Does medicine really help?

[javagamer]

Hi,

I appear to have come down with some sort of minor illness. I have a slightly sore throat, stuffy nose, and mild headaches. I'm not seriously inconvenienced by it in the day, but at night it's near-impossible to sleep for more than half an hour even if I stay up far later than usual. I'm sure some Nyquil would help me sleep through the night, but would it help me get better soon or could it actually slow the healing process? I haven't taken anything yet because I don't mind being rather uncomfortable if it means I'll get better soon, but I'd hate to put myself through unnecessary (though mild) suffering all because of some irrational fear of modern medicine. So, my question is will taking OTC medicine slow down the time it takes for me to fully recover from whatever it is I have?

[Mokele]

Nyquil is all palliative ingredients - they stop the symptoms, not the disease. If it's allergy-based, the antihistamines might actually stop the root cause, but that's about it.

 

It shouldn't affect the length of time it takes to get well in either way, though it may help your immune system function better by reducing your stress level and letting you get a good night's rest. But that's about it.

[javagamer]

What about something else like Tylenol Cough and Throat which has acetaminophen (paracetamol), dextromethorphan, and doxylamine succinate? I've heard somewhere (from a possibly unreliable source so I'm asking here) that inflammation is part of the healing process so anything that reduces inflammation also slows down recovery. Is this true?

[Glider]

It is true that in general, some physicians are beginning to question the wisdom of prescribing medication that ultimately serves only to suppress the body's own defence mechanisms.

 

People have got so used to the 'there's a pill for everything so I never need to suffer approach that millions are spent each year on pallitative medicines for trivial illness (cough, colds etc.) that do not cure the illness but merely suppress the symptoms. However, coughing, sneezing and dribbling are all reparative and protective mechanisms and are the body's way of clearing out the detritus of infection.

 

With relatively minor illnesses such as upper respiritory tract infections (URTIs), coughing, for example, is physiologically useful. Medics are now beginning to question whether the patient's desire not to cough does in fact outweight the usefullness of the cough as a reparative/protective mechanism (for clearing detritus, ventilating properly and thus reducing the probability of opportunistic secondary infections, e.g. pneumonia).

 

Some medics are now beginning to advise that people with URTIs simply drink lots of fluids, keep warm, rest up and deal with it. Recently, some cough/cold remedy was withdrawn for children under 6 years old in the UK. I can't remember the details, but the principle was that this palliative treatment was doing more harm than good by suppressing natural, physiological processes in children, putting them more at risk of secondary infections than if the illness was just left to run its course.

 

The cynic in me suspects that palliative cough-suppressants for children are often used more for the benefit of parents anyway.

[Leison]

depends upon what kind of inflamation.if inflammation makes u lose more fluid then it must be stopped,coz losing fluid is dangerous.some inflam like tonsillitis can make u difficult to breathe so it must be stopped, some inflam like conjunctivitis makes ur vision blur so it must be stopped,some inflam causes FIBROSIS so,inflam must stopped b4 it takes its natural process.so in many cases inflam has to be stopped,some inflam makes u difficult to swallow food so it must be stopped cause we cant compromise food with infam.

its not necessary that we use anti-inflamatory to stop inflam,we can use drugs to stop the factors causing inflam,like antacids in gastritis.

its true inflam is response to heal body,but if we let body heal in natural way,it takes long time plus it heals in the cost of fibrosis of tissues which is sometimes harzardous.so we stop the inflam with antiinflam,and give antibiotics,its more beneficial.