Flu and colds exposed by pharmacists @Boticonsejo and @Medicadoo

What are the main myths about flu and colds? How to choose the right cold or flu medicine? What is the key role of pharmacists in this decision? How important is sleep when recovering from a cold or flu? Pharmacists and Health Promoters Irene Gonzalez Orts And Pablo Garciaknown on social media as @boticonsejo and @medicadoo respectively, discussed these topics in the PHARMACEUTICAL MAIL discussion table sponsored by Laboratorios Vicks.

In winter, patients come to the pharmacy with flu, colds and some preconceived ideas, many of which are false myths and even hoaxes. For Irene Gonzalez Orts“Sometimes they ask us for products that don’t meet their needs because they’ve heard through family tradition – or seen on social media – a lot of hoaxes from people who claim they work for them and that we should deny the counter.”

“We hear hoaxes every day,” added Pablo García, “and the most common ones are those related to colds, such as getting a cold or flu because you don’t dress well or go barefoot. There are many others, such as that you will have to “sweat a fever”. Or the fact that a patient wants to be treated with antibiotics is a very serious problem that pharmacists are aware of, although I think the public is not so aware.”

Gonzalez Orts, who owns a rural pharmacy in Campo de Mirra (Alicante), recalls another very picturesque and common method: placing an onion near the pillow to breathe better at night. Garlic is another common ingredient in hoaxes, added Garcia, who also noted that “it’s very common for people to ask us for some kind of medicine because it’s believed, for example, that all flu medicines are the same. Or because it suited my father or my mother.”

For both speakers, the questions asked are the key to choosing the right flu or cold medicine for a person going to the pharmacy. The reason, as stated by the pharmacist, “is that needs vary depending on the period when a cold or flu occurs. They change even during the day because at night They are usually more intense¹. The questions we as pharmacists need to ask are: does the patient have a cough and if your symptoms get worse at night. Depending on the answers, I will recommend one product more than the other and explain very well why I do it and what symptoms it helps with. For example, only three out of ten people with a cold have a cough.^2*

and if they don’t have it, I would recommend Ilvico. Because it does not have an antitussive, we can treat the patient’s symptoms (in this case, fever, mild to moderate pain, and runny nose).³). Especially in patients receiving multi-drug treatment, in whom we avoid possible side effects and adverse reactions.”

To ask questions

According to Pablo Garcia, a pharmacist must be “very inquisitive.” This is our job. For over-the-counter medications, we are the last and only link in the health chain. It is very important that we carry out control work. Asking questions is the key to pharmaceutical care, and asking questions such as whether a patient’s condition worsens at night will help us recommend a particular type of product, always based on their needs.”

“We are drug experts, and in addition to being able to recommend the best drug to a patient, we know most of them, we know what medications they are taking, and we also know what might be better or worse for them,” he said. – noted the pharmacist.

Another advantage of a patient going to the pharmacy, as Pablo García recalls, is the time that the pharmacist devotes to him, analyzing, among other things, the medications he is taking and his symptoms. Something that in many cases does not happen in the doctor’s office. “For these reasons, the recommendation we make is appropriate as long as pharmaceutical care is complete,” he concluded.

“In some cases,” as recommended by González Orts, “depending on the profile of the patient, they can even be taken to the personal care unit of our pharmacy to be able to handle the case with greater peace of mind.”

Recommendation problems

The challenges pharmacists face when recommending flu and cold medications are numerous. Most notable, according to both, is time management (depending on the pharmacy situation), knowing what questions to ask and what product to recommend. “The patient has to tell the whole truth, which is sometimes difficult for him,” said the pharmacist, noting as a positive aspect the trust of citizens in the figure of the pharmacist.

Garcia noted that a choice must be made between extensive portfolio treatment options “and the fact that in many cases patients go to the pharmacy with the preconceived notion that it doesn’t matter which one they get because they’re more or less the same. But this is not true, just as not all colds are the same, and not all patients have the same symptoms. You have to be able to discriminate and as I mentioned earlier, you have to be very inquisitive and try to get all the information you can to make the right recommendation: for example, if the patient doesn’t have a cough, I’m going to suggest a cold medicine like Ilviko, which contains a painkiller remedy, as well as components that help with nasal congestion and fever.³ and with caffeine, which will make you a little more active.” That’s why it’s important, before dispensing flu medicine, to ask, “Do you have a cough?”

“Often people who come to my pharmacy ask me to give them something. And I tell them, no, you need to start by understanding what’s going on with them: not everything will work in every situation, because it will depend on the symptoms that you have at any given time. You might develop a cough, which only happens three out of ten times.². But you might just have a stuffy nose. For cases of dry, irritating cough at night that keeps you awake, I recommend nighttime Ilvigrip, which, because it contains doxylamine, helps you fall asleep and continue your normal rhythm the next morning,” said Irene Gonzalez Orts. Ilvigrip Night relieves fever, mild to moderate pain, nasal congestion and dry cough.⁴.

The importance of training

With so many cold and flu medication options available, continuing education is a key tool for pharmacists to stay current. For González Orts, platforms like Apovoice are especially interesting “because they have short videos – which we appreciate – because we usually have little time and a lot of work. I like it because it’s very convenient and you can train yourself with videos that get to the point and always tell you what you really need.”

According to Pablo Garcia, pharmacists not only ask questions, but also “have to be curious, constantly learning and relearning a lot. I appreciate all the training that pharmaceutical laboratories provide us with. Because no one knows better than them what their products consist of and who they are aimed at.”

We should also not forget, as the pharmacist emphasized, that many such trainings are aimed at other pharmacy office workers who also come into contact with the patient.

Sleep is essential

It is very common for patients with flu and cold symptoms who come to the pharmacy to experience sleep disturbances due to cold and flu symptoms. The reason is that your symptoms get worse at night.¹. However, paradoxically, patients do not perceive this as a factor slowing down their recovery and worsening their quality of life.

The role of the pharmacist is critical in determining that sleep disturbance is caused by flu or cold symptoms. In addition, it is very important to convey to the patient that this problem must be addressed with products used specifically at night to relieve worsening symptoms.

“Cold symptoms vary both over time and throughout the day: they are lighter and milder in the morning and in nine out of ten cases they get worse at night.⁵. That’s why patients often come to our pharmacy looking for a product that will treat these nighttime symptoms and allow them to rest well. For this reason, treatment can be supplemented with an anti-flu or anti-cold medication with VapoRub ointment,” suggested Gonzalez Orts. VapoRub Ointment⁶ relieves cough and nasal congestion, cold symptoms that are worst at night⁷. In this context, ask: “Do your cold symptoms get worse at night?”, will help during the recommendation.

“This is a product that has more than a century of history and continues to be updated,” emphasized Pablo Garcia, “and there are recent studies that show that these therapeutic couples, containing active ingredients such as eucalyptus essence, camphor and turpentine, improve nasal congestion and cough⁸. Another study that was just published found that 86% of patients felt better when adding VapoRub ointment to their flu treatment. And my experience shows that this improvement occurs compared with the use of monotherapy.⁵“

In conclusion, González Orts emphasized that the goal is to make the patient feel better. “If you give a patient what they need and they notice that they feel better when they ask for the product again, you won’t need to recommend it to them.” “In a pharmacy, recommendations to the patient should always be complete,” concluded Pablo Garcia.