Re: Does Sudafed subdue the immune response, therefore prolonging a cold?

Hi David

Hope you are better by now!

More than two hundred different viruses can cause a cold. A group of 
viruses known as the rhinoviruses, however, causes about 30 to 50 percent 
of all colds. There are no medicines that will cure the common cold.  All 
we can do is fight the symptoms of the cold, with medicines like Sudafed. 
There are many such medicines for there are so many symptoms!

Given time, the body's immune system will make antibodies to fight the 
infection and the cold will get better on its own. 

So Sudafed treats the symptoms, it does not cure the cold. Whether it 
does this by “suppressing the immune system response” is a matter of 
opinion. Let me try to explain:
To stop an infection the invading organisms must be killed or at least 
incapacitated. Then they must be got rid of (expelled from you body).
The body itself causes many of the symptoms (runny nose, cough, etc) in 
trying to be rid of the invading organisms. Meanwhile you immune system 
is trying to “recall” (from prior occasions) or else construct the 
correct way to attack the invaders, using bespoke lymphocyte cells (to 
recognise) and phagocyte cells (to chew up) invaders.

So it is, if you like, a three part process: recognise, chew up, expel. 
So in as much as Sudafed does reduce the (uncomfortable) expulsion 
outflow processes it could be said to be “interfering with the immune 
system”. But other people might say the main purpose of the immune system 
is its ability to very cleverly match up the “recognise and chew up” 
processes to precisely what is required. As far as our tests show, 
Sudafed has no longterm effect on that.


References:
Silverstein, Alvin, Virginia B. Silverstein, and Laura Silverstein Nunn. 
Common Colds. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1999.
Silverstein, Alvin, et al. Common Cold and Flu. Springfield, NJ: Enslow 
Publishers, 1996.