A Food and Drug Administration committee has confirmed that
many over the counter cold medications don't actually work.
The committee determined medications containing
ri
am I saying it? Right? Do
there we go are in effective as a decongestant to explain more.
We're joined by Doctor Leticia Shea,
an associate professor at Pharmacy Practice at Regis University.
I think the first question, at least it was mine.
What medications are we talking about here?
We're just talking about decongestant, a decongestant beri
and it is usually in combination products.
And so it is used to, uh, break down if you have congestion, it can maybe
help you with, uh, clearing your, your nasal mucosa.
But really what they've shown is that it's not really that effective for that,
at least in the oral formulation.
Ok.
So what's stunning about this is this is all these products that we see all the time,
you know, cold season starts like you soon
and people are stuffing their carts with Dayquil night,
this quill that quill, none of these really work.
And they've known about it for a long time.
They've known that
a
is not that effective of de congestion.
It usually in the studies,
they've shown that it's pretty similar to placebo or
equal to placebo even at doses bigger than that,
what we have available over the counter,
which is 10 mg is the most that's available over the counter.
And they've known since how long about 2007 is when a lot of the evidence came out.
But that was really,
it was coming out that time because they were questioning why these products have
Beyle
when it's not effective.
But the reason they were in those products was
because Sudafed was no longer available over the counter.
They moved Sudafed behind the counter, which is an effective decongestant because
it can be used to make methamphetamine.
And that was the, uh, I know we, like, you couldn't buy it,
especially if you were a certain age, you couldn't buy Sudafed.
Right? I think that's still the law, right. You need to have a driver's license.
Um, and you should be a believer. You have to be 18 years old.
That's my go to. And I feel like, well, it's not over the counter.
So, you know, you know, it's gonna work and that's been proven.
But like, what are our options now? If we can't go to the stuff we're used to?
Certainly.
And I think that, you know, Sudafed is available,
it's not available in those products readily available.
OTC,
but you can go to the pharmacy with your
driver's license and get some de congestion su effect.
And so that is effective.
If you're not going to do behind the counter
or a de congestion isn't appropriate for you.
I think it's really important to evaluate why you have congestion.
If you have congestion,
because you have allergy symptoms that may be augmenting your cold symptoms,
then there's things that you can take such as intranasal steroids for de
for congestion if you're not, if you don't have any allergy symptoms,
this is completely the cold.
Um, one of the best things you can do is intranasal
saline.
It's safe effective and it has been shown to minimize
symptoms and shorten the length of time for a cold.
Yeah, a lot of people think it's just a pain to do but if it works,
come on when you're sick, get better.
Absolutely. So, is there a big takeaway for all of us here?
I mean,
I guess we tend to overreact sometimes and take a
bunch of things to address a bunch of symptoms.
I think that's a really good question because what symptoms are you presenting with
generally with the cold, you don't immediately have all of the symptoms.
It usually starts off maybe with a little bit of a sore throat, um,
some pain and then the runny nose starts and you know, it goes through.
So focus on medicines that target that specific symptoms versus
using multiple medications that you may or may not need.
And a lot of times with combination products.
They have sub therapeutic doses,
lower dosing than what we've shown to be effective.
So I would focus on the symptoms. Do you have congestion? You can, you use,
you can still use that
behind the counter. You can use intranasal saline.
There's intranasal decongestants that are still readily available.
Oxymetazoline.
Um, you just gotta be careful not to use it too much,
but there's a lot of things that are still available.
It's just Spy Ephrine,
which we've known for a long time. Isn't that effective? Anyway?
I feel like we've been saying that about cold medicine in general.
It's like, you know,
it's just gonna soothe you for a little while but it's not going to fix anything.
There's no cure over the counter
and
really most of the evidence suggests things like Saline or honey for cough.
So you don't even need to go to the
stuff.
Yeah.
Listen to grandma or whatever.
Just somebody help me be able to, like,
use the sale on a three year old because that's what's challenging.
Saline is great for the babies though. But they
actually do it that
I know they get so angry. Mine got used to it. Eventually they'd,
they'd see me come and lift their nose
to
that.
You gotta get there here. She comes here, she comes,
that's not out there. Thank you so much.
It really helps us clear some things up and we'll
think about it next time we get that runny nose.
Thank you doctor. She.