Expectorants
What are cold and cough medicines?
Cold and cough medicines can help relieve symptoms of a common cold. The symptoms of a cold can include a sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, and coughing.
You don't usually need to treat a cold or the cough that it causes. You can't cure a cold, and antibiotics won't help you get better. But sometimes the symptoms can keep you awake or cause a lot of discomfort. In that case, cold and cough medicines can sometimes be helpful.
What are the different types of cold and cough medicines?There are lots of different cold and cough medicines, and they do different things:
- Nasal decongestants - unclog a stuffy nose
- Cough suppressants - quiet a cough
- Expectorants - loosen mucus in your lungs so you can cough it up
- Antihistamines - stop runny noses and sneezing
- Pain relievers - ease fever, headaches, and minor aches and pains
Before taking these medicines, read the labels and follow the instructions carefully. Many cold and cough medicines contain the same active ingredients. For example, some of them include pain relievers. If you are taking these medicines and are also taking a separate pain reliever, you could be getting a dangerous amount of the pain reliever.
Do not give cold or cough medicines to children under two, and don't give aspirin to children.
What else can I do to feel better for a cold or cough?If you decide that you don't want to take cold and cough medicines, there are other ways to feel better:
- Drink lots of fluids
- Get plenty of rest
- Use a cool mist humidifier
- Use saline nose drops or sprays
- Use nasal suctioning with a bulb syringe, which can be very helpful in children under a year old
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Physician's Materia Medica on Expectorants
Compounds of Antimony are irritant poisons producing specifi cally depression of the nervous and circulatory systems, nausea and diaphoresis. They are now used chiefly as diaphoretiw, expectorants and alteratives. a. Antimony and Potassium Tartrate (Tartar Emetic). Dose, as an alterative, 0.001 to 0.004 Grm. (1-50 to 1-15 gr.); as an expectorant, 0.005 to 0.010 Grm. (1-12 to 1-6 gr.); as a nauseant diaphore tic, 0.01 to 0.03 Grm. (1-6 to 1-2 gr.); as an emetic, 0.06 Grm. (1 gr.) re peated if ne1
Physician's Therapeutics Memoranda on Expectorants
In the incipient stage, quinine with a little Dover powder and a laxative may ward off the... / ...hor; ipecac and potassium salts to promote secretion; inhalations of steam or of moisture-laden air. Later adapt remedies to condition of patient. As expectorants use ammonium chloride, ammonium carbonate, lobelia, senega, etc., combining these with henbane, heroine or codeine to allay excessive cou...1