Why shouldn't smokers take a decongestant/expectorant?

I always thought it meant the product should not be used for a cough caused by smoking. The expectorant I have at home says not to use for “a persistent cough caused by smoking, emphysema…”

Agree… it’s not to relieve a “smoker’s cough”.

Yeah, use them Dutchess before it turns to pneumonia or something.

Yeah…I’m at risk for that, too @KNOWITALL.

I wonder, though, why not use it for smoker’s cough too? It’s the same thing, in a way. Phlegm that needs to come out….

@Dutchess_III It’s different because if you take it for emphysema or something, you literally could cough up a lung, or even break a rib trying to cough it up, when in reality we all know that smoking kills your lungs which is why so many people are on oxygen later in life.

@Dutchess_III Cough medicine should not be taken daily forever, it is for a temporary condition. Smoking is not temporary. Plus, when a smoker coughs it is a good thing, many cough medicines are cough surpressants. The chemicals in nicotine paralize the cilia in lungs that move out the tar and phlegm, so smokers have a poor mechanism for moving bad things out of their lungs. Often smokers cough in the morning because they haven’t smoked for hours and the system is working, and then they take a smoke and paralyze the system again.

Yeah, I was not talking about a cough suppressant. I’ve never used those, not even when my kids were small.

I need to quit, @JLeslie…..

@Dutchess_III I wasn’t trying to lecture :). I always use a cough suppressant/exporant. Usually the label is DM. I never take a cough medicine that has the decongestant included. Just me. I am not a fan of medicines that have multiple medications. Like I don’t like a cold medicine that already has a fever reducer and a decongestant either. I have advil in the house for fever and most of the time colds don’t have a fever, so I don’t like to take a med unless necessary. If I have a cough left over, but the sinuses are clearing, then I don’t need the deongestant anymore. Having separate meds means I can have that bottle sit for a year (I don’t think I have ever completely finished any pack of OTC cold related medicines before the expiration date) and when a different sort of cold comes up have the right medicine for it without overmedicating.

^^^I agree 100%. I always used separate meds to address specifically what needed to be addressed and nothing that didn’t.
How would a cough suppressant / expectorant work? Aren’t they mutually exclusive? You can’t expectorate without coughing….?

@Dutchess_III it does sound like they conflict with each other, I agree. The expectorant loosens the phlegm. The supressant supresses the cough. When the coughing does occur the mucous is easier to cough up. Supressing a cough can be useful to give the diaphragm some rest and allow the sick person (and the people around them) to rest. But, the cough is important to clear the lungs, and making it easier to cough up the yuck is less strain on the body.

I never thought if it that way! This would be a good question….

@Dutchess_III Why do you think it would be a good Q? I don’t get it. You mean to confirm with some doctors?

No, it’s just that I’ve never thought using a cough suppressant was a good idea. I always felt like the body was coughing for a reason. But you presented good reasoning for thinking otherwise, so I just wanted to see what others thought as well. HEY! It’s not everyday I’ll put myself out there under, “I was wrong!!” :)

Go for it. It wasn’t that I thought you should just accept my opinion. I was just curious about your angle.

I will! I just gotta figure out how to work the Christian angle in so it will get lots and lots of answers! :)

LMAO! Gawd a nonreligious question would be good. I just wrote a Q and an example I gave in the explanation mentions Christians, and I seriously thought about not writing it, but I couldn’t come up with another example off the top of my head.

I’ve never seen such a warning on the decongestant/expectorants I’ve taken when sick. However, I stop them once I’m well. I suspect that it’s merely to escape liability if someone uses them daily to treat Smokers Cough. I generally avoid cough suppressants though; when I get congested, I want to cough stuff up!

Possibly, and this is just a guess, smokers are more likely to get mal effects like high blood pressure from the medication. I’d have to see the actual warning andnhow it is worded and then I probably still couldn’t be sure.

Like medication that says take with lots of water, pretty much nobody would guess it is because the medication can cause crystals in your body, most people assume it is just a basic suggestion like stay hydrated.

I’m guessing that those who suggest that smokers who take it to ward off smokers cough are correct. I mean, you’d be taking it every day, so that would be abuse and not good. I was just worried about taking it briefly, during this time. Which, I feel better already, btw. AND I’m staying hydrated (does beer count as hydrating?)

@Dutchess_III How’s this?

Does God ever use cough syrup?

What @snowberry? You lost me…..

@Dutchess_III I was just trying to help out.

You said, “I will! I just gotta figure out how to work the Christian angle in so it will get lots and lots of answers! :)” So I did it for you. Now watch the comments start flooding in. :)

Ooooo! ... .NOOOOOOOOOO! I didn’t mean it! :)

Um, no, God doesn’t use cough syrup because God is not prone to human ailments such as congestion, colds, flu, AIDS, leukemia, ED, erections lasting longer than 4 hours, breast cancer, prostrate cancer, heart attacks, high blood pressure, bi-polar disease, Chron’s disease, diabetes, RLS, prolapsed uteruses, and the like. I did not just do that. I have been…hydrating.

@Dutchess_III LOL

You know @snowberry, after I posted that I really got to thinking about “when” I started changing my mind about the existence of God. I believe it was when I asked the question, to a couple of Christian friends of mine, about 20 years ago, “Is God a male or a female?”
“Male.”
“How do we know?”
“The Bible refers to him as “He.”
“Oh. Does God have a penis?” They were, of course, shocked and speechless. Such blasphemy! But I protested, “But that’s what makes a male a male. A penis, for to have sex with and for to pee with. Does God ever have to go pee?” That’s when it really hit me, we cram God into this man made box, and put man-made limitations on him so that we think we can understand him.

Good point. You cannot cram God into a box. Most people do. But Psalms 91:4 also says “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge” But this does not mean God is a cosmic chicken either (this has been said before). So perhaps the Bible speaks in metaphors.

“Cosmic chicken!” LOLL!
Well, God has no gender and that’s hard to understand so we have to pin a gender on him, albeit a sexless one. Which, apparently, isn’t hard to understand. So why don’t I understand?

@Dutchess_III It might be better to say that God has qualities of both genders in him, since he made both sexes. Just my way of seeing it. I am not, however, saying that God is transgender, bisexual, or any such nonsense as that.

And I love how you, the OP, have single handedly (with a small nudge from me) managed to derail your own thread into a religious conversation. Lurve!

I was just thinking that @snowberry! But man it’s quiet in here. Kinda nice, just you and me. ♥ Like, we’re off in a corner whispering, where no one else can hear us.

But he is also all of those other things. What qualities would he possess that would make him all of those things, male, female, bi, trans, whatever?

@Dutchess_III The way I see it, God the creator made the world as we know it, as well as all the hidden things no man has ever seen, or ever will see. He knows everything about us, both the things he designed us to be as well as the deviations we’ve made from that design. But above all, God does not “need” us, he is complete in himself, but he designed us to be in relationship, with him first, as well as each other.