Cold Medications Part II

I had so much fun with my last post about Tylenol and alcohol that I decided to write this second one. I suppose that part of the fun was that I basically just told a story, but I also liked it because I learned something from it and I think that talking about decongestants and antihistamines will be similarly helpful. I think these things are particularly important to keep in mind as students all around the country prepare for finals week.

Finals week usually means a lot of late nights, lots of coffee, and at least a little bit of extra stress and possibly even a great deal of extra stress. In addition, I think there are an awful lot of people who don’t manage to eat particularly well. Basically, finals week is prime time to catch a cold because our immune systems tend to be rather weakened as a result of the poor eating, late nights, and excess stress. This means that it is not uncommon for people to face taking an exam with a cold.

My personal experience divides colds into two states: the congested stage along with that irritating headache and the runny nose stage. Usually, people will take decongestants for the headache and antihistamines to manage the runny nose. Let’s think about the decongestants first.

It might be your first instinct to reach for the decongestants if you wake up the day of the final with one of those horribly uncomfortable plugged noses. You can feel the pressure building up as a result and it gives you one of those headaches that it’s exactly painful, but does make it terribly difficult to concentrate. Decongestants could be the answer because you want to be able to think at your optimum levels for the exam. It’s completely understandable, but decongestants are vasoconstrictors. That is, they narrow your blood vessels and this is what helps to reduce inflammation. So far, so good. Things are looking good. The targeted vasoconstriction around the nose is successful, but decongestants are not localized exclusively to the nose, meaning that blood vessels throughout your body are being narrowed to some extent. Vasoconstriction increases your blood pressure and can also increase your heart rate. Seeing as your heart rate and blood pressure have probably already gone up on account of your excessive coffee consumption and your stress levels, it might not be the best idea to take a decongestant which will only exacerbate this problem. Additionally, decongestants may cause anxiety and, again, because of finals, you are probably plenty anxious as it is. Basically, it might seem like the logical choice to pop some decongestants, but it might not actually be a good way to improve your performance on that final.

Oaky, now let’s think about antihistamines. Like decongestants, it makes perfect sense to take an antihistamine if you wake up the morning of a final and find that your nose is running uncontrollably. For one thing, it’s uncomfortable, but for another, you don’t want to be that guy during your final. We all know the guy I’m talking about: the guy who sniffles/snarks/whatever throughout the entire exam. It’s distracting and it’s pretty gross and it grates and grates on your concentration when someone else do it, so you’re probably determined not to be that guy. It’s very admirable. The problem is that antihistamine decrease histamine production. Histamines are part of the immune system and they contribute to inflammation, so it’s pretty easy to see who decreasing histamine production will decrease your symptoms. The problem is that antihistamines also tend to have a sedative effect, making you drowsy and impairing your ability to concentrate. While it makes sense to not want to be Mr. Sniffles during your whole exam, it might not be worth the detrimental effects to your concentration and critical thinking. Additionally, antihistamines tend to accumulate, so if you take them for a couple of days, you could be looking at increased drowsiness as a result.

By now, you’re probably wondering why I have a vendetta against cold remedies. It’s a fair point. While I can understand wanting to relieve your cold symptoms, I think it’s important to know that you are usually trading one set of symptoms for another set. Furthermore, the second set might not be particularly pleasant for students trying to perform well on their finals. Basically, the take-home is to think critically about your reasons for taking cold medications in light of the stresses already on your body and the tasks that are before you.

Source: http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Health_Letter/2014/November/could-a-cold-remedy-make-you-sicker?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=112314kr1&utm_content=healthrelease