Recently, Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places have issued circulars showing that "the number of influenza cases in many places has increased and the level of influenza activity has increased." According to the information released by China CDC, China may face the risk of interaction or co-epidemic of influenza and other respiratory infectious diseases this winter and next spring.
I believe that many people have suffered from the flu, and their systemic symptoms are more prominent, such as high fever, general fatigue, poor spirit, muscle aches and other symptoms, as well as some upper respiratory tract manifestations, such as sore throat and stuffy nose. As a result, some people choose to buy and take cold medicine, antipyretic medicine, cough medicine and so on.
But remember: these common drugs should also be taken scientifically, and eating them indiscriminately is very dangerous!
It’s really dangerous to eat cold medicine indiscriminately!
1. Eating cold medicine indiscriminately causes liver failure and shock.
In 2019, according to Guangzhou Daily, Mr. Lin (pseudonym), 54, from Dongguan, Guangdong Province, took cefaclor, levofloxacin, oseltamivir, bromhexine, dextromethorphan and ibuprofen at the same time because of his slow cold. Unexpectedly, after 20 minutes, I began to feel that my breathing was not smooth, and my skin was itchy with multiple rashes and obvious facial edema, so I was rushed to the hospital. The attending doctor judged that the patient had severe anaphylactic shock, and his condition was critical and life-threatening at any time. After the rescue, it returned to stability.
2. Eating cold medicine leads to liver and kidney function damage.
In 2022, a 56-year-old female patient in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, took cold medicine for five days because of a cold, and her liver and kidney function were damaged. When he arrived at the hospital, he was already suffering from multiple organ failure, manifested as hepatic coma, shock, coagulation dysfunction, oliguria, etc., and he recovered after more than two months of rescue.
Zhao Qingwei, director of the Clinical Pharmacy Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, reminded in an interview in 2022 that in any case, you can’t take medicine in disorder, and overlapping, overdose and mixing drugs may be more harmful.
Cold medicine can’t be taken with these medicines.
Bao Xiulan, chief physician of Pediatrics Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, issued a document in Weibo on November 2, reminding that cold medicines can’t be taken together with these medicines, which can seriously lead to irreversible liver damage.
1. Cold medicine+acetaminophen
90% of commonly used compound cold medicines contain acetaminophen. For example, children’s paracetamol and amantadine granules, paracetamol and ephedrine hydrochloride granules, paracetamol and ephedrine hydrochloride syrup, and paracetamol and ephedrine hydrochloride suspension, as well as adults’ day and night clothes, Baijiahei cold tablets and so on.
If you take acetaminophen as a single component to reduce your fever, you are also taking the compound cold medicine containing acetaminophen, and two doses are superimposed, which will easily lead to acetaminophen overdose due to repeated medication. Taking acetaminophen at a dosage of more than 4,000 mg/day may cause fatal acute liver injury.
And in most cases, the damage caused by acetaminophen overdose is irreversible. That is to say, after the injury appears, there is no way to recover through subsequent treatment. Once the injury occurs, it is a lifetime thing.
2. Cold medicine+ibuprofen
Although this situation does not seem to cause acetaminophen overdose, it is equivalent to taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen at the same time.
Especially for children, the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that taking them together will increase the possibility of inaccurate administration, and it is not recommended to take them at the same time when the child has a fever.
3. Cold medicine+cold medicine
The cold has always been bad. Can you get better quickly by increasing the dosage or taking both together? No, it could be fatal!
The ingredients of most compound cold medicines are very similar, mainly divided into the following categories:
Antipyretic and analgesic drugs: acetaminophen and ibuprofen are the most common antipyretics, and aspirin, phenacetin and aminopyrine are rare.
Drugs for relieving nasal congestion: mainly pseudoephedrine, nasal mucosal vasoconstrictor, constricting nasal blood vessels and reducing the secretion of nasal mucus.
Cough relieving and antitussive drugs: mostly dextromethorphan, a central antitussive drug.
Antihistamine drugs: to eliminate or alleviate the symptoms of sneezing and runny nose, chlorphenamine maleate, loratadine, diphenhydramine and cetirizine are commonly used.
In other words, different compound cold medicines mostly contain one or more of the above ingredients. If you take two or three kinds of cold medicines at the same time, it will cause overlapping and excessive drug components and increase the damage to liver and kidney function.
4. Cold medicine+antibiotics
When you go to the drugstore to buy cold medicine, is it often recommended by the clerk, "Take it with anti-inflammatory drugs" or "It works better with antibacterial drugs"? In this case, you must refuse it directly.
Because whether it is the common cold or the flu, most of them are caused by viruses. Antibiotics are aimed at bacterial infections, and only when a cold is combined with bacterial infections can antibiotics be used.
As for whether there is bacterial infection, doctors need to make a comprehensive judgment through the corresponding test results. You can’t take antibiotics without knowing that it is a bacterial infection. Not only can it not relieve the cold, but it will produce drug resistance and even cause adverse reactions.
Dr. Bao Xiulan said that if it is a common cold, it will generally get better in about a week. It’s ok to take medicine, but to deal with the common cold, it’s ok to use medicine to suit the symptoms, and all kinds of drugs can’t be mixed. If the cold symptoms have not improved for more than one week after taking the medicine, you should go to the hospital. (Beijing Health Education) (Reporter Ji Wei)
Zhao Xi
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