Under the weather? Here's what you should grab at the pharmacy this cold and flu season

Walking down the cold medicine aisle at a local pharmacy or grocery store, customers will find shelves full of various treatments, some accompanied by brand names and others relatively lesser known.

It's a sight that experts agree can overwhelm people looking for a quick fix for cold or flu symptoms.

"I tell everyone that generic products work just as well as brand name products," said Matt Fishley, lead pharmacist for Mount Carmel Health's retail pharmacy division. "But, any time you're not familiar with the product, I would check with the pharmacist or your doctor."

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With cold and flu season here, over-the-counter cold and flu drugs will find their way into many grocery store carts and homes over the next several months.

With that in mind, The Dispatch checked in with Fishley and a local doctor about what medications patients should use — and which ones they should avoid.

Here's what they said.

Relief for pain and fevers

Two of the most well-known, over-the-counter drugs continue to be the best medications for stifling body aches and fevers, said Dr. Stephen Auciello, a family medicine physician at OhioHealth.

Ibuprofen — which is the medication in both Advil and Motrin— is one, Auciello said. The other, he said, is acetaminophen, which is the medication in Tylenol.

The one thing people should be careful about is using ibuprofen or acetaminophen in combination with other drugs, Auciello said. That's due to the fact that versions of some cold medications, such as Mucinex or NyQuil, already include one of the two pain relievers.

Containing a cough

The best way to tamp down a cough depends on what type of cough from which someone is suffering.

If it's a wet cough that's caused by sinus drainage, then taking an oral antihistamine could help dry up the mucus and phlegm causing the reaction, Fishley said. Antihistamines include products like Benadryl or Zyrtec.

For a dry cough that lingers at the end of an illness, Fishley said people could try cough syrups like Robitussin or Delsym. The medicines contain an active ingredient called dextromethorphan that is thought to help suppress coughs.

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"Coughing is a little bit more difficult to treat ..." Fishley said. "Dextromethorphan ... that cough suppressant would probably be the one I would go with."

Lozenges can also be effective in soothing a nagging cough. But, Auciello said, people should pay attention to health labels for cough drops and should avoid taking them more than the labels recommend.

Congestion and nasal problems

For stuffy noses, the doctor and the pharmacist recommended steroid-based nasal sprays, such as Flonase.

Sprays like Afrin can also be helpful in temporarily alleviating nasal congestion. But Fishley warned that overuse could result in a rebound-like congestion.

"These are reasonably safe medications," Auciello said. "There's generally not a lot of significant side effects to using those."

Nasal saline rinses and things like neti pots can also be helpful to clear out a person's sinuses.

Auciello and Fishley each recommended one oral medication in particular to treat congestion —pseudoephedrine.

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The drug is the most effective at alleviating congestion people may suffer from colds, they said.

While patients don't need a prescription for pseudoephedrine, they will have to take an extra step to get it. That's because the drug is stored behind the pharmacy counter at most stores, due to the fact that it can be abused or used to make methamphetamine.

The name brand SUDAFED behind the counter contains pseudoephedrine. Patients should also know, Auciello and Fishley said, that SUDAFED also produces treatments by the same name that are not kept in the pharmacy and do not contain pseudoephedrine.

Patients with heart issues should ask a doctor or pharmacist before taking a decongestant as some products can cause increased blood pressure, Fishley and Auciello said.

Supplements and other things

Fishley and Auciello cautioned people against using supplements to ease colds.

There is some evidence that vitamins like zinc or vitamin C can shorten the life of a cold or the flu, but Auciello said people shouldn't rely on either of them.

There are a number of products on the market, such as the popular Airborne tablets, that claim to shorten the course of a cold.

Most supplements, however, are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore face little regulation or approval process. That means what's in them may have very little effect, Auciello said.

"Most of the time, these things are just a combination of different vitamins," Auciello said. "There is limited benefit in many of the herbal supplements and dietary supplements."

mfilby@dispatch.com

@MaxFilby

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus doctor, pharmacist weigh in on the best cold, flu medications