What is the difference between a medication that treats runny nose due to allergies, and a medication that treats runny nose due to a cold? Seems like allergies and colds have very similar symptoms.

Question

What is the difference between a medication that treats runny nose due to allergies, and a medication that treats runny nose due to a cold? Seems like allergies and colds have very similar symptoms.

In: 4

Answer 1

There’s stuff that is pretty allergy specific (it targets the runny nose pathway that is occurring in allergy much more than in infection) – thats your antihistamines.

Then there’s stuff for general congestion – often marketed for colds, but works on all – these mostly work by shrinking blood vessels to reduce swelling and leaking that occurs with general inflammation- the nasal sprays are really prone to rebound stuffiness and shouldn’t be used for more than a couple of days.