[Anonymous]

I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it.

I personally think this isn't true, surely if your ill, you need to take medicine, so you can get better sooner. As if you don't take medicine, your illness will only get worse.

However, I have seen 4 doctors when I had a cough, 2 said I will get better without medicine, and 2 gave me medicine. So I am not sure if my mum is right or not?

What I can say is, that since I have been taken 4 types of medicines for my cough, I have developed a red bumps/rash all over my legs, body, arms and hands, with the skins peeling off. I am now taken another medicine for this and using a cream which my doctor prescribe.

Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?

My cough has improved alot, had it for around 5 weeks, still coughing heavily a couple times of days, but I am not spitting out clear/yellow stuff and not vommiting in my sleep, which I did for a good 4 weeks. I assume the 4 types of medicines has helped. Now, my cough has improved but not cleared completely, but I have developed a rash.

I have not taking any cough medicine since I developed the rash, as I don't know if taken them would cause my rash to increased. Should I take cough medicine as well as rash medicine?

So, my question is, when your ill, do you take medicines or wait until you get better without medicine?

[Angry cucumber]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it.

I personally think this isn't true, surely if your ill, you need to take medicine, so you can get better sooner. As if you don't take medicine, your illness will only get worse.

However, I have seen 4 doctors when I had a cough, 2 said I will get better without medicine, and 2 gave me medicine. So I am not sure if my mum is right or not?

What I can say is, that since I have been taken 4 types of medicines for my cough, I have developed a red bumps/rash all over my legs, body, arms and hands, with the skins peeling off. I am now taken another medicine for this and using a cream which my doctor prescribe.

Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?

My cough has improved alot, had it for around 5 weeks, still coughing heavily a couple times of days, but I am not spitting out clear/yellow stuff and not vommiting in my sleep, which I did for a good 4 weeks. I assume the 4 types of medicines has helped. Now, my cough has improved but not cleared completely, but I have developed a rash.

I have not taking any cough medicine since I developed the rash, as I don't know if taken them would cause my rash to increased. Should I take cough medicine as well as rash medicine?

So, my question is, when your ill, do you take medicines or wait until you get better without medicine?

One peice of advice, don't switch or stop medicines without asking your doctor about it. It will only lead to difficulties and may lead on to more problems e.g. the cough might come back worse due to you killing the "weaker" pathogens but leaving the "stronger" pathogens left which may recolonize.Your cough may come back worse than ever with all your previous problems and possibly more. (See anti-biotic resistance etc)

As for:

"I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it."

That is complete crap.

and "Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?"

Your rash may well be linked with your cough, how do you know it's because of drug interaction?

Go and ask your doctor(s) about your medicines until you see them take all. Otherwise you might end up a whole lot worse.

I'm sorry that this is blunt, but you really need to keep taking them all.

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
One peice of advice, don't switch or stop medicines without asking your doctor about it. It will only lead to difficulties and may lead on to more problems e.g. the cough might come back worse due to you killing the "weaker" pathogens but leaving the "stronger" pathogens left which may recolonize.Your cough may come back worse than ever with all your previous problems and possibly more. (See anti-biotic resistance etc)

As for:

"I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it."

That is complete crap.

and "Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?"

Your rash may well be linked with your cough, how do you know it's because of drug interaction?

Go and ask your doctor(s) about your medicines until you see them take all. Otherwise you might end up a whole lot worse.

I'm sorry that this is blunt, but you really need to keep taking them all.

Thanks for the advice

I am seeing the doctor on the 25th for a routine checkup so I can ask him about this.

When I saw a doctor regarding my rash, he said I was allergic to something, can't remember what it was. He said it was related to the cough medicine I was taking.

[rapidresponse]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it.

I personally think this isn't true, surely if your ill, you need to take medicine, so you can get better sooner. As if you don't take medicine, your illness will only get worse.

However, I have seen 4 doctors when I had a cough, 2 said I will get better without medicine, and 2 gave me medicine. So I am not sure if my mum is right or not?

What I can say is, that since I have been taken 4 types of medicines for my cough, I have developed a red bumps/rash all over my legs, body, arms and hands, with the skins peeling off. I am now taken another medicine for this and using a cream which my doctor prescribe.

Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?

My cough has improved alot, had it for around 5 weeks, still coughing heavily a couple times of days, but I am not spitting out clear/yellow stuff and not vommiting in my sleep, which I did for a good 4 weeks. I assume the 4 types of medicines has helped. Now, my cough has improved but not cleared completely, but I have developed a rash.

I have not taking any cough medicine since I developed the rash, as I don't know if taken them would cause my rash to increased. Should I take cough medicine as well as rash medicine?

So, my question is, when your ill, do you take medicines or wait until you get better without medicine?

MOst couogh medicines simply stop it from tickling. They effectively anaesthetise you locally. They won't cure then problem. So it will eventually go by itself anyway if you drink plenty of fluid. Hence why some doctors will prescribe and others won't.

[Persephone9]

It's not bad as such to take medicines when you're ill; in some cases they are unnecessary (like people demanding antibiotics when they have a cold or a viral cough) but in others they are very useful (like say pneumonia).

Your cough may have gotten worse without the medicines, it may have eventually gotten better on it's own; it's really hard to know without knowing the cause of the cough. However, if you've been coughing for 5 weeks and now have this rash, I would go back to your usual doctor (why have you seen 4 different ones by the way? ) and ask which cough medicines you should be taking and what should you be doing about this rash, but on the whole you should finish the course of medicines that you are prescribed. EDIT: Rapidresponse has a good point, are we talking prescription medicines or cough syrups that you can buy in a pharmacy here?


In answer to your question, I take prescription medicine for asthma, but when I get coughs and colds I usually manage with lemony tea and steaming my face, although I will take painkillers for lady cramps and antibiotics for UTIs. It really depends on how serious the illness feels (and if I have time to get to the pharmacy/doctor).

[Anonymous]

You said I should be taking the cough medicine. I been taking it for around 4 weeks. When should I stop taking cough medicine? When my cough has completely cleared?

[Persephone9]

(Original post by Anonymous)
You said I should be taking the cough medicine. I been taking it for around 4 weeks. When should I stop taking cough medicine? When my cough has completely cleared?

This is a question for your doctor, as without knowing what medicines they are and what is causing your cough there isn't really an answer we could give. However, in general, if it's a prescription medicine you should take the full course that you have been prescribed, and not stop early because you feel better.

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Persephone9)
It's not bad as such to take medicines when you're ill; in some cases they are unnecessary (like people demanding antibiotics when they have a cold or a viral cough) but in others they are very useful (like say pneumonia).

Your cough may have gotten worse without the medicines, it may have eventually gotten better on it's own; it's really hard to know without knowing the cause of the cough. However, if you've been coughing for 5 weeks and now have this rash, I would go back to your usual doctor (why have you seen 4 different ones by the way? ) and ask which cough medicines you should be taking and what should you be doing about this rash, but on the whole you should finish the course of medicines that you are prescribed.


In answer to your question, I take prescription medicine for asthma, but when I get coughs and colds I usually manage with lemony tea and steaming my face, although I will take painkillers for lady cramps and antibiotics for UTIs. It really depends on how serious the illness feels (and if I have time to get to the pharmacy/doctor).

To be honest, if you saw the state of me, I don't think I would have gotten better on it's own. It got worse and worse by the day, hard to tell really, you could be right.

My original doctor retired, I was seeing him once every 4 weeks. Now I don't see any doctors, and had to see 4 different doctors during emergency hours.

If my cough has completely cleared, and I finish half the medicine I am given. I still need to finish the rest of the medicine?

[Ohlavelle]

You really need to define what you mean by 'medicine'. Are we talking calpol or antibiotics here?

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Ohlavelle)
You really need to define what you mean by 'medicine'. Are we talking calpol or antibiotics here?

I don't know the definition of calpol or anitbiotics.

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Ohlavelle)
You really need to define what you mean by 'medicine'. Are we talking calpol or antibiotics here?

I don't know the definition of calpol or antibiotics.

[Ohlavelle]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I don't know the definition of calpol or anitbiotics.

What 'medicine' are you taking?

[Persephone9]

(Original post by Anonymous)
To be honest, if you saw the state of me, I don't think I would have gotten better on it's own. It got worse and worse by the day, hard to tell really, you could be right.

My original doctor retired, I was seeing him once every 4 weeks. Now I don't see any doctors, and had to see 4 different doctors during emergency hours.

If my cough has completely cleared, and I finish half the medicine I am given. I still need to finish the rest of the medicine?

For a start I'd get yourself registered with another GP; presumably if he was the only one at the practice he will have been replaced, or if it was a practice with more than one GP you may be able to be swapped to another GP at the same place - ask the receptionist at your usual GPs surgery. The role of the emergency/out of hours doctor isn't really for coughs that have been going on for a long time, and because you get such a limited time with them they won't be able to take a full history from you about your cough, and they won't always have access to records about you.

It really depends on what you're taking. If it is something like this or this then you don't need to finish the bottle, stop taking it when you feel better. If it is something that you were given a prescription for when you went to the emergency GP then continue taking it as directed on the label until you run out. (You might not have needed to take the prescription to the pharmacy if the emergency GPs was able to dispense the medicines, but you would have been asked to sign it and possibly pay for it.)

[Anonymous]

(Original post by Ohlavelle)
What 'medicine' are you taking?

I have taken 15 250mg amoxicillin capsules (prescriped by GP) as well as 24 stepsil sore throat and cough lozenges (over the counter).

I have also nearly finished covonia chesty cough syrup (over the counter). Also, finished about 2/3 of a pholcodine cough syrup (prescriped by GP), and nearly finished a menthol and eucalyptus inhalation (prescriped by GP)

I miscalculated, it's 5 types of medicines not 4 to treat my cough.

For my rash, I have been taking chlorphenamine tablets 4mg. I have been given 28 by the hospital and 56 by the GP so 84 tablets in total.

I am currently just taken the chlorphenamne tablets and not the pholcodine cough syrup and menthol and eucalyptus inhalation.

[jimbo139]

You're basically asking are medicines good or bad? And the answer is that it depends.

Some diseases will get worse without treatment, and some will get better on their own.
A medicine can be very helpful in one patient, and yet have no benefit in another patient with the same disease.
Each medicine will cause side effects in some people and not in others.
Some side effects are trivial, others are extremely dangerous.
Some medicines are very helpful in certain situations, others provide only a small benefit.
All treatments which have effects can also have side effects, and this includes 'alternative' treatments such as herbal remedies.

If your doctor prescribes medicine, it's because their judgement (rightly or wrongly) is that the likely benefits will outweigh the possible side effects, or that benefit is more likely than harm. It is often hard to predict what effect a medicine will have for a particular patient, although most modern medicines have been shown on average to offer significant benefits in large groups of patients with a particular condition.

If the medicine is being prescribed to make you more comfortable, eg painkillers, it is basically up to you whether you feel you need it. If it's for protection from an asymptomatic risk factor, such as high blood pressure, you are dependant on the doctor's advice to help you decide whether you need to take it or not, and you may not notice any direct benefit.

Clearly some patients do not benefit from medicines, eg when a severe allergic reaction causes death. In other case there is huge benefit, such as when antibiotics allow someone to survive a life-threatening infection.

So basically, there is no simple answer - medicines are neither all good nor all bad.

[xXxBaby-BooxXx]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
As for:

"I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it."

Not completely. My GP tutor told us that there's evidence to say that everytime a GP prescribes antibiotics, it makes the patient they prescribed them to present with an infection one more time that year than if they hadn't had any antibiotics.

All medications have side effects, and antibiotics kill off bacteria, therefore preventing your body from mounting a full immune response.

[zippyRN]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I have been told by my mum that it's bad to take medicine when your ill, as you can get side effects as well as weakening your immune system in that you rely on it.

ill informed at best, downright dangerous at worst.

I personally think this isn't true, surely if your ill, you need to take medicine, so you can get better sooner. As if you don't take medicine, your illness will only get worse.

if the medicine has bee prescribed or a you have been advised to purchase the medicine by a health professional there will be good reasons for this recommendation.


However, I have seen 4 doctors when I had a cough, 2 said I will get better without medicine, and 2 gave me medicine. So I am not sure if my mum is right or not?

What I can say is, that since I have been taken 4 types of medicines for my cough, I have developed a red bumps/rash all over my legs, body, arms and hands, with the skins peeling off. I am now taken another medicine for this and using a cream which my doctor prescribe.

Now, if I didn't take the 4 type of medicines, I wouldn't get a rash, but my cough would of gotten worse I presume?

My cough has improved alot, had it for around 5 weeks, still coughing heavily a couple times of days, but I am not spitting out clear/yellow stuff and not vommiting in my sleep, which I did for a good 4 weeks. I assume the 4 types of medicines has helped. Now, my cough has improved but not cleared completely, but I have developed a rash.

I have not taking any cough medicine since I developed the rash, as I don't know if taken them would cause my rash to increased. Should I take cough medicine as well as rash medicine?

So, my question is, when your ill, do you take medicines or wait until you get better without medicine?

cough medicine is always a funny one, a lot of the 'cough medicines' on the market are symptomatic relievers and as most coughs and colds are viral, there is little need for anything other than simple analgesia and symptomatic relievers - these will not necessarily effect the course of your recovery, though they might make you feel better and thin secretions etc ...

[Angry cucumber]

(Original post by xXxBaby-BooxXx)
Not completely. My GP tutor told us that there's evidence to say that everytime a GP prescribes antibiotics, it makes the patient they prescribed them to present with an infection one more time that year than if they hadn't had any antibiotics.

That might be true to an extent but if was as bad as OP says, I very much doubt her immune system will be overly disappointed with some anti-biotics to help. Anti-biotics kill bacteria along side the immune system, it doesn't stop the immune system having a full response.

People not completing their prescriptions is one of the biggest causes of antibiotic resistance, I'd rather not have an antibiotic resistant strain of an infection that was already running riot over my immune system, than complete my course of antibiotics and be cured of it.

[jimbo139]

(Original post by xXxBaby-BooxXx)
Not completely. My GP tutor told us that there's evidence to say that everytime a GP prescribes antibiotics, it makes the patient they prescribed them to present with an infection one more time that year than if they hadn't had any antibiotics.

All medications have side effects, and antibiotics kill off bacteria, therefore preventing your body from mounting a full immune response.

I'm not aware of compelling evidence that antibiotics in the context of an acute bacterial infection impair the development of a 'full' immune response. Which part of the adaptive immune response are you referring to?

[*Joanna*]

(Original post by Anonymous)
I have taken 15 250mg amoxicillin capsules (prescriped by GP) as well as 24 stepsil sore throat and cough lozenges (over the counter).

I have also nearly finished covonia chesty cough syrup (over the counter). Also, finished about 2/3 of a pholcodine cough syrup (prescriped by GP), and nearly finished a menthol and eucalyptus inhalation (prescriped by GP)

I miscalculated, it's 5 types of medicines not 4 to treat my cough.

For my rash, I have been taking chlorphenamine tablets 4mg. I have been given 28 by the hospital and 56 by the GP so 84 tablets in total.

I am currently just taken the chlorphenamne tablets and not the pholcodine cough syrup and menthol and eucalyptus inhalation.

Amoxicillin is an antibiotic; you always need to take the full course of antibiotics prescribed. The pharmacy will provide enough and should tell you how many days to take it for.

Strepsils, Covonia, pholcodiene and menthol/eucalyptus are symptomatic medicines, so you can stop taking them when your cough gets better. You don't need to finish the pack or bottle. Make sure you don't take too many doses in a day.

Chlorphenamine is an antihistamine, which the doctor will have prescribed to help your rash. I'm not sue how long you will need to take these for, possibly just until your rash disappears but you need to check with a pharmacist or doctor. Amoxicillin can often cause a rash that can be mistaken for an allergy.

Whilst I'm not advocating taking unnecessary medicines, if there is a medicine that will help you to get better or help you to ease your symptoms safely then I'm all for it. Why suffer if you don't have to?