ELI5. How do cold medicines like codral unblock your nose when you are sick? I’m asking this as someone who took codral 30 minutes ago and can suddenly breathe through both nostrils.
In: Biology
One of the most common decongestants is pseudoephedrine. It causes vasoconstriction and relaxation of smooth muscle. It makes the blood vessels in your sinuses, throat and lungs constrict. This constriction causes less fluid to leave the blood, reduces inflammation and decreases mucus production.
What is blocking your nose is not snot like you might think, but swelling of the nasal tissues. Such medicines make the swelling go down.
I’m not sure what is in the Codral specifically (I don’t think it’s available in the US) but generally these medications either have some kind of ephedrine-like substance (like pseudoephedrine, methylephedrine, phenylephedrine) or an antihistamine.
Ephedrines work by constricting blood vessels. In these types of medications, it works by constricting vessels in the nasal cavity and therefore reducing the swelling (which is what really causes the blocked nose).
Antihistamines block the histamines in our body, which is a signaling chemical of your immune system that alerts to the presence of antigens (like disease-causing bacteria). In allergic reactions, histamines are released in response to harmless allergens like pollen, and causes uncomfortable reactions like runny nose and itchy eyes. Antihistamines block the histamine receptors and reduce its effects.
ELI5: it either widens your nasal airways by un-swelling the tissues around it, or block the chemical that signals for that to happen in the first place.
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