Is It Necessary to Take Cold Medicines?

Common Cold, photo from Wikipedia Commons

People catch colds more easily in cold-weather months, such as fall and winter. Some common cold symptoms are a sore throat, cough, runny nose, and fever. Those unwelcome side effects have a great impact on our daily life and work. Therefore, even though most colds will go away within one week, some people will still choose to take cold medicine to ease the misery of cold symptoms. However, sometimes taking those medicines may do more harm than good.

When humans get sick, they usually prefer to stay at home instead of going to work or school. A high body temperature or fever, which causes dizziness and headache, decreases our working efficiency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that 22 million American school days are lost each year because of the colds. Also, if body temperature reaches too high, it can lead to complications. A complication means an unfavorable evolution of a disease. As a result of that, taking cold medicines can make us feel better or shorten the illness, so that we may get back to work faster.

Cold Medicine Display, photo from Wikipedia Commons

However, it has been well reported that cold medicines cannot cure a cold. Instead, cold medicines have some potential hazards for our body. For example, acetaminophen, which is used in cold medicine to quell a headache, can cause liver damage. Each year, about 78,000 people were taken to the hospital because of acetaminophen toxicity. Also, when the human immune system fights against the influenza virus which is the agency that causes cold or flu, the human body responds to the fight and assists the immune system by showing cold symptoms. For instance, a high body temperature can slow down or destroy the replication of influenza virus, because influenza virus replicates and spreads best at cold, but not too cold temperature.

In conclusion, taking cold medicines or not really depends on you and your cold symptoms. If your body shows mild symptoms, such as a sore throat or rummy nose, it is better to not take any cold medicines. If you have a fever and an assignment that is due tomorrow, a cold medicine may help you get through this situation. Otherwise, drink a lot of hot water to make you sweat may help you feel better as well.

-Tina Sun