Tips To Relieve Your Runny Nose Or Nasal Congestion
Got a case of the sniffles? Chances are that your nose is running faster than a waterfall. Or maybe your nose feels all stuffed up, forcing you to breathe out of your mouth. Or worse-both. A runny nose and nasal congestion are both uncomfortable upper respiratory symptoms with their own underlying causes. But once they start, you want relief, fast.
A runny nose is a discharge of mucus from the nostrils. Itâs the result of excess nasal mucus production. The excess nasal mucus leads to watery nasal secretions that flow out of your nostrils or drip down into your throat.
Nasal congestion is due to the inflammation of the linings of the nasal cavity. Swollen nasal passages constrict air flow, making it harder to breathe through your nose. The inflammation also makes it harder to get mucus out of your nose, so you may also have a build-up of thick, dry mucus, as well. It causes you to feel stuffed up, which is why itâs also referred to as a stuffy nose.
The common cold and the flu are often the culprits of a runny nose and/or nasal congestion,1 but they can both also be caused by allergies.
These are not the only symptom of the cold or flu. You may also experience other associated symptoms, like sneezing, coughing, chest congestion, a sore throat, headaches, and body aches.
Find out how to relieve your upper-respiratory symptoms like nasal congestion and runny nose so you can feel better fast.
Avoid liquids like caffeine that can cause dehydration.
Is The Best Cold Medicine For Runny Nose And Sneezing Right For Your Needs
The question that you have to ask yourself before buying any of the best cold medicine for runny nose and sneezing is whether or not they will suit your needs. Besides, you must clearly define what your needs and purposes are. From there, you can choose the best product and serve it according to your requirements.
When To Call A Doctor
Not every sniffle or cough merits a trip to the doctors office. When in doubt, call your health care provider.
Some symptoms can signal that your child may have something more serious than a cold. For all children, call a doctor if you see any of these symptoms:
- A fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in an infant 2 months or younger.
- A fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in children at any age.
- Blue lips.
- Labored breathing, including nostrils widening with each breath wheezing fast breathing the ribs showing with each breath or shortness of breath.
- Severe headache.
- Not eating or drinking, with signs of dehydration .
- Excessive crankiness or sleepiness.
- If the child is getting worse.
Don’t Miss: Sore Throat Pain When Swallowing
What Are The Different Types Of Cold And Cough Medicines
There are lots of different cold and cough medicines, and they do different things:
- Nasal decongestants – unclog a stuffy nose
- Cough suppressants – quiet a cough
- Expectorants – loosen mucus in your lungs so you can cough it up
- Antihistamines – stop runny noses and sneezing
- Pain relievers – ease fever, headaches, and minor aches and pains
What Are Cold And Cough Medicines
Cold and cough medicines can help relieve symptoms of a common cold. The symptoms of a cold can include a sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, and coughing.
You don’t usually need to treat a cold or the cough that it causes. You can’t cure a cold, and antibiotics won’t help you get better. But sometimes the symptoms can keep you awake or cause a lot of discomfort. In that case, cold and cough medicines can sometimes be helpful.
Don’t Miss: How To Unblock Your Nose
Best Cold Medicine For Coughing
Viruses like those which cause the common cold are a leading cause of either wet coughs, as well as dry coughs . A wet cough is the bodys way of clearing mucus from airways and is best treated with an expectorant like guaifenesin. Dry, hacking coughs are important to prevent a sore throat and assist you in getting that much needed rest to maximize your recovery. Cough suppressants will be your go-to class of medications for this type of cough, and a cough syrup like Delsym is the highest pharmacist-recommended brand.
Common Colds: Relief For A Stuffy Nose Cough And Sore Throat
There are no treatments that fight cold viruses directly. But nasal sprays and painkillers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen can provide some relief from cold symptoms. Many other treatments have either not been studied well enough or have no proven benefit.
Colds are very common: On average, adults come down with a cold 2 to 4 times a year, and children have as many as 6 to 8 colds a year. The reason that colds are so common is that they can be caused by very many different kinds of viruses. So having had one virus doesn’t make you immune to other cold viruses.
Colds usually go away on their own after about one to two weeks. Although the symptoms such as a runny or stuffy nose, cough and headache can be bothersome, you don’t need to take medication. None of the currently available treatments can shorten the length of a cold. Antibiotics only fight so they dont help in the treatment of simple common colds that are caused by viruses. They can have side effects too, so they should only be used if a bacterial infection develops as a complication of the cold.
Recommended Reading: How Do I Get Strep Throat
How Do You Get Rid Of A Cold Fast
Generally, once infected with the common cold you simply must allow it to run its course. The average cold lasts anywhere from several days to several weeks. Even though you wont beat a cold in 24 hours, with proper medicine and home remedies, you should be able to get symptom relief quickly which may help you feel like yourself in just a few days. Here are some of the best cold remedies:
Staying at home while youre treating your cold is always a good idea if youre able to do so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying home if you have a cold to help prevent spreading it to others. Keeping children out of school or daycare if they have a cold is also a good idea to help keep others from getting sick.
How To Treat A Runny Nose
Camille Freking, MS Pharmacology – Genexa Partner on September 28, 2021
Medically reviewed byCamille Freking MS Pharmacology
Surprise, surprise: you have come down with a classic case of a runny nose again. Though a runny nose is a temporary problem, we know how uncomfortable it can be.
The most common culprit of a runny nose is cold weather, viral infection, or allergies, all of which are temporary but inconvenient regardless. When your runny nose happens as a result of being sick, the best methods of treatment may be resting up and making sure to drink plenty of fluids in order to support your body while you heal.
So, you know a runny nose can be caused by a variety of things, but why exactly does it happen? Understanding this part of the process may help you make a more informed decision regarding how you go about treating your symptoms.
Recommended Reading: Acid Reflux Burning Throat Relief
What Medicines Works Best To Relieve Which Cold Symptoms
Your bodys natural reaction is to fight off a virus through cold symptoms.
For example, a fever kills the cold virus, and a runny nose and cough help expel germs from your body.
So often, using simple home remedies and spending time in bed is the best way to treat a cold.
That said, if you need extra help to get through the day, there are many options that may relieve your cold symptoms.
Keep in mind, the common cold is not curable, and these medicines only offer symptomatic relief.
How To Prevent Catching A Cold
A person with a cold can start spreading it from a few days before their symptoms begin until the symptoms have finished.
The best ways to avoid catching a cold are:
- washing your hands with warm water and soap
- not sharing towels or household items with someone who has a cold
- not touching your eyes or nose in case you have come into contact with the virus it can infect the body this way
- staying fit and healthy
The flu vaccine helps prevent flu but not colds.
Recommended Reading: Allergy Medicine For Stuffy Nose
How To Choose Cold Medicine For A Runny Nose: The Buying Guide
How do you choose the cold medicine for a runny nose? You must consider many things, such as the brand name, price, and product quality. In addition, you should also consider whether it is suitable for your needs or not.
So how do you choose the right cold medicine for a runny nose? Here are some tips that you can use to help you find a good product:
What you Should Keep in Mind When Buying cold medicine for a runny nose
When shopping for a cold medicine for a runny nose, there are several things to consider. You need to think about the quality of the product, the price, and even how much it will benefit your life. However, you also need to keep these factors in mind:
How Many Competitors Does It Have
Many different factors go into answering this question. The number of competitors can vary greatly depending on the best cold medicine for runny nose and sneezing you are dealing with and the scope of your business model. Knowing how these factors can affect your market share is important when deciding whether or not you should enter a new market.
Don’t Miss: Why Is My Ear Buzzing
Buying Information For Medicine For Runny Nose
While rare, a runny nose can sometimes be the result of more serious conditions like nasal polyps, a deviated septum, a lodged object, nasal passage blockage, medication allergies or even gastric reflux. If your runny nose becomes continuous, then you should see a physician who can properly diagnose the cause and begin effective treatment.
But when your runny nose is just a runny nose, the top 3 products we review below in detail along with the other products in our top 10 guide should give you some fast and effective relief.
What Is The Best Cold Medicine To Use
Unlike the flu medicine, Tamiflu , there is no antiviral medication available for the common cold. The best cold medicine to use will vary depending on the symptoms someone has. For example, someone who has a cold and cough may need to take a cough suppressant, whereas someone with a cold and stuffy nose might need to take a decongestant. Taking a decongestant when you dont have a stuffy nose probably isnt going to help you if youre searching for relief from a sore throat.
Finding the best cold medicine depends on which cold symptoms you want the most relief fromfind a medication that treats those symptoms. Some treatments even provide multi-symptom relief and would say so on the label.
If youre still unsure about which cold medicine to choose, you can always ask your healthcare provider, including your pharmacist, for advice. Its also a good idea to ask your doctor or pharmacist if taking cold medicine will interfere with your prescription medications, as drug-drug interactions can cause unwanted side effects.
| Best cold medicines |
|---|
| Echinacea coupons |
You May Like: Can You Swim After Ear Piercing
Boiron Homeopathic Medicine Coldcalm Tablets
Another top 3 product that treats runny noses caused by the common cold, Boiron Coldcalm tablets are homeopathic meaning they are all-natural with none of the side effects that sometimes accompany other cold or allergy products such as jitteriness or drowsiness.
Appropriate and safe for everyone ages 3 and up, these tablets are placed under the tongue every 15 minutes for the first hour of treatment, then continued every two hours for the duration of symptoms. This rather intense schedule is the one drawback cited by most consumers, but the majority of those preferring an all-natural product felt the benefits outweighed the slight inconvenience.
Thought the tablets have no taste, they can be dissolved in a tablespoon or two of water to make dosing easier for children. Coldcalm works on a runny nose as well as on other cold symptoms like sneezing, nasal congestion and sore throat, making it a great all around cold medicine.
Why Does A Runny Nose Happen
When a virus, allergen, or other irritant enters your nasal passages, the lining of your nose and sinuses becomes irritated and inflamed, and your nose produces mucus as a result. The mucus is there to help trap bacteria, viruses, and allergens in order to help flush them away. That mucus is a very important part of your airway system because it keeps your airways moist and helps keep them working.
Even more, the mucus in your nose contains antibodies that can help kill off viruses and bacteria. Though it is just doing its job, it sure is annoying when your body produces too much mucus — this can result in a cough, congestion, and runny nose.
Also Check: Mouth Breathers Vs Nose Breathers
Inhaling Steam And Drinking A Lot Of Fluids
Many people find it pleasant to breathe in steam with or without adding things like chamomile or peppermint oil, because the warmth and moisture can have a short-term soothing effect on the mucous membranes lining the nose. But this kind of inhalation doesn’t have a clear effect on cold symptoms.
Drinking a lot of fluids is also often recommended if you have a cold. There’s no scientific proof that this will help, though, so there’s no need to force yourself to drink more fluids than you feel like drinking when you have a cold. Still, people often find that hot tea or warm milk have a soothing and warming effect.
Best Cold Medicine For Stuffy Nose
A stuffy nose can leave you feeling like youre struggling to take in fresh air. It can also linger in your sinuses even after other symptoms fade.
To relieve a stuffy nose, try a decongestant with the active ingredient pseudoephedrine . It helps at the level of the small blood vessels in your nasal passageways to reduce the swelling and dry up the mucus that your body produces, allowing you to breathe a little easier.
Phenylephrine is another decongestant available for stuffy nose.
However, its not advisable to take either of these two decongestants more than four times a day.
triggered by inflammation in your body. Treating the inflammation can bring down your pain levels and soothe discomfort.
Fever and aches can be eased by taking ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug , as is naproxen. Although not an NSAID, acetaminophen is another pain reliever that can help ease fever and aches.
Don’t Miss: Real Gold Hoop Nose Ring
A Word About Antibiotics
So many patients call asking for antibiotics for a cold,usually when theyve had symptoms for several days. There are a few times whenantibiotics are appropriate, for instance, strep throat or sinus infectionscaused by bacteria. But antibiotics simply dont work against viruses thatcause the common cold. Overprescribing antibiotics for viral illnesses leads toantibiotic resistance, which means the bacteria grow stronger over time andbecome tougher to beat with antibiotics.If a doctor prescribes an antibiotic for cold symptoms, its usually a short,three-day round of drugs. The patient often feels better after finishing themedication but probably would have recovered in that timeframe anyway withoutthe drug.
Will A Decongestant Make It Worse
A is primarily used for people suffering from runny noses and coughs. Decongestants get to the root of the problem and shrink inflamed blood vessels in the nasal tissue, essentially limiting the amount of mucus the body secretes. To find a decongestant, look for medicines with oxymetazoline, phenylephrine, and pseudoephedrine.
Recommended Reading: Burning In Throat And Chest
Find The Best Cold Medicine Based On Your Symptoms
Types of cold medicine | Best cold medicines | How to get rid of a cold fast | Natural remedies | Symptom-specific cold medicines | When to see a doctor
The common cold is a viral infection that affects the nose and throat. The bad news is that it takes some time to get over a cold virus, but the good news is that treatment requires just a quick trip to the pharmacy. Cold medicine like decongestants and cough suppressants can help alleviate symptoms such as a stuffy nose or sore throat. Lets take a look at some of the best cold medicines so youll know what to look for if you or one of your family members gets a cold.