Why Should You Avoid Taking Pills for a Cough and Cold
To swallow pills, once in a while, won’t make much of a difference, but some make a habit of swallowing pills at the slightest indication of cough. Now, that is a dangerous proposition.
Cough and cold is perhaps the most common occurrence in the human body. Once monsoon steps in, those who are quite allergic to climatic change witness cough and cold creeping in.
There could be few other reasons for you to get cold. Apart from a change in climatic conditions, pollution and imbalanced diets could trigger a cough and cold.
A busy schedule may result in fatigue, or work pressure which could also lead to cough and cold.
The easiest way out is to pop in pills for a cough and cold without realizing that it could produce harmful affects on your body.
Why should you avoid taking pills regularly for a cough and cold?
To swallow pills, once in a while, won’t make much of a difference, but some make a habit of swallowing pills at the slightest indication of cough. Now, that is a dangerous proposition.
In order to understand the harmful affects of a cough and cold pill, you need to know about the ingredients of a pill. Sufficient knowledge of the ingredients of a cough and cold pill would lead you to avoid taking pills more often.
What does a cough and cold pill consists of? It has a very strong chemical called acetylsalicylic acid which may cause a bleeding on your stomach wall.
You could also develop difficulty in breathing, dizziness and mild poisoning. Imagine the consequences if used persistently.
Few other substances are present in cough and cold medicines such as acetanilide and phenacetin, which are analgesic in nature. They are more harmful as they could damage your liver and kidney permanently. The use of these analgesic medicines could also result in a fall in blood pressure, and a possible respiratory failure.
Cough and cold pills also consists of a very harmful substance called codeine, which controls severe cough. Any attempt to swallow more than the required dose could be very lethal.
Moreover, continuous use of these substances could result in a permanent damage to some of your organs.
Even cough syrup and nose drops could turn out to be very harmful as they bring about a sudden personality change if used more than the required limit. There are enough instances when cough syrup and nose drops had led to drug use.
Therefore, think and decide before you swallow a cough and cold pill.
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George W Whitehead | Jul 30, 2009 | Reply
Nice article, Rajiv.
Cesar | Jan 5, 2010 | Reply
You are mistaken… the most common ingredients found in the medicines to treat colds are three: acetaminophen (paracetamol), Dextrometorphan, Guaifenesin and some antihistamine drug. They are often found in combination. Codein is used rarely but is not over the counter. Acetanilide and phenacetin are not used anymore (long time ago they are not approved for that purpose)…