Let's get something for this cold.
There is no cure for the common cold.
What you can do is:
- take care of the symptoms with over-the-counter medications
- reduce it's ability to limit your daily activities
- reduce the duration of the cold
- prevent any complications.
The most common symptoms of a cold are listed below. Choose what you are experiencing and see what we recommend.
Your best bet would be to visit the nearest urgent care clinic. If you don't think so, here is what we recommend to use over-the-counter.
Preventive measures
Definitely:
- Wash the hands often.
- Use alcohol-based hand sanitizers if water is not available.
- If your school-age child sneezes, have him or her wash hands immediately. Don't be lazy about this. Just one quick sneeze is enough to make everybody sick.
Over-The-Counter Medicines:
We strongly recommend the cold prevention medicines comparison feature of this app. (See link below).
You must have this cold really bad.
Your best bet would be to visit the nearest urgent care clinic. If you don't think so, here is what we recommend to use over-the-counter.
Talk about Antihistamine, cough, decongestant and pain relief
We must have left something out.
If you think you have a cold:
Please go back and choose the symptom(s) that you feel closely relate to what you have or might have had and let me recommend something for you.
Remember, there is no cure for the common cold. All we can do is manage the symptoms if you have one.
Decongestants
Start with a decongestant nasal spray.
Choose a nasal spray with oxymetazoline. Effects can last for up to 12 hours. Nasal sprays containing phenylephrine need to be used every 4 to 6 hours.
After 3 days, if you are still congested, switch to pseudoephedrine tablets.
Continuing the spray will lead to a cycle of rebounding nasal congestion. Don't be tempted to use the nasal spray for more than 3 days.
Take this seriously or you will be in for a nasal congestion ride of your life. How do you know if you are in the rebound phase? If a decongestant nasal spray that used to give you relief for 12 hrs, became 10 hrs and now it is 8hrs. Stop.
We do not recommend phenylephrine tablets. Don't waste your money. 
If you want to breathe, go to the pharmacy counter and ask for pseudoephedrine tablets. Take a government issued ID with you. If the pharmacy is closed, get a decongestant nasal spray.
If you can't take pseudoephedrine tablets as in high blood pressure or the congestion is not so bad, use saline nasal spray.
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Antihistamine
First generation antihistamines like chlorpheniramine, brompheniramine or diphenhydramine work well for cold symptoms. However, they will make you sleepy.
Do not use non-sedating antihistamines like Claritin®, Allegra® or Zyrtec® for cold. They are only useful in allergy situations.
If you have other symptoms, look for multisymptom medications that contain chlorpheniramine, brompheniramine, diphenhydramine or doxylamine.
Use the product comparison feature of this app to compare multi-symptom cold medicines.
Pain / Fever reducer
Prefer acetaminophen if what you are experiencing is mainly headache along with other cold symptoms like runny nose and nasal congestion.
Prefer ibuprofen or naproxen if muscle ache and pain, sinus pain or sinus pressure due to inflamed sinuses.
These have anti-inflammatory properties that acetaminophen does not have.
Cough Relief
Suppressing the cough
Use a cough suppressant if:
- This cough is keeping you up at night
- This is a dry cough with no mucus being produced.
- This cough is giving you chest pain.
If none of these, stay away from a cough suppressant.
Postnasal drip (mucus dripping to the back of the throat) is causing most of the coughing by triggering the cough reflex. This is the body's attempt to clear the air passages and prevent mucus from getting to the lungs. If you take a cough suppressant, this preventive mechanism is suppressed leading to a higher potential for secondary upper respiratory tract infections.
Dextromethorphan is the cough suppressant available. Menthol in cough drops will also suppress cough. There are different formulations, so use the product comparison part of this app to choose the right dextromethorphan for you.
Expectorant
With time, mucus accumulate in the sinuses and nasal passages. This can become dry and thick reducing the flow of mucus.
Mucus in the body should be thin and flow easily as it moistens the lining of the sinuses, respiratory tract and remove bacteria, viruses, dust, pollen and other foreign substances.
Thick mucus is bad because it traps bacteria, viruses and dirt and does not flow easily and quickly enough for the body to get rid of it either by swallowing or coughing it up and out.
An expectorant will break up, loosen and thin the mucus making it flow easily for you to expectorate (bring it up and out).
Must drink a lot of water for an expectorant to work effectively.
Guaifenesin is the most common expectorant.
Combination or not?
Get a combination (Guaifenesin + DM) if you have chest congestion and the cough is getting violent or giving you chest pain.
You will experience violent cough during the last stage of cold because the mucus has dried up. This triggers the cough reflex and because it is harder to clear, it leads to coughing spells.
Guaifenesin with drinking a lot of water will loosen dried mucus and get the mucus flowing again while dextromethorphan will help control the coughing spells until the mucus stops triggering this cough reflex.
Multi-Symptom
Choosing a multi-symptoms cold medicine:
The best thing to do is to use the comparison feature of this app. (See link below).
What to look out for:
- Make sure other medicine you are taking does not contain acetaminophen. Most will contain acetaminophen.
- Don't expect them to relieve nasal congestion even if it says so on the box. Except you buy the ones kept behind the pharmacy counter.
- We don't really recommend multisymptom medicines because cold comes in different stages. You have to treat the symptom at that stage or you are wasting your money. For instance, the last stage is usually cough and chest congestion. Buying a multisymptom with cough suppressants or expectorants earlier, is a waste of money.
Worth doing
Invest in a humidifier
Dry air dries up the nasal passages and need to be moisturized. Moreover, if you have nasal congestion, you will be breathing through your mouth at one point or another while asleep. This will make your throat dry and can lead to sore throat. A humidifier will at least help prevent dry passages.
We recommend cool mist.
Warm mist is too dangerous especially if you have children in the house. Moreover, by the time the moisture gets from the air to your nasal passages, it is already cold. Plus it is more expensive! Don't waste your money.
If you really need a warm mist, put your head over a bowl of hot water to inhale the vapors.
Or better yet, take a hot shower.
High vitamin and mineral concentrations
Take any of the high vitamin and mineral containing tablets or packets that you dissolve in water before drinking. Examples include Airborne® or Emergency C®.
They work 50% of the time to reduce the severity of cold symptoms.
But stay away from the ones you spray in your mouth. Some taste like ****. The taste of zinc can be hard to mask.
Drink plenty of water
More so if you have chest congestion. You need to thin the mucus so it will keep moving.
We can help you compare over the counter multi-symptom cold medications that will work best for you if you need help with that.
- Let others know if the recommendation worked for you.
- Share your treatment outcome with others.
- Add to the recommendation.
- Improve on the recommendation.
- Quickest way to ask a pharmacist a question.
- What about you answering a question?