Health expert reveals which cold and flu products work best - and slams 'waste of money'
29.11.2022 - 22:43
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A pharmacist has shared his expertise on which products work best in battling cold and flu - and which ones he's deemed as a "waste of money". Abbas Kanani, the superintendent pharmacist at Chemist Click, understands that Christmas can be prime time for infections to spread around.
People coughing, spluttering and sneezing in close quarters over the festive season can be a recipe for disaster - and if you do pick up a bout of the cold or flu, it's likely you'll want to treat it as soon as possible so you can get back to celebrating.
Thankfully, Abbas has shared his expertise on which cold and flu products aren't worth the money - and which ones actually do work. Speaking to the Mirror, he explained that the most important thing you can do before buying medicine is to identify your symptoms first.
According to the pharmacist, there are three key ingredients that work the best, depending on what you're feeling. The first is a decongestant (also known as a vasoconstrictor) for a blocked nose, the second is a cough expectorant, for mucus coughs, and the third is a cough suppressant, for dry, tickly coughs.
Abbas said: "Lemsip Max capsules for example have paracetamol which will help bring down your temperature if you have a fever, it's also got Phenylephrine Hydrochloride which is a vasoconstrictor that helps to reduce the swelling of blood vessels in your nose and relieve nasal congestion and it's got Guaifensensin which is what's known as an expectorant and it helps cough out phlegm from the airways.
"So when you have cold and flu, you need to know what kind of cough you have. If you have a dry cough and you've got nasal congestion and you took Lemsip Max, it wouldn't help because it would be encouraging you to cough and if