If you are a kid, this happens eight to ten times a year. An adult? Two to four. It's the
common cold and we've all had it. Well what's the best thing to do about it?
What is available to treat it? What is effective and What is not? In this video,
we're gonna let you know what you can do to help you get through it.
Welcome to Family Med, your medical home for practical and accurate
information to help your family make healthy decisions. I'm Dr. Erik
Richardson, and my passion is helping you cut through all the health information
clutter out there on the Internet. If that sounds like the kind of
information you or your family needs, make sure you follow along with this. Hit
that subscribe button and share it with your friends. Okay,
so today we're talking about the common cold. We've all had it, in fact, maybe you
have it right now, and that's why you're watching this. Hopefully you've watched
our last video where we talked about what is a cold, and when you should go
to the doctor for it. If you're new here and you haven't seen it, then check it out, because
It's got a lot of information for you. Today we're gonna approach this assuming
that you have the typical cold symptoms. There isn't any concerning things
that would make you want to seek additional care. Again, for a list of
those refer to my other video. Today we're just gonna focus on those things
that you can do for yourself, or that you can even go pick up over-the-counter that can
help you get through this. When we talk about treating a cold, it's important to
remember that a cold is caused by a virus, so we don't have anything that can
just cure it. Antibiotics are worthless in trying to
treat it, because nobody's really come up with that elusive cure for the cold. Well
because of this, most treatments just focus on treating the symptoms. So what
can you do for, for example, the congestion or runny nose that happens. If
you're over the age of 6 then there are some medication options. The three most
common are your Pseudoephedrine or Sudafed, Phenylephrine, or the nasal spray
Oxymetazoline or Afrin. Your Sudafed and Phenylephrine are oral medications. The
Phenylephrine is found on the shelves in all of your cold medications that
have a decongestant in it. It can help some. Now your Sudafed or Pseudoephedrine
is a little more effective, but this you have to purchase from the
pharmacist behind the counter. Now Afrin, it can be helpful, but you can only really
take that two or three days in a row. Using it any longer and your nose
can get addicted to it. So, for non-medication treatments or if
your child is under six years old there are some options you can try.
The most helpful are Saline nasal drops. These can help relieve congestion by
loosening up mucus, as well as drying up those nasal passages.
In infants you can clear their congestion by using Saline nasal spray or drops, and
then using a bulb syringe to clear it. It's also really helpful to do a sinus
rinse, using one by Neil Med or Neti Pot. Check out my video on sinus
infections for a better description of these. Also, keeping you more humid with
an in-room humidifier can also provide some relief. So what do you do about
those aches and pains or that sore throat? Well, the most common treatment
for these are your over-the-counter pain medications, such as Acetaminophen or
Tylenol, and Ibuprofen or Advil type products. These can be very effective. I'd
suggest that you look at the recommended doses on the bottles. I've
talked about this before in other videos, but you can even alternate taking
Ibuprofen and Tylenol to help control your symptoms. Follow your doctor's
advice, but I often times will recommend that my patients alternate each one every
three hours, making sure that you don't take each one individually
sooner than six hours. Now, be careful to avoid Aspirin in children and teenagers.
This can cause a rare, but potentially life-threatening condition called Reye's
syndrome. You can also use salt water gargles. Just
take a teaspoon of salt, and put it in some warm water, and just gargle. The salt
helps decrease some of the swelling in the throat. So what's available to treat
a cough? First of all, it's important to point out that this has been a subject
that has been studied quite a bit. Unfortunately there isn't anything on
the market that has shown a significant level of improvement in controlling a
cough. There are products available, however none of them tend to be safe
under the age of four. The most common one we see in the over-the-counter
medication is one called Dextromethorphan. You tend to find this
as one of the ingredients in most of your multi-symptom cold medications.
It can help somewhat, but nothing significant. There are some studies
however that have shown a potential benefit of an antihistamine called
Chlorpheniramine. This seems to be more effective for
those lingering coughs that you get when you have a lot of that drainage
going down the back your throat. Remember though, if you give cough
medication to an older child, make sure you follow the label directions.
Don't give your child two medicines with the same active ingredient. Too much of a
single ingredient could lead to an accidental overdose.
There are also some natural over-the-counter medications that are
for sale like, for example, your Zarbee's Honey based products. These are safe to
use for children over the age of 1. There isn't really any great data that
suggests whether they're effective or not, but they are felt to be safe and ok
to try. So those are the most common over-the-counter products that are
available, but how about all of the alternative medications? What are some different
supplements that are out there, and what does the data say about it? The most
common alternative cold medications out there that have been studied are Vitamin
C, Echinacea, and Zinc. So let's look at Vitamin C first. A
lot of studies have been done looking into the role that it has in fighting
colds. Unfortunately, there isn't a great consensus in the data. The most recent
studies show that daily use doesn't seem to help prevent colds, but it does seem
to help you overcome them a little bit quicker. The most success was seen when
at least six to eight grams a day of Vitamin C was taken right at the onset
of symptoms. This did seem to help decrease the length of a cold. In general,
it's safe to take so there isn't harm in trying it and see how you respond. Now
the only caveat is that those who have significant kidney disease should avoid
high doses, as well as if you're pregnant. The next one's Echinacea. Studies on the
effectiveness of Echinacea at preventing or shortening colds are mixed. The evidence
has shown a slight trend towards benefit and prevention, but not clear enough to
have a definitive answer. However, if you're otherwise healthy it's unlikely
to cause harm. We're just not sure how safe it is to take long-term though, in
fact there is some suggestion that use longer than eight weeks can actually
decrease your immune system. So talk to your Doctor on this one, and see what
they think is right for you. Okay the last one is Zinc. Zinc's another
medication that is recommended frequently for treating and shortening
the duration of colds. Like most supplemented medication, the data is up
and down on this one, even for the common cold, but mainly I think due to a lack of
good quality studies. However, when they've done a big analysis of all the
different studies it does appear that taking Zinc can help shorten duration of
colds. The hard part of this is that there
really isn't any consensus on how much, and how often it should be used. It did
show that you tend to do better if you start it right at the very onset of a
cold. However, one thing you want to remember, you do want to avoid the nasal
Zinc treatments, as it can be toxic to the nerves that help you smell, and can
cause irreversible loss of smell. Zinc can be limited as well to its
side-effects such as bad taste and stomach upset. So that's it! If you missed
anything, go back and watch, or check out the notes section below for a review of
what we talked about today. I hope you found this information we presented
today to be useful. If you did, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and even hit
that notification button, as well as share it with your friends.
This really is key to helping me be able to continue to produce this kind of
content for you. Also, let me know what you think in the comments below. What
have you found to be helpful in treating your colds? Is there anything that you use
that we haven't talked about? Let us know in those comments below. Okay now
remember, my purpose in sharing this information with you is to educate you
on things that you can think about in trying to make decisions in your own
health. In no way should it be taken as direct medical advice to you in your
own situation. So please, consult your own doctor for concerns regarding your
specific situation. Alright, so as a thanks for those who stuck around, here's
your bonus tip. We all know that when getting a prescription, it's always
cheaper to get one of those generic brands. There are some times, however,
that getting a new one in the name-brand is a better option for you. If
your doctor decides that this is better for you,
make sure you ask him for a coupon. Most new medications have coupons that you
can use if you have a commercial insurance. If they don't have one, go to
the manufacturers website and print one off for yourself to take to your
pharmacist. It can save you a lot of money! Well that's all I have today. I
hope this was helpful! Make sure you check out our other videos for information to
help you make your medical decisions. So until next time, this is Family Med with
Dr. Erik Richardson. Remember, please take care of your body, because it is the only one you have!