for hair loss for about 5 years now. I have spotted the tendency that every time when I am getting flu and using this medication together with simple tablets against flu - they are mixing together and my infection goes worse. I think that there are more of these that actually does that. I hope it helps someone. Thanks for the interesting article by the way.
Very interesting and
Very interesting and informative article indeed. I have to admit that now I always follow all news about swine flu or stomach flu treatment because these viruses have become very dangerous for our health. Personally I really afraid of swine flu because more and more people are dying from this virus and I always try to avoid public places or use swine flu masks there. I think that all people should know the basic information about the treatment of these viruses. Well thanks a lot for sharing this useful information and I will be waiting for more news about these viruses.