Drug Companies and "Cold Medicine"

[Crazy Dazz]

The only thing my wife ever shares with me is her germs. I have a terrible cough and fever, and when I get sick I get cranky.

You'd think, after all this time, and the Billions invested, the drug companies could have come up with something to make us feel better.

For as long as I can remember, we have been encouraged to "Soldier on with Codral." I THINK I can vaguely remember when it actually contained ephedrin. Certainly, for most of the last 30 years it has contained psuedoephedrine. So I suppose for some of us, taking speed did make us feel better.

Now it has been replaced with Phenylephrine, which too is described as a "decongestant." Which sounds good, God knows I'm congested, except its nothing of the sort. "PE" is a vasoconstrictor, it constricts your blood vessels. The argument is that by constricting the small blood vessels in your lungs and sinuses, there will be less potential for fluid build up, and less water available to make mucous.
Which frankly, sounds like a crock.
I actually take a vasodilator, to counteract hypertension, and it doesn't render me full of snot when I'm not sick.

And here's the other thing. PE has been tested, and shown to have NO effect as a decongestant (ie no greater than placebo). Yet the drug companies keep flogging it to us.

I have found ibuprofen seems to help the most, with the headaches and maybe the fever.