THE PHARMACY

My Drugs of Choice for all your Cough and Cold Needs

I’ve noticed that many of those around me are coming down with awful coughs, stuffy noses, and pounding sinus headaches. Cold symptoms are still relevant despite the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the holidays. I’ve decided to share my preferred over-the-counter medications to treat any cough or cold symptom.

Wet Cough

Coughs usually fall into two categories: wet or dry. A wet cough feels like you’ve got mucous trapped in the back of your throat or inside your chest. You can hear a gurgling sound when you cough. You need a product to help dislodge and dissolve the mucous build-up to treat this cough. Here are my go-to medications:

Mucinex

Whenever I get a question about a wet phlegmy cough at the pharmacy, I recommend Mucinex first. The generic name for Mucinex is guaifenesin, which belongs to a class of drugs called expectorants.

An expectorant’s job is to thin the mucous stuck in your chest so that it’s easier to clear. The product I reach for is the Mucinex 12-hour tablets, in which you take one pill every 12 hours to…