Flu and cold relief tablets or tough it out? 🤧🤧

I'm inclined to think that they help alleviate symptoms so make having a virus more bearable. A virus will 'run its course ' regardless of any amount of pain relief etc but paracetamol will help reduce pain and fever while decongestant will clear your tubes, aiding restful sleep and help your body fight it.

Same as GB. They help, but don’t cure. Wasn’t there a TV skit some years ago where a boffin claimed, after years of experimentation, to have invented a cure for the common cold - using it, the cold would be gone in 7-10 days!
I love a mug of hot milk and honey with the nighttime doses of whatever.

I'm all for taking all the symptom reducing remedies can get. They do help but don't affect the length of the cold or flu as far as I know.

Honey and lemon and paracetamol are what we take. There's something comforting about a mug of hot honey and lemon; reminds me of my childhood.

These OTC medicines are the work of the devil, they dry up everything!
Lots of fluids, some homemade soup with chicken stock (Jewish Penicillin)
I take Zincovit, it’s easily available, zinc lozenges are good for sore throats.
Paracetamol every 4 hours and rest.
It’s horrible, I hope you feel better soon.

I think you’ve nailed it Sago -all those OTC remedies may make you feel better but I had long suspected “drying everything up” is only temporary and when you stop, the symptoms just return. There must be a reason we sneeze and our noses run, presumably our body’s reaction to the virus.
So it’s the hot drinks and paracetamol for me.
Homemade chicken soup has long been a favourite- ill or not!

I always cut up couple fresh lemons , put in small pan of boiling water , simmer for few minutes while squeezing out all the juices , then strain into a clean glass along with with spoonful of honey , add small tot of whisky , sip that along with a couple paracetamols . It doesn’t make it go away but makes the symptoms much easier to bear .

I can’t take a lot of the OTC medicines as they have phenylephrine in them (not advised if you take bp medication). So it’s lemon, honey and paracetamol.

The lemon and honey treatment is even better with a tot of whisky in it. Hope it's over soon, maw.

We usually use Day and Night Nurse, and/or Benylin at night for awful coughs.

I’m certainly not aware of any such meds helping to prolong the infection.
During the recent horrible bug I had, I also got through enough hot Ribena/hot honey and lemon to float a battleship!

I used to be ‘agin’ using that kind of meds for a cold but after having caught some beezers from my GC, I’m now a firm fan of drying up medications. Ime, if a cold is bad enough to warrant using them, it doesn’t dry it up totally, it just reduces the amount, and if a running/blocked nose stops you sleeping at night, it’s worth taking them to get some rest.

The addition of whisky to lemon and honey is to be recommended, though don’t do what I once did. I had a hot toddy after taking a dose of Night Nurse and didn’t wake up until 3pm the next day! 👀

For sore throats I find Jackmans cough sweets in the black bag work better than strepsils for me.

Same here JaxJacky. I find hot Vimto with a spoonful of honey very soothing, Heinz tomato soup is my favourite comfort food.

Honey and lemon in warm water, with a paracetamol. It's just as good as a bought remedy. The virus will run its course though. I once read that 'a cold lasts 7 days if you don't treat it, and a week if you do.'

I take paracetamol, drink warm Ribena and have Lockets for my throat if it's dry.

Paracetamol for me and I always have Echinacea drops that I put in a drink.
I swear by it.

Early nights and wait for it to go away on its own. If a headache is involved then I’ll take paracetamol. I take enough prescribed medicine and don’t really want to take any more.

Lemon and honey, chicken soup and paracetamol here for the most part, and tissues with balsam in them.
I do take a 'drying up' capsule if there's an event I really can't avoid. I find that I end up with a cough if I take them so it has to be a really important event!
Hope you feel better soon.

I don't think pain relief prolongs the recovery time but I wonder whether decongestants do.

Take plenty of fluids, keep warm and take paracetamol.

A virus will run its course and I hope you feel better soon.

Honey and lemon in hot water is soothing.

A fortnight if you treat it

And two weeks if you don’t……..

Every night we knock up a drink in the Nutribullet consisting of 3 lemons, a stick of peeled ginger, 1 tbsp of honey and 1 tsp of cinnamon (2 drinks). Seems to keep the coughs and colds at bay pretty much.

I just don't get ill (fingers crossed, though) but a sibling with asthma can't use decongestants and says that honey and lemon is the best.

A personal trainer here was against taking anything - and in favour of battling through. He ended up in hospital on a heart monitor. An exasperated doctor said there's three important things, when you have a virus:

If you have a temperature, take paracetamol.

Have plenty of fluids.

Rest - do not exercise - just rest!