Editorial

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Welcome to the May 2012 homepage edition of i2P-Information to Pharmacists. Rollo Manning has been having some time out having staples removed from the site of his open heart surgery.He is now at home recuperating in Darwin, having arrived home last Friday, beating a cold and hasty retreat from Canberra.We all wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully, he will be fit enough to contribute by next month.
This month, Pharmedia discusses the toll that is taken when someone complains about you to an authority without good cause. Well, the good news is that you can now take action to protect yourself if such a complaint is made, and that may even include action for defamation. Read about a recent case involving two doctors, with Mark Coleman drawing on personal experience to illustrate.

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Coughing up a fortune

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	Loretta Marron BSc articles by this author...
From a Skeptics Perspective: Loretta Marron, a science graduate with a business background, was Australian Skeptic of the Year for 2007 and in 2011. She edits the website www.healthinformation.com.au.

It’s that time of year again.
Red, runny noses on sad faces; thick woollen socks, home knitted scarves and a growing pile of old soggy sticky hankies next to the bed; croaky voices, sore throats and bad coughs that just won’t go away.
I’ve caught a cold and I’m sure I’m dying or at least that’s how I feel.
It’s time to drag myself into the car and head for my local pharmacy.
With some pharmacies selling nearly 100 products to treat my condition, surely I will find something to help.
This time I’ll talk about remedies for coughs and colds.

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In February 2009 scientists announced that they had unravelled the genetic code for the 99 strains of the common Cold . The bad news is that it seems it is so complex that there may never be a vaccine. Contracting the rhinoviruses, the nasty bug that causes the cold, can also trigger asthma attacks, sinusitis, ear infections and pneumonia, so the search for the elusive cure continues.
With adults getting at least two colds per year and kids getting around ten, developing drugs that target this virus and its symptoms will always be a real money-magnet particularly if they can be scientifically proven to be effective. With around 1 billion people worldwide catching colds annually, and costing Australian businesses around $10 billion in sick days - and those costs don’t include the doctor’s visits or drugs - there is serious money to be made in selling remedies for coughs and colds. When it comes to improving profit, whether the product is a placebo or a prescription drug, pharmacy owners are never ones to lose an opportunity for easy money. So let’s see what they have on their shelves that can help me.
Enter my local pharmacy and it has shelves bulging with natural remedies claiming to help my condition. There are the homeopathic and Bach’s Rescue remedies, but the only thing about them that may help me is the alcohol base they sometimes come with, but on a price per litre basis it’s cheaper and more preferable to buy a bottle of French Cognac. My mythical ‘vital force’ doesn’t need boosting by the ‘memory’ of daisies or dinosaur pee, so I’ll give this range a miss.
Take Echinacea and it will take you only seven days to get over your cold, don’t take it and it will take at least a week. Look at the research and it’s a case of ‘might’ followed by the usual statement that “the results are not fully consistent”. Vitamin C is a bit of a letdown as well with “more therapeutic trials necessary to settle the question” and besides, I don’t have scurvy and in large doses it’s toxic. According to Cochrane the evidence “did not support using any Chinese herbal preparation(s)”. No evidence for garlic or zinc either.
On the other side of the Pharmacy we have the pills and potions that are supposedly backed by scientific evidence. Antibiotics used to be the cure-all for everything but when it comes to the common cold they are not recommended as “most people get better without them”. Antihistamines may offer some relief for that runny nose but they make me drowsy and once again, “there is not enough evidence to be certain”. Even the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) do not recommend any OTC products to treat them.
This time both sides of the pharmacy don’t have anything that can help me. For someone as desperate as I am, even the latest gizmos in the middle of the pharmacy deserve a look. That mountain of boxes contain new fangled inhalers which seem to be the latest rage for helping people with colds, but another Cochrane says that “there is not enough evidence to show if steam inhalation improves or exacerbates nasal congestion when a person has a cold”
So what should I buy from the pharmacy for my cough and cold?
Not much it seems, so I’ll suck on my eucalyptus lozenges during the day and gargle my hot brandy, honey and lemon drink at night. At meal times I’ll stick to a tried and tested 12th century remedy known as Jewish Penicillin which certainly works for me. With nothing to buy from my local pharmacy, I’ll stick with my old fashioned cold fighting regime, fill up my hot water bottle and stay in bed.
 
References
 
[i]          Cough, Cold and Flu ,Pharmacy Online Australia http://www.pharmacyonline.com.au/cough-cold-c-536_580.html?page=1&sort=2a
[ii]          Decoding the Common Cold AOL News http://www.aol.com.au/news/story/Nothing-to-sneeze-at-_-decoding-the-common-cold/1674951/index.html
 
[iii]          Echinacea for preventing and treating the common cold, COCHRANE
[iv]          Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold, COCHRANE http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab000980.html
[v]          Chinese Medicine Herbs for the common cold, COCHRANE http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab004782.html
[vi]          Antibiotic for the common cold, COCHRANE http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab000247.html
[vii]          http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab001267.html
[viii]          Many Over The Counter (OTC) Medications Not Recommended for Cough Treatment http://www.chestnet.org/about/press/releases/2006/010906a.php
[ix]          Heated, Humidified air for the common cold http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab001728.html
[x]          Homemade Chicken Soup
 

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