We've all heard the commercials. If you have been sick enough you may have even tried "Buckley's" cough medicine. As the good people at Buckley's say "It Tastes Awful. And it Works".
Well, I have tried Buckley's and I am here to tell you that yes it does taste awful (but it doesn't have to).
Whether cough medicine works is really up for debate - most colds take 7-10 days to work through your system anyways. Does any cough medicine eliviate the symptoms (read as 'make tolerable') or actually combat the cold? My guess is that it helps us enough with a bandage/crutch approach - basically it gets us through the day rather than actually helping to 'rid' ourselves of a cold.
Oh by the way, to STOP it from tasting awful - don't keep your mouth closed over the spoon when you drink it. Swallow it quickly and open your mouth back up again. The bad taste comes from the medicine being trapped in your mouth and having no place to escape.
He isn't a doctor, but
Prof David Brown has lots of good insight into other strange facts on Rewired - and if you want even stranger human interest stories, check out Eric on
Mostly Weird News.
