A sticky situation
Thank goodness for cell phones. Just ask my brother. It was his cough that led him to the store to seek some relief with a cough syrup, and it was the dizzying array of cough syrups that prompted him to call me from the supermarket aisle for advice. He listed quite a selection for me: expectorant, cough suppressant, nasal decongestant. He wanted to know which one I’d choose. My answer surprised him.
None of them. He began to protest, outlining his symptoms and punctuating his comments with what did seem like a very bad cough. But it just so happened that he called right after I had read that over-the-counter (OTC) cough syrups are largely ineffective.
That’s right. And the person who made this bold statement should know. He is Dr. Richard Irwin, the chairman of a cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians. His committee has formally issued guidelines discouraging the use of OTC cough medicines.
Dr. Irwin says that the active ingredients in OTC cough syrups are either in doses that are too small to be effective or are combinations of drugs that have never been proven to treat coughs. He says that the best studies show “there’s not a lot of justification for using these medications because they haven’t been shown to work.”
What does work? Well, lots of fluids and yes, good ol’ chicken soup. And I also told my brother about the only effective, all-natural cough treatment that I know of, which I heard about directly from Dr. Wright. It is called Mucolytic Drainage Remedy, and according to Dr. Wright, it is one of the best cough remedies available today. It can be found in many natural food stores and compounding pharmacies.
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What is…a kidney stone?
Kidney stones are abnormal chemical deposits that develop in the urinary tract. They can be as small as a grain of sand and pass out of the body without notice, or they can be large and hard and cause intense pain, bleeding, and blockage of urine flow.
There are four different types of kidney stones as defined by their chemical composition: calcium, struvite, uric acid, or cystine. Stones form for a variety of reasons, such as elevated calcium levels in the urine, an abnormally low level of citrate in the urine, hyperparathyroidism, chemical imbalances after bowel surgery, or the kidneys’ inability to maintain a normal acid-base balance. Bacterial urinary tract infections, excessive concentration of uric acid, or genetic problems also can lead to kidney stone formation.
Yours in good health,
Amanda Ross
Editorial Director
Nutrition & Healing
