Safely Treat Your Cold

02/07/2010

What cold medicine is right for me?

Winter is the time of year when you may find yourself browsing the medicine aisle in your local pharmacy searching for a preparation to treat cough and nasal decongestion associated with the common cold. You may be entering the flu season and wondering what you can do to avoid the flu or treat its symptoms. Learn more about the flu and by clicking here.

Many cold preparations contain the warning that they should not be used if you are taking Parkinson’s medicine. What should your do?

There are general precautions to help you safely treat your cold without medicine interactions.

First, it is important to know what is included in cold preparations before selecting and buying a product for your cold. Because of potential side effects or medicine interactions, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor or pharmacist before taking a cold medicine. Over-the-counter cold preparations often contain a mixture of ingredients for specific needs. There are non-drowsy formulas, formulas to help you sleep, long-acting formulas, and formulas for coughs and the flu.

The most common ingredients are

Antihistamines
Decongestants
Cough suppressant
Fever or pain relievers.

Antihistamines

An antihistamine or allergy medicine reduces itching, inflammation, and allergy symptoms such as runny nose and watery eyes. A common antihistamine is diphenhydramine (found in Benadryl). Common side effects of some antihistamines, especially diphenhydramine, are sedation, cognitive changes, constipation, and dizziness.

Diphenhydramine can cause confusion and excessive daytime sleepiness, both of which worsen imbalance, affect driving, and increase falls.

Antihistamines can increase the sedation affect of drugs such as benzodiazepines- used for anxiety or as muscle relaxants-and increase the effect of blood-pressure drugs. Long-acting formulas offer longer cold relief, but a nighttime dose is more apt to cause early morning grogginess. Newer antihistamines such as loratadine (found in Claritin), cetirizine (found in Zyrtec) cause less sedation and therefore may be better tolerated. Some sleeping preparations such as Tylenol PM and Advil PM take advantage of the sedating effect of Benedryl and add this to the pain ingredients of acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil).

Decongestant

A decongestant constricts or narrows blood vessels in the nasal lining, reducing inflammation and swelling to help open up your nasal passages to aid breathing. Common decongestants include phenylephrine and pseudoephedrine. Side effects include dizziness, heart palpitations, and agitation. Decongestants can increase the effect of stimulants such as caffeine, increasing anxiety, insomnia, agitation, and tremor. Decongestants are now determined to be safe with Parkinson’s medicines that are selective MAO-B inhibitors, such as selegiline (found in Eldepryl and Zelapar) or rasagiline (found in Azilect). However caution is still advised and talk with your doctor if you are on these medicines.

Cough Suppressant

A common over-the-counter cough suppressant is dextromethorphan. This medicine should not be taken with MAO-B inhibitors such as Eldepryl or Azilect as the combination can cause serotonin syndrome with agitation, sweating, tremor, muscle jerks, diarrhea, fever, and heart palpitations.

Pain and Fever Relief

Common fever and pain relievers used in cold preparations to relieve achy muscles, headache, and fever include acetaminophen (found in Tylenol) and ibuprofen (found in Motrin.) These medicines do not interact with Parkinson’s medicines, but be careful not to take more than your doctor recommends as too much can be toxic! Prescription cough medicines often include a narcotic such as codeine and can cause sedation, confusion, and dizziness.

Because there are so many brand names to choose from, and since the ingredients in any one pill can be difficult to determine, be sure to follow the 'Practical tips when buying over the counter medicines' when you are purchasing cold medications.

Author: Monique Giroux, MD Medical Director Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation

Medical Information Disclaimer and Legal Agreement

Please read this agreement entirely and carefully before using the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation website (nwpf.org).By using www.nwpf.org site, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions below and in the www.nwpf.org Privacy Policy.

Disclaimer About Medical Information:
The information and reference materials contained here are intended solely for the general information of the reader. It is not to be used for treatment purposes, but rather for discussion with the patient's own physician. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose health problems or to take the place of professional medical care. The information contained herein is neither intended to dictate what constitutes reasonable, appropriate or best care for any given health issue, nor is it intended to be used as a substitute for the independent judgment of a physician for any given health issue. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this web site is for general information purposes only. The major limitation of informational resources like www.nwpf.org is the inability to take into account the unique circumstances that define the health issues of the patient. If you have persistent health problems or if you have further questions, please consult your health care provider. All visitors to this and other www.nwpf.org associated web sites agree to read and abide by the complete terms of this agreement.

Legal Disclaimers

Summary:
 * www.nwpf.org web site does not constitute an attempt to practice medicine.
 * The use of the site does not establish a doctor-patient relationship.
 * Individuals should consult a qualified health care provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
 * While the site attempts to be as accurate as possible, it should not be relied upon as being comprehensive or error-free.
 * www.nwpf.org is under constant development and changes may be made in the articles and programs at any time.
 * The web site reserves the right to change its disclaimer or privacy policy, so users should review these periodically.

No Medical Advice.
The information posted here by www.nwpf.org is not to be considered medical advice and is not intended to replace consultation with a qualified medical professional. We may answer and post medical questions solely on our own discretion. We do not have the resources or the capability to answer all visitor questions. In general, the questions we choose to answer are (in our opinion) of value to other readers. The answers to these questions should in no way be considered specific medical advice or a plan for disease management. Our goal is to provide sufficient information so that www.nwpf.org visitors are able to become knowledgeable participants in their disease management plan. The primary responsibility of your disease management plan is with your treating physicians and you should only follow your treating physicians advice. DO NOT change/modify your disease management plan on your own without consulting your treating physicians.

No Warranties.
This web site is provided on an "as is," "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, those of TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE or NON-INFRINGEMENT or any warranty as to accuracy, timeliness, completeness or arising from a course of dealing, usage, or trade practice. No oral advice or written information provided by the www.nwpf.org shall create a warranty; nor shall members or visitors to the site rely on any such information or advice.

Disclaimer of Liability.
The user assumes all responsibility and risk for the use of this web site. Under no circumstances shall www.nwpf.org or its contributors/employees or its affiliated organizations such as the University of Illinois at Chicago or its employees or anyone else involved in creating or maintaining this web site be liable for any DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL or CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, or LOST PROFITS that result directly or indirectly from the use or inability to use the web site and/or any other web sites which are linked to this site - or that result directly or indirectly from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, viruses, errors, defects, or any failure of performance, communications failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access.

In states which do not allow some or all of the above limitations of liability, liability shall be limited to the greatest extent allowed by law.

Online Conduct.
Visitors agree to use the web site only for lawful purposes and are prohibited from posting on the web site any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory or obscene material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. This applies to any posting that could be termed as Sexual Harassment and or Discrimination. Although in the absence of a specific complaint the postings are not monitored for compliance with this provision, in an effort to discourage such conduct, please note that all postings in the Comments area will list the author's name--no anonymous postings are permitted!

Disclaimer of Endorsement.
Reference to any products, services, hypertext link to the third parties or other information by trade name, trademark, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by www.nwpf.org or its contributors/employees. They are for convenience only.

Link Disclaimer.
Links are provided only as an informational resource. Please note that many of the links provided are not on our servers and are not maintained by us or affiliated with any services provided by us. These links are provided simply as a service, and it should not be implied that we recommend, endorse or approve of any of the content at the linked site(s), nor are we responsible for their availability, accuracy or content.

Have a nice day.