Over-the-counter cold medicines fly off the shelves during winter months. They give relief from hacking or sniffling – but actually curing a cold is a different matter.

“Over-the-counter medicine will take care of symptoms. It’s not going to do anything for an infection,” said Cathy Thrasher, chief pharmacist at Watkins Memorial Health Center at Kansas University.

“Colds usually last about seven days; we just try and make you comfortable for those seven days,” said Pat Hubbell, pharmacy manager for Hy-Vee at 3504 Clinton Parkway.

Guidelines published this month by the American College of Chest Physicians reinforced the idea that most over-the-counter cough expectorants or suppressants did not treat a cough’s cause.

Thrasher said the guidelines expressed concern that people would overlook a chronic cough and avoid seeing a doctor because they relied on over-the-counter medicine. Pharmacists recommend rest and a trip to the doctor if coughing and sneezing symptoms persist for longer than a week.

Beverly North, Lawrence, looks over some of the cold medication available to treat symptoms of the common cold at the HyVee store at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive. Recent guidelines citing the ineffectiveness of most over-the-counter cough medicines may have little effect on their sales, some pharmacists say.

But the recent guidelines probably won’t bring a tremendous hit to the sales of over-the-counter drugs.

“If the patient thinks it helps, then the patient is going to buy it,” Thrasher said.

“People continue to buy based on past experience,” said Joyce Generali, director of the Drug Information Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

Medical professionals say teaching good habits to family members such as hand washing, good nutrition and getting plenty of rest is the best preparation.

“It’s not going to prevent a cold, but what I think it helps do is it helps you to be better able to recover,” Generali said.

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Carolyn Micek, an acupuncturist, and Cecilia Mills, a massage therapist, at Southwind Health Collective, 1045 Ky., agree with those techniques. Chinese herbs and other techniques, such as covering the back of your neck in the winter, keeping warm, acupuncture and massage can help relieve the body of stress, they said.

The herb astragalus, a Chinese root, can support the immune system, Micek said, and acupuncture might help if a cold and cough symptoms last for a few days.

“Generally, your body’s got to go through what it’s got to go through,” she said.