1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,120 Well, howdy y'all. 2 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,320 Welcome to your mom on drugs. 3 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:27,140 The podcast where myself, Joshua Klaus and my mother, Jennifer 4 00:00:27,140 --> 00:00:30,520 Seltzer, talk about drugs, probably not the ones that you 5 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:32,580 maybe want to talk about, but we're going to talk about them. 6 00:00:32,580 --> 00:00:36,440 Anyway, um, on this episode, we're actually going to be discussing the 7 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:40,080 common cold, um, which is fairly common. 8 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,500 Um, especially this time of year, much, we're recording it, which is March in 9 00:00:44,500 --> 00:00:49,200 Texas, um, and it's probably a little bit more common, you know, a couple of months 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:54,340 ago, um, so since everyone usually goes through this, hence the common cold, 11 00:00:54,340 --> 00:00:57,280 we're just going to talk about kind of what a cold is. 12 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:00,880 So, um, mom, how would you define a cold? 13 00:01:01,660 --> 00:01:06,480 Well, a cold, the common cold is actually it's a virus. 14 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,900 Um, and it is a virus of the upper respiratory tract. 15 00:01:10,900 --> 00:01:18,380 So your nose, your throat, you know, your, um, sinus areas and stuff are the, the, 16 00:01:18,580 --> 00:01:21,840 the parts that are usually most, you know, included in the 17 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:23,440 symptoms when you have a cold. 18 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,880 Are the sinus areas, are those the things like feeling above your eyes? 19 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,800 No, it's, it's the part that's kind of next to your nose and 20 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:31,240 you're kind of your cheek area. 21 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:31,960 Okay. 22 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:35,880 So just right to the right and left of my nose, I drew a line right from my 23 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:37,680 nostril, right under my eyes. 24 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:38,360 Right. 25 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,800 Um, uh, you may have some sinus cavities in your forehead as well, too. 26 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,240 I would have to double check that, but for sure the ones that I think about the most 27 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:49,560 are the ones that are kind of in your face and stuff. 28 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:55,920 So, and, um, and the, the virus that is most commonly associated with the common 29 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:01,520 cold is a rhino virus, but actually coronaviruses and adenoviruses can also 30 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:02,720 cause the common cold. 31 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:09,680 Um, they represent about 60% of all disorders that have nasal 32 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,360 stuffiness and discharge the common cold does. 33 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:16,720 And it's usually has a kind of a slow onset. 34 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:21,240 It can take anywhere from 12 to 36 hours for those symptoms to progress. 35 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,960 We all know what those, what it feels like all of a sudden you have a scratchy 36 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,800 throat or your nose starts being a little stuffy and it can progress. 37 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:32,760 And then usually the symptoms can last up to nine to 10 days, 38 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:34,080 usually when you have a cold. 39 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:35,040 Nine to 10 days. 40 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:35,680 Okay. 41 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:36,160 Yes. 42 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:39,760 And you said that most of the viruses that cause the common cold 43 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:40,840 are called rhinovirus. 44 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:41,920 Rhinovirus. 45 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:46,440 And I guess, correct me if I'm wrong, but rhino is, it's the, the prefix of 46 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:47,480 that means nose. 47 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:48,480 Yes, correct. 48 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:49,560 Yeah, that is correct. 49 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:50,000 Yes. 50 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,680 Um, interestingly, just a few little fun facts about the common cold. 51 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,760 There are 1 billion cases that occur in the United States annually, every year. 52 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:00,560 A billion cases. 53 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:01,960 A billion cases. 54 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:07,480 It is one of the top five illnesses in the United States and adults typically 55 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:12,880 will have two to three colds a year, but kiddos will have maybe six or so per year. 56 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:18,000 That makes sense because there's about 330 to 350 million people in the States. 57 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,120 So if you're getting three times a year, that's roughly a billion. 58 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:21,640 Right. 59 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:22,560 Right. 60 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:26,680 And so they can, like you, like you mentioned earlier, colds can 61 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:28,040 happen at any time of the year. 62 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,720 They are a little bit more common in the winter months. 63 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:36,040 Um, and they are, they, they can cause, they could be the leading cause of 64 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:38,360 absences from both work and school. 65 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,360 Um, because you don't, you know, you just don't feel all that great. 66 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:42,840 They're usually self-limiting. 67 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:48,120 Um, and they, like I said, they can, they, they can last up to 10 days in adults. 68 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,480 Some kiddos that can last up to three weeks. 69 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,040 So just the leftover symptoms and stuff. 70 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:58,000 Um, and most of the, the drugs that are used to treat the common cold 71 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,600 are over the counter medications. 72 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:04,480 And we can spend up to $8 billion on those medications annually to take 73 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,120 care of the symptoms associated with the common cold. 74 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:07,520 Wow. 75 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:08,200 Yeah. 76 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,160 Well, let's, uh, let's talk about those treatments in just a second. 77 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,000 I kind of want to go back to, so one of the things you mentioned is that they 78 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,400 can be transmitted more in the winter. 79 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:19,760 Like, is there a reason for that? 80 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:22,600 Like why they would spread more in the winter than in the summer? 81 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:27,560 I would say a couple of those reasons are that when, when we're in the winter 82 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:31,440 months, we are more confined into the same space. 83 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,720 And again, remember that the common cold is transmitted either directly through 84 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:43,440 touch or the secretions that you excrete, like sneezing or coughing or even talking. 85 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:47,560 So if you're in more confined spaces because it's colder and you can't go 86 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,240 outside and run and play, then that's going to be one of the reasons why the, 87 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:55,040 that's going to be one of the reasons why colds might happen more 88 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:56,720 frequently in the winter time. 89 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:57,400 Okay. 90 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:02,200 So is, uh, this, this is a dumb question, but is the reason why it's called the 91 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,600 common cold is because it's common when it's cold. 92 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:07,680 I don't know exactly. 93 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,680 Um, I, that it could be, it could be somebody looked that up and send us a 94 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,640 tweet or whatever, a message that would be really nice to know. 95 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:24,680 Um, another thing that, um, you said that 60% of all colds are caused by rhinoviruses. 96 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,920 Are there other types of viruses that cause the common cold as well? 97 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:35,320 Um, yes, the Corona virus, as well as the adenovirus, the cold, the 98 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:40,480 adenovirus or the, or other common or other viruses that can cause the common cold. 99 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:45,320 But Corona virus, not like something like, like not, not the COVID virus, but it 100 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:49,120 is in that same grouping of viruses and stuff. 101 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:49,560 So, okay. 102 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:54,240 So you have like, oh, so Corona virus is like a, it's like a family of viruses 103 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:57,840 and you get in, get infected by one of the members of that family. 104 00:05:57,840 --> 00:05:58,280 Yes. 105 00:05:58,320 --> 00:05:58,640 Okay. 106 00:05:58,760 --> 00:05:59,000 Yeah. 107 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,840 So there's a certain Corona virus that will cause something like COVID, which 108 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:05,520 is like SARS, SARS-CoV-2. 109 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:05,960 Right. 110 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:10,160 And then you have, speaking of colds. 111 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:10,560 Yes. 112 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:12,360 And, uh, my, unfortunately my mom has a cold. 113 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,240 Well, she's on the tail end of a cold right now. 114 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:15,200 This is perfect timing. 115 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:17,640 That is the cough is the last thing to go. 116 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:18,800 So, yes. 117 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,000 And, um, and then you, so then you have something like maybe another type of 118 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:29,480 Corona virus that will cause cold like symptoms, but it could be a lot of, a lot 119 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,920 of different types of Corona viruses, just because viruses evolve and replicates. 120 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:34,520 Right. 121 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:35,120 Okay. 122 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:35,720 Right. 123 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:35,960 Okay. 124 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:38,400 So, okay. 125 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:45,720 So let's, um, let's say that I have, I imagine they're spread by droplets 126 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:47,480 since they're respiratory viruses. 127 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:48,320 That is correct. 128 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:48,920 Okay. 129 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:55,800 Like either, either from sneezing or, or your saliva from talking and coughing. 130 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:56,880 So, yes. 131 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:01,000 And then, and then if you touch the surface that that stuff has lasted, landed 132 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,560 on, then you could get it from that way as well to doorknob, you know, that kind 133 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:04,920 of thing. 134 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:05,520 Okay. 135 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:10,720 And is there a certain amount of time? 136 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:15,160 Like, for example, is one of the reasons why it's prevalent in the winter is 137 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:19,520 because in the summer, it's a little bit warm and it'll evaporate those drops 138 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:24,280 quicker, like, so will that basically the moisture be evaporated? 139 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:26,760 So there's no droplet for that thing to travel. 140 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:31,200 I did not see anything in the literature that I read about that. 141 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,240 That's something I definitely could try to check into and see if we can 142 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:35,360 find the answer to that. 143 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:35,800 Yeah. 144 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,720 So anybody wants to look up the answer to that, um, feel free. 145 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,720 I'm using the techniques that we have here of looking up things in the 146 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:44,280 literature. 147 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:46,720 Um, but, you know, this is all we do. 148 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,800 We just ask questions and hopefully we have the answers to them, but sometimes 149 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:52,360 we don't, and hopefully somebody's asked that question. 150 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:53,160 Okay. 151 00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:57,480 So let's move to probably where people really care about, which is they have a 152 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:02,960 cold and they're feeling lousy, um, like yourself and you're on the tail end of 153 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:09,280 feeling lousy and someone wants to get relief from the cold because, you know, 154 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:13,320 in, in the stages of disease, there's prevention, which is doing things like 155 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:17,840 washing your hands, staying away from people who are sick, et cetera. 156 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,120 Um, but then there's also things like when you actually get the disease, then 157 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:23,680 you have to treat that disease. 158 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,240 So I think a lot of people who are listening to this might want to know how 159 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:31,240 to treat their loved ones, especially if, you know, kids are getting it and they're 160 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,440 getting it three times a year or six times a year, if you're a kid. 161 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:40,040 So what can people do when they've gotten the symptoms to help give them some 162 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,160 relief or even short, if there's a possibility of shortening the 163 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:44,800 duration of the disease. 164 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:45,520 Yes. 165 00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:50,760 Um, so let's, let's just really review really quickly the symptoms that are 166 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:52,520 usually associated with the common cold. 167 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:58,080 Usually you can have a scratchy throat, sore throat, you know, you're going to 168 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:03,160 have, um, a, um, you know, runny nose. 169 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:05,880 Um, you'll have nasal congestion. 170 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,600 You can have sneezing, you can have, you know, discharge from your nose. 171 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:10,800 It usually can be clear. 172 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,200 It can turn color a little bit. 173 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,160 It doesn't necessarily mean that you have an infection if it does. 174 00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:19,800 And then, um, a cough, you kiddos can have a low grade fever. 175 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,640 You have a low grade fever associated with it, but that's not really that common. 176 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,640 And then you just kind of feel, you know, kind of malaise, just kind of, 177 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,840 kind of lethargic, kind of like, you just don't feel like doing much and stuff. 178 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:35,720 So the cough happens in about 30% of people. 179 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:41,120 Um, and it's the thing that usually is the later symptom in a cold. 180 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,480 And it can last up to about three weeks. 181 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:47,160 That was great timing. 182 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:47,960 Wasn't that perfect? 183 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:57,000 So, um, and so, uh, uh, things to do, like you've, you've mentioned as far as things 184 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:01,480 to do, as far as treating it, first of all, let me, let me emphasize this. 185 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:03,200 I can't emphasize this enough. 186 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:08,160 The common cold is caused by a virus, a virus. 187 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:12,120 So you can't treat a common cold with an antibiotic. 188 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:15,000 Antibiotics are not going to work for the common cold. 189 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,920 Now, if you end up with a secondary infection, you know, due to the common cold, 190 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:26,440 like you have an otitis media and ear infection, and it happens to be bacterial, or you end 191 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:31,280 up with a sinus infection and it happens to be bacterial, then that would be the time 192 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:36,560 for antibiotics, but otherwise, getting antibiotics prescribed for the common cold is 193 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:42,400 really not a good idea because any time that you take antibiotics and you don't need them, 194 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:47,760 then you increase the chance of those organisms becoming resistant to that antibiotic. 195 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,520 And then when you actually do need the antibiotic, it may not work as well. 196 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,400 So we've got to be just discreet as to when we use the antibiotics. 197 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:55,880 Yeah. 198 00:10:55,960 --> 00:11:02,040 Unfortunately, it's, it's so easy for, uh, medical professionals just to provide someone 199 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:07,520 a Z pack, which is essentially the standard course for antibiotics, um, when they don't 200 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,920 have a proper diagnosis, like, well, it could be bacterial here, take a Z pack, but it could 201 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,960 actually cause more harm than good later down the road. 202 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:21,600 Like mom said, um, also you have a gut bacteria that help out in myriad ways. 203 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,240 I ha I highly recommend checking out, um, Dr. 204 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,160 Huberman podcast. 205 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:30,480 Um, they talk a lot about some great science stuff and he does an episode on gut microbes, 206 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:32,880 uh, that we'll link in, in this episode. 207 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:38,080 Um, but that you also essentially run the risk of killing a lot of those, which can 208 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:39,840 cause some downstream effects as well. 209 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:45,120 Um, yeah, so be careful when taking things that you don't necessarily need, like mom 210 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:45,440 said. 211 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:45,760 Right. 212 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:46,160 Right. 213 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:50,240 And Josh, and Josh talked about the fact that, you know, you want to use as far as 214 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:57,920 preventive measures for a cold or concern, hand washing, hand sanitizer, avoiding, um, 215 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:02,880 uh, people who are sick, cleaning areas that may have been contaminated. 216 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:09,360 Certainly those are things that you can do to help prevent the, the common cold. 217 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:15,600 Um, things that have shown little or no effects in treating the common cold are 218 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:21,120 ginseng, echinacea, vitamin C and water gargles. 219 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:26,720 So, I mean, Linus Pauling came up with vitamin C years ago, as far as something to 220 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:28,080 be used to treat the common cold. 221 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:31,760 And it doesn't, there hasn't really been evidence that really support its use. 222 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:32,880 Yeah. 223 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:39,280 I think there's a lot of people who want to, maybe we should, we should, we should 224 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:44,000 talk about why that mechanism, I think there's a lot of people who think that 225 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,320 vitamin C really does play a role, um, in, in treating things like the common cold. 226 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:55,280 And I don't really know what the mechanism that people suggest of why it should work. 227 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:01,680 Um, because vitamin C, I think everyone out here knows that you should get your 228 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:08,880 vitamin C. Um, the classic case study is one of the reasons people found it to be 229 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:15,440 important is that when sailors were out at sea, um, they would develop this disease 230 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:22,000 called scurvy and scurvy is this nasty disease where essentially your skin almost 231 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:27,120 starts kind of coming apart in various ways because vitamin C actually plays a role. 232 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:29,600 I believe in collagen formation. 233 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:36,720 And, um, collagen is an important protein, um, in keeping your skin nice and tight and 234 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,400 actually maintaining its shape. It's why there's a lot of collagen treatments for 235 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:47,360 like beauty products and things like that. Um, and when sailors were given fruits or 236 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:51,200 when they went to ports that had fruits and they were able to take those on board to eat 237 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,640 them, because when you're a sailor and you're out at sea, you're going to kind of eat anything, 238 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,360 uh, because it's, you're going to, you're on a journey for months on end. 239 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,600 They found that those individuals didn't have scurvy and they said they thought 240 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,880 there must've been something in the fruit. And they found that that thing happened to be 241 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:12,480 vitamin C. So vitamin C also has other uses. It's also an antioxidant, um, which, you know, 242 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:18,000 antioxidants have various uses too, that have kind of been debunked as well. Like they thought that 243 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:22,560 there was some roles in anti-aging with antioxidants that haven't really panned out as well in the 244 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:30,560 literature and in evidence. Um, long story short, vitamin C as well, you can only take so much of 245 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:39,040 it in a day. Um, vitamin C is something called water soluble. Um, if you've ever mixed cocoa powder 246 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:47,040 or Kool-Aid inside of water, and you notice that the powder disappears and it mixes with the water 247 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:52,000 really well, that means that something soluble, meaning that it sticks really well with water, 248 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,800 as opposed to something like oil or butter, which isn't water soluble. Actually it'll, 249 00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:02,960 it'll separate quite well from water. It doesn't mix well with water. So whatever your body uses 250 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,960 essentially will get used for that process. Like vitamin C, it'll be used for collagen 251 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:15,040 formation or maybe some antioxidant, um, properties, but then it'll just get rid of the rest. So even 252 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:20,880 if you're taking 10 times the amount of vitamin C that your recommended dose, you're going to pee out 253 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:29,440 uh, you know, the, the remaining, you know, nine X of what your body doesn't use. Um, and at looking 254 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:34,880 at the literature, like my mom says, if you compare people who take vitamin C for a cold versus people 255 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:42,000 who don't, then you notice no significant difference between the duration of the cold or the symptoms. 256 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:47,440 Am I saying that correctly? That's correct. Yes. Yeah. And we will, we will find some studies for 257 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:52,080 y'all and post it. Cause I know a lot of people feel really passionate about things like vitamin C 258 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:59,600 and, um, I think I think a lot of people want this one, this wonder drug, this panacea, this, uh, 259 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,680 panacea is a word that basically means like a cure all, but like this thing's going to do everything. 260 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:08,480 And anytime you ever hear this thing's going to do everything, your skeptical radar should kind of 261 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:12,080 light up because things are probably more complicated than that. And someone's trying to 262 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:17,600 sell you something they can, they can get a big profit margin off and vitamin C is one of those 263 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:22,640 really cheap things that you can make and you can charge for a lot of money. Um, and if it works, 264 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:27,360 that would be great. But in this case with common colds, it doesn't work as well as advertised. So 265 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,440 that's all we're saying. We want to give that caveat there. Um, so anytime we say something 266 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:35,600 works, it's not our opinion. We would love vitamin C to work on colds. Cause that would be a really 267 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:40,400 nice cheap mechanism, um, for it to do, but unfortunately it doesn't pan out. That doesn't 268 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:46,160 mean the vitamin C doesn't work for everything. It has specific uses just like anything in life. 269 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:51,040 Things have specific uses for certain problems. All right. My rant is over. Okay. What else you 270 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:58,880 got? Okay. So there are some non, what we call non-pharmacological, non-pharmacologic therapies 271 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:05,840 that can be used in the common cold things like vaporizers and humidifiers to humidify, vaporize 272 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:11,600 the air, make it a little moisture. It'll help with breathing. It'll help get rid of the crud in 273 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:16,240 your lungs and be able to cough it up better and stuff. And so that's one thing that you can do. 274 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:23,840 Um, you could use salt gargles, obviously salt, salt in water gargling it. It can help relieve 275 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:29,840 the sore throat symptoms, uh, breathe right navels, nasal strips that you purchase at, 276 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:36,720 at, you know, over the counter at the pharmacy or HEB or the grocery store or whatever. Um, they, 277 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:41,840 you know, they stick over your nose bridge and they actually pull your nasal cavity open and it 278 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:46,880 can help give you some relief as far as breathing and, and maybe your nose not running so much. And 279 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:54,080 again, it's a non-pharmacologic mechanism. Um, you can also use things like Vicks vapor rub that has 280 00:17:54,080 --> 00:18:01,200 aromatic oils like menthol in the, the, the rub. You need to be careful with using it in kiddos 281 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:06,800 because you don't want them to ingest those aromatic oils. They can be toxic to kids, but 282 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:11,200 rubbing it on the chest can help kind of open up your airways and help you breathe a little bit 283 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:18,560 better and stuff. So, um, babies that don't know how to blow their nose, you can, you can get, 284 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:25,040 at one of the nasal aspirators, it's like that nasal bulb thing and you can, you know, use it to, 285 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:30,960 you know, to create suction to help the baby, the young child blow the stuff out of their 286 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:36,800 nose so that they can get rid of that as well. Yeah. Because mucus essentially is, is collecting 287 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:43,920 a lot of that virus or it should basically a lot of those droplets and then you're expelling it out 288 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:49,600 of your system. You basically want to limit the amount of virus that's in your system. So by getting 289 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:54,000 the mucus and expelling that out of your body, you, you want to do that as much as possible, 290 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:59,920 which is why you're saying like things like, um, Oh, what was the method that you said that increases 291 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:05,360 mucus production? Um, Oh, the humidifier. Yes. When you did it, yeah. You essentially want to, 292 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:11,040 you know, expel it out. Yes. Now cough it out. Yes. Yeah. Living in Texas, you get plenty of 293 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:16,240 humidity. So if you live in a place, it's very dry. Um, and it might also be good to get a humidifier. 294 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:23,840 Yeah. If you have aches and pains or low grade fever associated with the common cold, then you 295 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:31,840 can take analgesics like Tylenol, acetaminophen, or a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug like 296 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:39,760 ibuprofen. We want to avoid using aspirin in kiddos because aspirin has been associated with 297 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:46,320 a condition called rise syndrome. Rise syndrome is a pretty significant and it could be a potentially 298 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:53,680 fatal disease. It has encephalopathy, which means kind of a swelling of the brain. Um, it can have 299 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:59,360 some changes in your liver and you can have fatty infiltration into your liver and it can make 300 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:05,040 somebody really sick. And so they're just there. What investigators found was that there was an 301 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:13,120 association between kiddos who had fever or flu and using aspirin that they had an increased risk 302 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:18,320 of developing this rise syndrome. So aspirin is kind of a no-no in kiddos. So that's really good 303 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:23,120 to know. I did not know that. I think there are a lot of people out there who don't even like taking 304 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:31,520 things just inseds and in general. Um, I think there's a lot of fear out there that by ingesting 305 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:37,840 them, I think any pharmaceutical that there's going to be some downstream effect that could 306 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:42,560 potentially harm them. So what can you say to the people? Like if you're having aches and pains, 307 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:48,480 you know, what is, if they don't want to take something like Tylenol or ibuprofen, 308 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,960 like what would you say to those people who have concerns about those types of drugs and maybe 309 00:20:52,960 --> 00:21:00,000 having downstream effects? Well, I think that taking something for a short term is not going to 310 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:04,720 be that awful. You know, you're talking about a couple of doses a day. I mean, there are limits 311 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:09,760 as far as how much Tylenol you can take per day and you don't want to exceed that. But certainly, 312 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:15,840 um, if you've got a fever, taking Tylenol makes you feel better because fever makes you not feel 313 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:22,000 so good. Um, but again, you just got to follow the limits as far as what's the guidelines and using it 314 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:28,160 discreetly, you know, not very often just as needed is, is going to be, I think, you know, 315 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:33,760 you know, as, as safe as you, you know, as safe as it can be unless you have some underlying, 316 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:40,880 uh, condition, like you had liver disease or you had renal kidney disease, you know, then, 317 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:45,440 then you may have some other guidances that your doctor might give you as far as using those 318 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:51,680 medications. Yeah. So these, these insets, these pain relievers, they are able in the short term, 319 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,760 by short term, you just mean when you have a couple of days, you know, a couple of times a day 320 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:02,800 for a couple of days, your body's able to metabolize those and the metabolites, AKA the things that 321 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:08,320 are created from your body, metabolizing them, aren't going to be harmful in the short term, 322 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:12,720 or they haven't been shown to be harmful in the short term for the most part. It just, it does 323 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:20,480 depend on underlying diseases that people might have. If you have a history of having a bleeding 324 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:25,680 ulcer in your stomach, then you're going to probably want to avoid taking things like aspirin or 325 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:30,880 ibuprofen and you could take Tylenol instead because they don't have that same kind of a risk 326 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:36,800 associated with it. Okay. Yeah. I think we should maybe just, uh, can you just give a brief summary 327 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:42,880 of why Tylenol and aspirin aren't the same thing? Like what, why is one better than the other? 328 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:50,240 I don't know. I shouldn't say better. Like where do they act differently to give somebody be like, 329 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:56,480 okay, if you're having liver problems, if you have an ulcer, you know, take Tylenol instead of, um, 330 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:06,000 ibuprofen. Right. So Tylenol, it can, it can reduce fever and it can control pain. It doesn't 331 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:10,960 have an inflammation. It doesn't reduce any inflammation or swelling. So it doesn't have 332 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:16,960 that type of an action. Does it act at the brain then? Does it just basically block the, 333 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:25,120 the receptors then? So yes, you're right, Josh. Um, Tylenol or acetaminophen does work in, at the, 334 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:32,240 in the brain, you know, and works on different, uh, receptors in the brain. Whereas something like 335 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:41,040 aspirin or, um, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, they more are working, uh, um, on, on other 336 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:46,480 enzymes that help to reduce prostaglandins, which causes inflammation. And so they're going to 337 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:51,520 target more inflammation. They can also reduce pain and fever, but they've got that extra 338 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:56,720 inflammation component that they work on as well. Gotcha. Okay. So let me just try to summarize 339 00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:05,360 this for our listeners. So you have an inflammatory event, which is essentially your body responding 340 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:14,080 to the invasion of a pathogen, in this case, the common cold, and the inflammation is essentially 341 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:22,880 trying to aid you in getting rid of this pathogen, AKA the common cold. And so to reduce the 342 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:30,720 inflammation event, you can either reduce the inflammation itself and you can do that via 343 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:37,680 things like aspirin or nonsteroidal and NSAID nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or you can 344 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:44,560 just dampen the signal that the body is sending to the brain and acetaminophen will essentially 345 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,320 just dampen that signal and say, Hey, I know you're feeling pain right now. I'm just going 346 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:53,680 to turn the volume of that down just a little bit. So inflammation is still doing its work. 347 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:58,880 You just won't feel this. The law, I guess you'll, it'll diminish the sensation of pain. 348 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:03,280 That is correct. You got that right. Yes. Cool. That's a great, I had no idea. That's a really 349 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:09,600 cool thing. I always thought that the ibuprofen and acetaminophen just acted the same way. 350 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:14,960 I guess they would be called the same thing if they acted the same way. So right. So, 351 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:22,000 and they end up with, you know, so the Tylenol is metabolized more in the liver. And so that's why, 352 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:27,280 if you, you know, if you take too much of it, you can end up with really bad liver problems and it 353 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:34,000 can kill you if you overdose on Tylenol. Whereas things like aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory 354 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:40,160 drugs, you probably heard more of, you know, they can cause gastrointestinal bleeding or they can 355 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:45,760 affect your kidneys in a bad way and stuff. And so that's just different, just different ways that 356 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:50,480 they're gotten rid of and different targets that they have that cause their adverse effects. 357 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:54,080 And too much should be defined. It's usually on the bottle, but I would say, 358 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,520 I'm trying to remember the milligram amount, but I feel like it's, do you remember the milligram 359 00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:02,240 amount of how much you should not take in a day or in a given time period? 360 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:11,600 Well, it's going to depend. Some people will take NSAIDs because they have arthritis and those doses 361 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:20,080 are higher. But typically I'm thinking to treat inflammation or a fever associated with a common 362 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:26,720 cold. You're talking about taking one to two tablets, you know, every six hours, every eight 363 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:31,360 hours. So I guess I think a lot of people think, well, I'm just going to take more because the 364 00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:37,200 pain hasn't gone away. I guess what, what, how many tablets would you say don't go beyond this for the 365 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:43,440 average person? You could, I mean, again, that it's going to be patient specific, I think, you know, 366 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:50,240 probably I'm thinking, you know, and again, each, each medication is going to be different as well 367 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:56,720 too. So I would say probably the two tablet, you know, rule every, I would say probably taking 368 00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:04,400 eight or 10 tablets a day is probably going to be, you know, your, your max with, with dividing it. 369 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:10,000 It might not be eight and dividing it every, you know, six hours, eight hours. It might be six 370 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:15,200 hours, eight hours. It might be six tablets if you only take it every eight hours. So that's good to 371 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:19,200 know. I think for guides, I think people are like, what is too much? My pain isn't going away. 372 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:24,960 And that, that might just mean that your pain, you know, isn't going to be treatable with these, 373 00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,800 with these drugs. And it might be another route, but usually with something like the common cold, 374 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:33,200 these have pretty good efficacy for, for diminishing that type, this type of pain. 375 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,200 Right. Yeah. If you're in that much pain, yeah. If you're that much pain for a common cold, 376 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,840 there could be something else going wrong too. So yeah. And as mom mentioned with arthritis, 377 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:47,600 just for all those nerds out there, itis means inflammation. So anytime you see a, the, the 378 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:54,640 suffix suffix itis, that means it's inflammation. So you essentially want to take something to 379 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:59,440 diminish that inflammation. If you wanted to do that. So arthritis is the inflammation of the 380 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:06,000 joints, which is why you might have to take higher doses. Okay. I think we geeked out on pain a bit. 381 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:13,040 So let's continue on. So we talked about the symptoms of the common cold. And we talked about 382 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:17,120 how to treat those, at least the pain. What symptoms are we on now? 383 00:28:17,120 --> 00:28:24,000 Well, you can also use, there are some medications that contain local anesthetics for sore throat 384 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:32,560 pain, things like sepical, lozenges, or I think there are some sucretes that have a, 385 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:38,160 a something called di, diclonine in it, which is a local anesthetic. You want to be careful about 386 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:43,600 using those in, in young kids. In fact, you shouldn't use them in kids less than two, but, 387 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:49,840 but there are some things like that that can be used to just give you some relief as far as your 388 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:54,160 sore throat is concerned. They're over the counter. Okay. They're over the counter, 389 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:59,360 but they're not throat drops like what you would buy like Halls or no, no, they're these, these are 390 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:04,480 going to specifically have either benzocaine or diclonine in them. And so you'd have to look, 391 00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:11,680 I don't have the list. I know sepical is one of them. And I believe sucretes has a, a product 392 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,760 that has diclonine in it. That's going to give you more local anesthetic type effects. 393 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,800 And what exactly is an anesthetic again? What does that mean? 394 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:23,920 It's going to kind of numb, you know, the area. It's just kind of kind of make you feel like that 395 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,040 you're, you can't feel the pain right at that particular time period. 396 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:28,560 Is that different than an analgesic? 397 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:30,320 It's a little bit different than an analgesic. 398 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:35,440 Okay. Cause I was here anesthesia and you feel like you're going to sleep, but it, 399 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,480 it just kind of numbs the area a little bit is kind of what this, these do and stuff. Yeah. 400 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:45,360 Anesthetics can put you to sleep, but not these per se, they're just going to kind of target that 401 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:49,520 throat area and kind of give you a little bit of relief when you have a kind of a tough sore 402 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:54,240 throat. Okay. So it's just kind of diminishing sensation. And if you think of anesthesia in an 403 00:29:54,240 --> 00:30:00,720 operating room, you're diminishing all sensation, which is AKA knocking you out. Right. Okay. 404 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,720 Right. Cool. So yeah, those are over the counter. And then what about, 405 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:10,080 what about throat drops? Like what about things that will give you relief from your scratchy 406 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,560 throat or your cough or you can certainly use those, you know, everybody's going to have their 407 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:21,120 own favorite. They're not damaging per se. You know, again, the only ones you want to worry about, 408 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:25,120 not worry about per se, but just maybe use more caution with are going to be these ones that do 409 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:29,600 have actually a local anesthetic in them and stuff. The other things are just, they may have 410 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:34,400 menthol in them or just kind of just give you that, you know, keep, keep your, you're just as 411 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:39,520 comfortable as you possibly can be. Yeah. I know when I have a cold, I can go through a bag of those 412 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:46,000 throat drops. Is there a danger with going through like an entire bag of throat drops or is it just 413 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:51,760 in a day? Probably so. But, but yet, but I would have to look up, like I think that there are, 414 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:58,400 you know, I mean, any, anything in excess can cause a problem. So, so I wouldn't eat a whole 415 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:04,000 bag in a day, but you know, but there are probably some limits. I would just have to look that up. 416 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,080 So other things that we use commonly in treating a common cold or decongestance. 417 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:15,680 So that's going to kind of dry you up and you can either take oral decongestance or nasal 418 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:22,400 intranasal decongestance. Those are all over the counter, but remember pseudo ephedrine or 419 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:29,200 Sudafed is, is a medication that you have to ask the pharmacist for. It's been that way for about 420 00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:36,080 15, 16 years because people just discovered how to make methamphetamine from using Sudafed. So 421 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:42,640 it's now, it's now kind of restricted as far as how much you can buy and how frequently you can 422 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:48,480 buy it. And you have to, you have to provide your driver's license. I believe you have to be 16 423 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:56,400 years old or 16 or 18 years old to purchase Sudafed. And again, it's a, it's a, it's a fairly 424 00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:02,960 high number that you can buy, but you, again, it's for a particular time period and then you 425 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:08,880 can't buy it again. So yeah, that was, that's a Sudafedrin is one of my favorite drugs. It really 426 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:13,840 does open up that airway and just makes things and it feels like you've just widened the highway of 427 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:20,320 your, your throat. It is quite wonderful. Right. If you have high blood pressure though, or if you 428 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:28,320 have glaucoma, which is kind of pressure in your eye, or if you have other types of heart disease 429 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:34,960 or an enlarged prostate, taking a decongestant can kind of exacerbate those diseases. It can make your 430 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:39,280 blood pressure go up. It can make the eye pressure in your eye go up. It can make it harder for you 431 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:45,520 to pee if you have an enlarged prostate. So in some patient populations using a decongestant, 432 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:50,080 especially an oral decongestant, might not be as good of an idea. And you're going to have to use 433 00:32:50,080 --> 00:33:00,240 some other options, like maybe a breathe right strip or using a, you know, a humidifier and stuff 434 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:06,720 at the other things, because it might, it could possibly cause more harm than good. So. That's 435 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:12,960 well said. We should remind people to remember if, if there is no side effect, there probably is no 436 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:18,800 effect. Remember you're taking, you're putting something in your mouth and then it's going into 437 00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:26,480 your digestive system, which then will put the drug into your bloodstream. And as you know, with 438 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:33,280 your blood, it pretty much goes all over your body and it's going to take that drug all over your body. 439 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:40,320 And the way that drugs work is that they have molecules, we call them antigens, and they will 440 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:48,880 essentially just attach to different receptors on different cells in your body. And just like a key 441 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:55,840 fitting into the lock of the door, if the key fits and it turns, it will open that door. It doesn't 442 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:01,520 care if it doesn't want you to open that door, it will just open it. And so sometimes something that 443 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:06,560 will relieve something in one area of your body might exacerbate a problem in another area of your 444 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:12,320 body, depending on who you are, which is why those pharmaceutical commercials usually have those lists 445 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:17,360 of side effects at the end of it, because everybody is different. Um, it's, and a lot of people think, 446 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:22,960 Oh, you know, the pharmaceutical companies are just trying to, you know, basically hide all their side 447 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:27,200 effects. Sometimes they are like sometimes pharmaceutical companies really do want to hide 448 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:32,400 all the bad sides to their drugs because they're in the business of making money. But at the same 449 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:38,000 time, just be aware of basic biology is that if you put something in your body, it's going to 450 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,800 interact with something and that there's always going to be trade-offs, which is why we want y'all 451 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:49,520 to be educated of what things can do bad or good. And you can make an educated decision. And depending 452 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:54,240 on who you are, and if you feel like this drug would work well for you, something like Tylenol 453 00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:59,360 or Sudafed, but you feel like you've heard that you have an enlarged prostate or another condition, 454 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,960 that'd be good to talk to your doctor before taking something like Sudafed because you don't 455 00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:07,760 want to make that condition worse. Um, so you could also talk to your pharmacist as well too. They 456 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:13,120 will know that as well. Pharmacists are pretty cool. So, um, another thing, let me just bring out 457 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:18,080 another point as we're talking about adverse effects associated with decongestants. So oral 458 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:26,320 decongestants like Sudafed or the other, the other decongestant that you can find in, um, 459 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:32,960 cold products that's not behind the pharmacy counter is phenylephrine. It, it, it's not as potent 460 00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:38,560 as Sudafed and I don't find it to work as well, but it is available and it can, it can do the, 461 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:43,520 you know, it, it can decongest you as well too. So, but, um, yeah, I think there's a product 462 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:48,000 that's out there called broncade. Um, I think it's, I've used that before when I couldn't get 463 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:54,640 Sudafedrin and it was, yeah, it wasn't as effective. Yes. So there are some that have that in there, 464 00:35:54,640 --> 00:36:00,560 but the other thing I want to bring out to, uh, to, to your knowledge or to the forefront as well 465 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:08,720 too is when you use nasal decongestants, things like Afrin, um, you want to limit that to no more 466 00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:16,240 than using it for three days because the nasal decongestants can cause rebound congestion. 467 00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:21,680 So you could end up getting congested again and it's actually due to the medication and not the 468 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:28,080 disease state itself. So how does that work? The answer isn't really well defined in the literature. 469 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:34,880 I can speculate that it may be because it causes a prolonged use, can cause irritation of the nasal 470 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:40,480 mucosa, which then could cause more nasal congestion, but that's just a guess on my part. I'm not 471 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:45,600 really exactly sure. Cool. That's good. But I like the three day rule. It's just like, yeah, use them 472 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:51,520 for three days and then, yeah, kind of after that, you might be causing more problems down the road. 473 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:57,920 Right. So you might need to use some other mechanisms to open that nasal passage. Excellent. 474 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:02,720 All right. So we talked about, yeah, nasal decongestants and, um, yeah, 475 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:08,800 yeah, you can, you can use antihistamines in combination with a decongestant to treat a cold, 476 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:14,560 but you would not want to use an antihistamine by itself to treat a cold because there's not a lot of 477 00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:19,520 histamine production in a cold per se. And so antihistamines aren't going to really help your 478 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:25,120 symptoms that much. Um, I think there are some studies that show that the combined use can 479 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:33,520 provide some extra benefit. Why that is, I, I, I'm not exactly sure. So, okay. Yeah. That's good to 480 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:39,920 know. Uh, a couple of other things. You can get a prescription for a drug called it protropium. 481 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:47,040 It's an intra nasal spray. It's an anti-cholinergic agent. So that means it's kind of like a drying 482 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:51,200 agent, you know, it's going to kind of dry things up. It is a prescription though, and it's going to 483 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:58,240 be for those people who get pretty significant colds and have a lot of nasal congestion and need 484 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:03,600 a little bit of an extra help or boost, you know, to kind of control that symptom. Okay. And that 485 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:09,520 would be something you have to get prescribed by a medical professional. Yes. Um, the last thing I 486 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:14,640 wanted to mention, and this has come into play, uh, maybe, maybe it's been around for 20 years now, 487 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:22,160 but zinc, um, zinc has, has, there's a, there is some evidence that if you, you, if you have high 488 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:29,520 zinc concentrations, that they could cause the, that rhinovirus, that is one of the common causes 489 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:35,840 of the common cold to not adhere to the nasal passages. And so it may block viral replication, 490 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:42,400 but the data are not really, really strong. And it's a really got only a modest antiviral effect, 491 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:48,320 but still you can take something like Zycam. The thing when you take something like that, 492 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:54,240 it's Zycam comes in a bunch of different dosage forms, chewable tablets and syrup, a nasal spray. 493 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,520 When you use it, you have to give it every two hours, um, so that you get these higher 494 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:04,560 concentrations of zinc, but it could reduce the number of days that you have a cold by a couple 495 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:11,280 of days. Yeah. Cause you're essentially trying to stop the virus from replicating as rapidly. So the 496 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:16,400 zinc can block the mechanism by which they replicate. Right. And essentially you'll, you'll, 497 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:23,840 yeah, get rid of it faster. So if, so what, what's recommended is that you would like to 498 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,720 start taking the zinc as soon as you start noticing those cold symptoms and it may help you to get 499 00:39:28,720 --> 00:39:34,240 over a cold a little bit faster. Yeah. I remember reading about with, um, I think with, with SARS 500 00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:42,080 COV-2 is that remdesivir is a, a drug that blocks viral replication. Uh, but you have to take it 501 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:47,120 really early on because if it spirals out of control, then there's no point. Right. So you, 502 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:53,520 if, as soon as you start feeling symptoms, it is imperative that you start taking, uh, Zycam 503 00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:57,920 for a common cold, uh, because yeah, if it's too late, there's kind of no point that you have so 504 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:02,480 much virus in you that it's just going to be better to take other drugs. So this is a very 505 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:07,040 early onset. Right. Um, don't get paranoid every now and then you get a scratchy throat and 506 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,600 you might feel a little bit of a headache, but I think if that stuff persists, then it's a, 507 00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:17,280 it's a good idea to take. Right. Right. So not a bad idea to have like some laws. If, 508 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:21,440 if your throat is scratchy, you have some lozenges around that maybe have some zinc in them 509 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:25,680 because that'll give you a bit of that benefit early on. Right. You can start early on. Right. 510 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:34,080 So, so pretty much, you know, we know that, uh, we've got, you know, a couple of, uh, different 511 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:39,520 kind of classes of agents to use to kind of control the symptoms associated with the common cold. 512 00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:46,960 Um, I would say that when we think about, uh, how the common cold could be misunderstood, 513 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,840 I'm thinking that primarily when I think about that, it's like, how can I tell if I've got a cold 514 00:40:51,840 --> 00:41:00,400 versus an allergy or, um, the flu or pneumonia? And they do have different types of symptoms. 515 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:06,480 And so I think that, um, that is definitely a way to figure out whether or not you've got one versus 516 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:12,400 the other. You're not going to have a lot of fever associated with a common cold or with an, 517 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:18,160 with an allergy, but you may have fever, significant fever with the flu or with pneumonia. 518 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:22,320 And so, so different symptoms are going to help you figure out what you got going on. 519 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:28,720 So there might be some other more serious, um, uh, symptoms that you're feeling associated with 520 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:33,840 other diseases, things like pneumonia, things like the flu. Um, like if you have a fever, 521 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:38,240 it's most likely going to be more likely to be a flu than it would be a common cold. 522 00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:45,680 Right. Right. If you've got productive, uh, coughs, uh, your, your spit, your sputum is 523 00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:51,520 a crummy color. Um, you've got chest pain. You may have pneumonia, you know, so, you know, 524 00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,280 and that's the, you're obviously, you're going to need to get some help from a healthcare provider. 525 00:41:55,280 --> 00:42:01,040 Pneumonia sounds like a great future episode. Yes, it does. Yeah. Cause there's also, there's 526 00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:05,760 viral and bacterial pneumonia. That's correct. Okay. That's correct. Uh, yeah. We also have a 527 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:11,200 handy chart of, of, uh, essentially what's misunderstood between a common cold and a 528 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:16,240 couple of these other ailments that seem similar. And we will post that on our, our Twitter and 529 00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:22,000 Instagram for y'all, um, so that you guys can see that and take a look at that. Um, yeah. 530 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,760 A couple of, there's just a couple of last points that I'd like to make about the common 531 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:31,840 cold before we move on to the next topic that we have. Um, one is that remember that over the 532 00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:37,520 counter cough and cold medications are not to be used in children younger than four years of age 533 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:43,680 because they haven't been shown to be safe and effective in that, that, um, age group. Also, 534 00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:50,800 as much as we want to think that codeine or other, uh, things that help us to stop a cough, um, are, 535 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:56,400 are beneficial. There have not been evidence to support codeine or other anti-tussles, 536 00:42:56,400 --> 00:43:04,880 anti-cough medicines for use in the common cold. So people may take them still and, um, and they may 537 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:12,560 think it works, but for the most part, evidence hasn't shown that. And then, um, um, remember 538 00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:20,160 antibiotics are not effective for the common cold. I think those are great takeaways. Um, so for all 539 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:28,800 those suffering with a common cold, um, essentially some of the things that you can do before you get 540 00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:35,760 it is to wash your hands, um, stay away from people who you, you know, have the common cold 541 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:42,240 or at least are exhibiting symptoms. Um, and once you do get it, um, kind of follow these guidelines 542 00:43:42,240 --> 00:43:46,720 of when you have these symptoms to try to reduce the time you can take some stuff with zinc to maybe 543 00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:54,400 reduce the duration of the, the, the disease itself. Um, also taking things like Tylenol or 544 00:43:54,400 --> 00:44:00,000 ibuprofen, depending on who you are, might be better as well as a Sudafedrin or some other drugs. 545 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:07,120 So we hope that you're not suffering from a cold right now. Um, but if you are, despite all this 546 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:13,760 pharmacological advice, also don't forget to pamper yourself, take some rest. Sleep is huge. Um, 547 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:19,360 getting a good night's sleep, being very well hydrated as well is, is huge as well, um, because 548 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:25,120 you need a lot of fluid for your blood to move a lot of these healing agents around. Um, that's 549 00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:31,760 just good advice in general. If you can get good sleep, get good hydration, um, get a little bit 550 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:37,840 of physical exercise, um, you know, prior to getting cold. Um, and also, you know, do things 551 00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:42,000 that make you happy. Um, especially when you're sick, you know, find that nice mug of tea that 552 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:47,040 you really like or that comfort food that just makes you feel good. Uh, cause you know, it's not 553 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:53,120 good feeling bad. Uh, I know that my mom made me plenty of soup, uh, when I was, when I had a cold, 554 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:57,600 um, um, back when I was a kid and not so much anymore, uh, cause she doesn't live at my house. 555 00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:04,560 But, um, with that being said, we hope that you enjoyed this episode. Um, if you like what we do, 556 00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:10,560 feel free to subscribe to this podcast, um, any of the platforms that you get your podcast. Um, also, 557 00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:14,720 you know, head to our Instagram and our Twitter for any of the graphics and papers that we use 558 00:45:14,720 --> 00:45:19,600 to support this episode. If you want a deeper dive and feel free to leave us a comment, we will try 559 00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:24,240 our best to answer any questions that you have. Um, we try to cover as much as we can, whatever 560 00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:28,480 pops into our brain, but we know there's, you know, so much more to know in this world, which 561 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:35,200 is what makes it so interesting. Oh, so with that being said, uh, my name is Josh and I'm Jennifer. 562 00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:45,920 And this has been your, an episode of your mom on drugs. We'll see you next time.