Why wouldn’t a medication with both an expectorant and a cough suppressant cancel each other out?

Question

Why wouldn’t a medication with both an expectorant and a cough suppressant cancel each other out?

In: 1

Answer 1

If it makes you feel any better, most OTC expectorants and cough suppressants don’t work very well, anyway, so there’s not much cancelling going on of anything. Drinking more water’s probably as good or better than hitting the Robitussin for thinning mucus.

But theoretically, you’d cough less but get out more goo when you did because you’d thinned it out a bit. You don’t have to pound the ketchup bottle as hard if the ketchup’s thinner.