Best Cold and Flu Medicines—And What To Avoid
Nyquil Cold & Flu
Nyquil Cold & Flu Generic Name & Formulations General DescriptionAcetaminophen 325mg, doxylamine succinate 6.25mg, dextromethorphan HBr 15mg; per liquiCap.
Pharmacological ClassAnalgesic + antihistamine + antitussive.
How SuppliedLiquiCaps—12, 20, 40, 60; Liq—6oz, 10oz
Nyquil Cold & Flu Indications IndicationsCough, sore throat, rhinorrhea, fever, headache, minor aches and pains.
Nyquil Cold & Flu Dosage and Administration Adult2 caps every 6hrs; max 4 doses/24hrs.
ChildrenNot recommended.
Nyquil Cold & Flu Contraindications ContraindicationsDuring or within 14 days of MAOIs. Concomitant other acetaminophen products.
Nyquil Cold & Flu Boxed WarningsNot Applicable
Nyquil Cold & Flu Warnings/Precautions Warnings/PrecautionsHepatic dysfunction. Glaucoma. GI or GU obstruction. Asthma. Lower respiratory disoders. Pregnancy. Nursing mothers.
Nyquil Cold & Flu PharmacokineticsSee Literature
Nyquil Cold & Flu Interactions InteractionsSee Contraindications. Hypertensive crisis with MAOIs. Increased risk of hepatotoxicity with ≥3 alcoholic drinks/day; avoid. Increased CNS effects with other CNS depressants.
Nyquil Cold & Flu Adverse Reactions Adverse ReactionsDrowsiness, anticholinergic effects, excitability in children, hepatotoxicity (overdosage).
Nyquil Cold & Flu Clinical TrialsSee Literature
Nyquil Cold & Flu NoteNot Applicable
Nyquil Cold & Flu Patient CounselingSee Literature
NyQuil, Sleepy Chicken Challenge Trends On TikTok, Here Are The Dangers
Videos on TikTok and other social media show people cooking chicken in over-the-counter cough and ... [+] cold medications such as NyQuil. (Photo by: Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesYou should be very chicken about trying this new TikTok trend. The so-called "NyQuil Chicken" or "Sleepy Chicken" trend consists of cooking chicken breasts in a pan while they're drenched in NyQuil. Or some similar over-the-counter cough and cold medication. Now, in general, you should be careful about what you put on your breasts. But cooking chicken breasts with such a medication would be particularly "fowl" play and potentially very bad for you.
It's not clear whether this bird-brained trend was originally meant to be a joke. As you can see in the following video, the narrator didn't really clarify whether he was providing an actual cooking lesson or rather a, cough, cough, parody:
Hmm. Not exactly Wolfgang Puck. Or Wolfgang Cluck, for that matter. The video started with a guy holding a NightTime medication bottle over a pair of chicken breasts and saying, "I got sick last night so I'm cooking up some NyQuil chicken." Now, NightTime may not be identical to NyQuil. But presumably it's similar. TikTok videos ain't always known for their scientific precision.
Nevertheless, the narrator then poured ample amounts of this medication on to the chicken while heating everything in a pan. He explained, "I've done this in the past, and usually I use about, you know, four thirds in a bottle," without clarifying what exactly four thirds in a bottle meant and how you would even fit four thirds in a bottle. He continued with, "If this is your first time doing this you can get away with using about a fifth."
As the chicken boiled in what was essentially a cold-and-cough-medicine jacuzzi, the narrator proceeded with, "Season that NyQuil in there just at the right temperature. You want to let it sit there and let it sizzle for about five to 30 minutes." Umm, five to 30 minutes is a pretty large range. In cooking, that can mean the difference between a mushroom dish and just mush in the room.
A little bit later, the narrator emphasized, "Make sure you're constantly flipping over the chicken. You don't want to give one side more attention than the other." He added, "Sometimes the steam really makes you sleepy." Really, the vapor from boiling a medication can actually affect you if you were to inhale it? Gee, imagine that.
Near the end of the video, the narrator said, "What you are looking for is that blue color." After all, there's nothing more delectable than blue chicken, right? After the cooking was done, the narrator poured the remaining medication from the pan back into the original bottle. Presumably, this filled less than four thirds of the bottle.
This wasn't the only example of the so-called Sleep Chicken Challenge or the hashtag #SleepyChicken on social media. The following tweet showed another such TikTok video with chicken seemingly being cooked in a pot of cough and cold medicine:
You've heard of chicken pot pie? Well, this was an example of chicken pot what-the-bleep. There have been videos of people doing something similar with whole chickens as well and not just the breasts.
As a whole, all of these are very bad ideas on multiple fronts. First of all, when has anyone said, "this food really could use some NyQuil to improve its taste?" Yeah, NyQuil typically ain't an added flavor like "ranch", "Buffalo", or even "lilac." There may be a bourbon chicken and an Angel's Envy bourbon on some restaurant menus. But who's ever seen a "cough-and-cold-medication-envy" chicken?
Secondly, boiling off the water in a medication could make it much more concentrated and thus raise the risk of an overdose. The risks of an overdose depend on what specific ingredients are in the medicine. Different cold and cough medications may have different ingredients, but common active ingredients include dextromethorphan, acetaminophen, and antihistamines like doxylamine succinate. Too much dextromethorphan, an opioid that's commonly in cough suppressants, can result in drowsiness, dizziness, seizures, nausea, vomiting, changes in blood pressure, constipation, breathing problems, blurry vision, twitching, palpitations, high fevers, hallucinations, brain damage, and coma. It can also lead to impaired judgment such as deciding to cook chicken in cold and cough medication. Too much acetaminophen could damage your liver and lead to liver failure. Too much doxylamine succinate can result in dry mouth, dilated pupils, rhabdomyolysis, insomnia, night terrors, hallucinations, seizures, and death. Actually too much of any of these can lead to death.
Thirdly, inhaling vapors of the medication is essentially taking the medication through your nose. So, assuming that you don't close your nostrils as often as you do your mouth, you have no way of controlling how much medication is making it into your body. This, in turn, can make overdosing even more likely.
Finally, heating a medication can change its properties in various ways. It can be like a box of potentially really bad chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
Take cough and cold medications only as instructed by the labelling, doctors, and pharmacists. ... [+] (Photo: Getty)
gettyIn general, don't cook food with any medication unless the packaging, your doctor, and your pharmacist explicitly tell you to do so. While you may aspire to be an Iron Chef, you shouldn't aim to be an Iron Lung Chef. Sending yourself or anyone else whom you are cooking for to the hospital would be the exact definition of a bad dinner party.
NyQuil Chicken certainly isn't the first dangerous trend to emerge on social media. For example, I've covered for Forbes the #FrozenHoneyChallenge that could have left you with botulism in your body and the #TidePodChallenge that could've left you with, well, Tide Pods in your mouth. Social media can be all fun and games until someone starts eating chicken cooked in NyQuil. If you post something on social media that was meant to be a joke, make it clear that it's a joke and not real health advice or a real cooking lesson. For example, clearly say, "this is a clucking joke." Think about how others may possibly misinterpret what you say and actually follow it.
If you are at the receiving end of a video, consider any advice offered the same way you would consider graffiti on a bathroom stall, an advertisement on a billboard, or what some random person may yell at you from across a train station platform. Take everything on social media with a pan full of salt, without the NyQuil. Oh, and don't cook food in a medication simply because someone did it on social media. If someone were to give you the bird, a bird boiled in NyQuil, that is, a proper response might be, "what the cluck?"
Cold And Flu News
Feb. 29, 2024 — U.S. Flu vaccines are likely to move from quadrivalent to trivalent due to a change in circulating influenza viruses, according to a new ...
Feb. 26, 2024 — A research team has developed a recombinant protein flu vaccine candidate. It utilizes a nanoliposome vaccine platform that underwent phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials in South Korea and the ...
Feb. 22, 2024 — First large-scale analysis of optimal timing for flu shots finds October is the best month for children to get vaccinated against influenza. Study of 800,000 pediatrician visits leverages links ...
Feb. 19, 2024 — The prospect of the worrisome triple threat of COVID, RSV and flu was assuaged last year by the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Two recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and ...
Feb. 14, 2024 — People who have had the herpes virus at some point in their lives are twice as likely to develop dementia compared to those who have never been infected. A new study confirms previous research on ...
Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists have long thought of the fluid-filled sac around our lungs merely as a cushion from external damage. Turns out, it also houses potent virus-eating cells that rush into the lungs during flu ...
Feb. 13, 2024 — Researchers have shed new light on how viral evolution, population immunity, and the co-circulation of other flu viruses shape seasonal flu ...
Feb. 7, 2024 — The ability to detect diseases at an early stage or even predict their onset would be of tremendous benefit to doctors and patients alike. A research team now develops intelligent, miniaturized ...
Feb. 6, 2024 — Influenza A viruses with induced resistance to a new candidate antiviral drug were found to be impaired in cell culture and weakened in animals, according to a new ...
Feb. 5, 2024 — Virus family history could help scientists identify which strains have potential to become the so-called Disease X that causes the next global ...
Jan. 30, 2024 — Using a DNA-based delivery particle, researchers created a vaccine that can induce a strong antibody response against ...
Jan. 30, 2024 — The composition of microbiota found in the gut influences how susceptible mice are to respiratory virus infections and the severity of these ...
Jan. 18, 2024 — An exhalation delivery system that uses a patient's own breath to carry the anti-inflammatory compound fluticasone (EDS-FLU) directly to the sinuses reduced chronic sinus infection (sinusitis) ...
Jan. 17, 2024 — Imagine a vaccine that speeds up the production of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that spreads COVID-19. A research team has developed such a vaccine by using preexisting immunity to a ...
Jan. 17, 2024 — Cold, flu and COVID-19 season brings that now-familiar ritual: swab, wait, look at the result. But what if, instead of taking 15 minutes or more, a test could quickly determine whether you have ...
Jan. 11, 2024 — Scientists have long known that some viruses and bacteria begin infections by latching first onto sugar molecules on the surfaces of cells lining the sinuses and throat of mammals, including humans. ...
Jan. 8, 2024 — Researchers have developed a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) system that can rapidly detect COVID-19 from chest X-rays with more than 98 percent ...
Dec. 21, 2023 — Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized class of antibodies -- immune system proteins that protect against disease -- that appear capable of neutralizing multiple forms of flu virus. ...
Dec. 15, 2023 — New research comparing the viruses that cause the flu and COVID-19 shows that people hospitalized with seasonal influenza also can suffer long-term, negative health effects, especially involving ...
Dec. 8, 2023 — In order for immune cells to do their job, they need to know against whom they should direct their attack. Research teams a have identified new details in this ...
Comments
Post a Comment