Treatment of colds

Cold is a viral disease that affects people of all ages, causing frequent use of medications. Treating colds requires caution because they are mostly caused by viruses, and antibiotics are not able to cope with them. What treatments should be used for colds?

Read also: Correct treatment of flu

Epidemiology and clinical presentation of the common cold

The common cold is caused by a variety of respiratory viruses, most commonly rhinoviruses. Adults have an average of two to four episodes per year, while young children may have as many as six to eight episodes. The common cold is characterized by a sore throat, malaise, and low-grade fever at the onset of the illness.

These symptoms last for several days and are accompanied by nasal congestion, runny nose, and cough 24 to 48 hours after the first symptoms appear. The second set of symptoms requires patients to seek medical attention in most cases. Nasal discharge occurs at the peak of the disease, can become very thick and purulent, and can be misdiagnosed as a bacterial sinus infection.

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Treating a cold: the main tasks of medications

Both over-the-counter and prescription medications do the same thing when it comes to colds. The treatment is aimed at relieving symptoms (e.g. cough, nasal congestion, runny nose). If a person achieves this goal without side effects, then he or she is being treated correctly.

Traditional pharmacological therapy

Since there are no effective antiviral medications for the common cold, treatment should focus on relieving cold symptoms. Commonly used treatments include over-the-counter medications, antihistamines, decongestants, cough suppressants, and expectorants. These medications may be used alone or in combination.

Cough medicines

Dextromethorphan may be helpful for adults with cough, but its effectiveness has not been proven in children and adolescents. Additionally, this medication works well for dry coughs, but it can cause allergy symptoms in people with asthma, and it is not recommended for use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Codeine is a substance that also suppresses cough symptoms during a cold. It is a part of the medicines we know, for example, pentalgin. As studies have shown, codeine is not always effective against cough caused by a cold. But it relieves pain in the respiratory tract well.

For a wet cough, expectorants are used to thin the mucus.

These may be such drugs as acetin, acetylcysteine (ACC), mucomix, mucobene, fluimucil, muconex, mucaltin, exomuk, ambrobene, flavamed, lazolvan, halixol.

For dry cough, the following cough suppressants are used in the form of syrup and tablets for the treatment of dry cough

• Alex plus
• Falimint
• Bronchicum cough syrup
• Bronchitusen Vramed (broncholitin, bronchoton, bronchocin)
• Bronchicum
• Broncholin

For colds, nasal decongestants are also used, which are indicated for the relief of nasal symptoms and can be used for adolescents and adults.

Decongestants

These are the most popular and frequently used medicines for a runny nose during a cold. They reduce swelling of the nasal mucosa and hyperemia, because they have a vasoconstrictor effect. Most often, nasal sprays or drops are used, which contain the substance oxymetazoline. These are drops and sprays such as:

• Nazivin
• Nazol
• Sanorinchik
• Knoxprey

To achieve the effect of vasoconstriction and relief of runny nose symptoms, drugs containing naphazoline are also used: Sanorin, Naphthyzinum, drops with eucalyptus.

Representatives of nasal cold preparations containing xylometazoline include Otrivin, Ximelin, Rinorus, Galazolin, and so on.

All these drugs help very well against a runny nose in the first days of a cold, in its initial stage. The effect occurs in three minutes, but it lasts differently.

Preparations with oxymetazoline act for 12 hours, with Naphazoline and Tetryzoline – up to six hours, vasoconstrictors with Xylometazoline act for six to eight hours.

Before using these medications, you need to consider the patient's age (for example, some of the medications are contraindicated for children under two years of age). Therefore, when treating a cold with nasal medications, follow your doctor's advice.

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Antihistamines

…and combinations of antihistamines/decongestants may slightly improve cold symptoms in adults, but possible side effects must be weighed. Antihistamines for colds are not the main treatment. But they can relieve cold symptoms and improve the patient's condition, for example, relieve swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose and throat, reduce sneezing and coughing, and alleviate the patient's general condition. These are drugs such as chloropyramine, clemastine, diphenhydramine, cyproheptadine, mebhydrolin and others.

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Antibiotics for colds

Antibiotics are not indicated for colds, as they are caused by viruses, not bacteria, which antibiotics work on. Antibiotics are indicated when colds cause complications, such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Despite the fact that the common cold is a viral disease, antibiotics are often prescribed incorrectly to patients, even when bacterial complications (e.g. pneumonia, bacterial sinusitis) occur. Research into antibiotics for the treatment of the common cold is aimed at preventing secondary bacterial complications and side effects.

Systematic reviews have shown that they are not effective in reducing the duration of symptoms and their severity due to the risk of adverse gastrointestinal effects, cost of treatment, and increased bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

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Alternative Treatments for Colds

Complementary alternative therapies (such as echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc ) are used to improve symptoms or shorten the duration of illness. They are not very effective in treating cold symptoms, but may be helpful in boosting the immune system and reducing the adverse side effects of the common cold. Vitamin C used prophylactically may slightly reduce the duration and severity of the common cold in the general population and reduce the incidence of the disease in people exposed to physical and environmental stress.

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Vitamin C in the Treatment of Colds

A Cochrane review found that taking 200 mg or more of vitamin C per day does not significantly reduce the severity of cold symptoms or their duration.

The data on preventive use of vitamin C are more impressive. Thirty studies involving 9,676 cold sufferers showed a statistically significant reduction in the duration of illness with vitamin C. This was an 8 percent reduction in adults and a 13.5 percent reduction in children. Similarly, 15 studies involving 7,045 cold sufferers showed a reduction in the severity of cold symptoms with vitamin C taken before the cold season even began.

In conclusion, vitamin C does not reduce the incidence of colds in the general population. However, a subset of six studies involving runners, skiers, and soldiers participating in preventive exercise showed a 50 percent reduction in their risk of developing a cold when they took vitamin C prophylactically (range: 32 to 62 percent).

Zinc in the treatment of colds

Zinc use inhibits viral growth, and the RCT suggests that zinc may shorten the duration of cold symptoms. However, this has not been confirmed in subsequent studies.

Specifically, four of the eight subsequent studies showed that zinc did not provide any benefit to cold patients, while the remaining four showed that zinc promoted faster recovery from colds. Because of these conflicting study results, zinc for colds should only be used on the advice of a physician, taking into account the individual characteristics of the patient.

Treating a cold requires strength and energy, so, as practice shows, it is better to spend these forces on prevention and hardening. This will be a huge plus for human health at any age.