Some cough mixtures have ingredients to help stop pain. This can be useful with both an antitussive and an expectorant. If your throat is sore, you want to soothe the pain. If your lungs are painful from a tight chest caused by inflammation, some pain relief is always welcome. Codeine is often added to cough mixture to help soothe the pain.

Some cough mixtures have a bronchodilator added. This is an ingredient that helps widen the air passages in the lungs. It can be a very helpful ingredient when your lungs are filled with mucus, because it gives the mucus room to move so that it can be coughed out more easily.

Decongestants help soften the phlegm, so that it can move out of the lungs more easily.



[Edited by DJ Dunk - 10/7/2002 5:14:58 PM]

 

Nope they just treat the symptoms - yer poofy linctus honey and lemon ones merely soothe the throat, whereas yer hardcore smack base ones like Benylin stop it hurting.



[Edited by father_jack - 10/8/2002 12:31:29 PM]

 

A lot of these have warnings not to take or to see your doc first if you are asthmatic, or have chest/lung probs etc, etc

So, I went to my docs to check and got told no probs

The worst cough is that dry, tickly one. At least with a mucus cough it feels like you are actually doing something
The cough I get when my asthma is troublesome is great, I can wheeze a few tunes out via coughing much to the amusement of people around me

Do any asthmatics find that after taking the ventolin your cough goes really painful?

[Edited by Little Miss WRX - 10/8/2002 1:54:56 PM]

 

<cough>

Seeing as i've been trying to get rid of this fekking cough for about a fortnight now, i was <cough> wondering how cough mixture is supposed to work. Is it;

a) the 1% that hangs around in your throat once you've swallowed it, or

b) the 99% that ends up in your stomach, and therefore in your bloodstream?

Does having a drink <cough> after taking cough mixture negate it's effects? Anything else i need to know?

I thank you. <cough>

 

If this cough is anything to go by.. It doesn't!

 

Drink honey and water, sweetened with lemon - both have antibacterial qualities and the thick honey will help line your throat.

 

SWEETENED with lemon??!!!

What do you do for a bitter taste then Mice...???!!!

 

D'oh!

LOL..

 

Expectorants assist the coughing reflex. They actually make you cough more and therefore make you bring up the mucus.

Your body's natural reaction is to clear the lungs by coughing. Once the infection has cleared, and the mucus buildup has gone, the coughing will stop by itself and you'll be able to breathe again.

 

<cough>

Slightly less frequently now though...

 

Try Benylin and whisky - this will make you unconscious so you cannot cough - apparently

 

Good plan!

Nobody's answered the original question though!!

Becoming a bit of a mission now..!!

 

I did . . kind of

Its a mixture of a) and b) depending on the type of cough mixture you are talking about.

 

LMAO @ FJ!

 

The ones with codeine or dextromethorpan (DXM) are the only ones which really work because the two drugs suppress the cough reflex.

In non-inner city chemists you can still get simple codeine linctus over the counter -- this is easily the best stuff for a good night's sleep. Take 2 x 5ml spoons of a 15mg linctus before going to bed. Sits right on the cough.

DXM is very interesting stuff, its active principle is very similar to Ketamine and other dissociative anaesthetics. Hence Robo-dosing: drinking an entire bottle of Robitussin or similar to get off. And apparently it can get you off a long way

 

Mice is right, honey and lemon in hot water (with a large dash of whiskey)I find helps with the coughing. If you drink enough, you may still cough but be too p*ssed to care!!