Thursday, 15 November 2018

microbiology - Does avoiding medication that alleviates symptoms shorten the length of a cold?


People use over the counter (OTC) medications to relieve symptoms of the common cold.


However, these symptoms are part of the immune response, right? They are driven by the body responding to the virus and attempting to make the body less habitable and thus easier to kill it off.


Do OTC medications that reduce cold symptoms cause the cold to persist longer? Should such medications be avoided if the goal is to reduce cold duration rather than symptoms?




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