Since a cough often accompanies a cold, everyone has faced the choice of an effective drug for treating the disease at least once in their life. Despite the fact that a cough reflexively cleans the airways, it is necessary to treat it, especially with the protracted nature of the disease. The patient, turning to the doctor, hopes for a competent appointment and listens to the recommendations of a specialist. If the visit to the doctor for any reason is postponed indefinitely, you can achieve the result using decoctions or tinctures of plants. In this case, licorice syrup is one of the most acceptable medicines.
The composition of the drug and release form
The product is produced in Russia in glass bottles of 50 and 100 grams.
The active ingredient of the drug is licorice root extract. The syrup also contains several auxiliary components: sucrose, purified water and ethyl alcohol. Thanks to the main component in the medicine, a slight taste of anise is felt, and sucrose gives the syrup viscosity and sweetness.
The benefits of licorice
A distinctive feature of the plant is its expectorant properties, which contribute to getting rid of cough for patients of all age categories. The use of licorice syrup is important for dry and wet coughs. The root itself contains ascorbic acid, starch, gum, essential oils, pectins and triterpenoids.
Pectin acts like any soluble fiber. It is able to remove poisons, toxins, harmful cholesterol from the body, regulates blood circulation, promotes the healthy functioning of the stomach and intestines, enveloping the mucous membrane.
Ascorbic acid helps the absorption of iron and healing of wounds, helps proper metabolism, stimulates blood vessels to work efficiently, allows you to maintain cartilage in excellent condition, increases weakened immunity.
Starch perfectly protects the stomach, removes alcohol, lowers blood pressure, inhibits the development of pathogenic cells, normalizes the immune system.
Gum is good for the heart and blood vessels, prevents weight gain, cures constipation and stops the development of diabetes.
Essential oils will help restore the endocrine and nervous systems, remove toxins and relax the body. Due to the presence of phytoncides, essential oils are used as antiseptics with antiviral effects. Some of them are effective antioxidants.
Triterpenoids have an antibacterial, hepatoprotective effect, stimulate the body's defenses, increase resistance to bacteria, viruses and to an adverse external environment.
Dosage
Unless otherwise prescribed by the doctor, the recommended single amount of the drug is 5 ml. For accurate dosing, put a measuring spoon and a glass into the packaging of the syrup. The drug is taken after meals 3 times a day for 10 days. Typically, a medicine is dissolved in 100 ml of water or washed down with a large volume of liquid.
For children, the use of licorice syrup is prescribed in lower dosages, but with the same frequency. So, infants are once offered 2 drops of a medicine diluted with water, children up to two years old take half a teaspoon, from two to twelve years old the drug is recommended to use one teaspoon several times a day.
Indications for use
In accordance with the instructions, licorice syrup is universal in the treatment of all types of cough and is prescribed in cases:
- Upper respiratory tract problems.
- Pneumonia.
- Tuberculosis.
- Asthma.
- Weak secretion of adrenal hormones.
- High acidity of the stomach.
- Ulcers.
For most patients, the medicine helps to cope with various kinds of inflammation. It has a therapeutic effect at the beginning of the development of the disease and helps to combat the disease in advanced cases.
Contraindications
The negative effects of licorice on the body are also widely known. Therefore, in a number of chronic conditions, the use of licorice syrup is strictly prohibited for adults and children. The main contraindications experts call:
- Hypertension, since the drug can provoke an increase in pressure and fluid retention in the body.
- Diabetes mellitus - due to the increased content of sucrose in the syrup.
- Diseases of the heart and blood vessels, as licorice in some individual cases contributes to heart rhythm disturbance.
- The use of syrup in combination with diuretics, as a result of which muscle tissue can be destroyed.
- The period of gestation due to leaching of potassium and increased toxicosis.
- Intolerance to one or more components of the drug.
Adverse Reactions and Overdose
The use of syrup does not cause side effects if used, according to the doctor's prescription and in the right dosage. Occasionally, adverse reactions may occur in the form of increased blood pressure or various signs of allergies. Frequent drug treatment or overdose can lead to redness of the skin, rash, swelling, nausea, hypertension, lower potassium levels in the body, pathological breakdown of muscle protein, damage to muscle tissue, and even malfunctioning of the nervous system.
Treatment features
Instructions for licorice cough syrup warns of imperceptible, but significant factors that need to be considered by the patient who is using the drug:
- Ethyl alcohol in the composition of the drug forces the use of syrup only for a short period.
- The drug leads to an increase in estrogen levels, which can adversely affect not only during pregnancy, but also during lactation.
- Licorice can be addictive to active substances.
- Some patients experience excessive drowsiness and a decrease in concentration, which negatively affects their work.
- In childhood, adverse reactions to licorice syrup can be noticeably more likely to occur.
Reviews about the drug
There is no unequivocal opinion about licorice root and medicines based on it. Some patients are satisfied with the syrup, note it as an effective assistant for various types of cough and are used in the treatment of all family members. Others keep the drug in their home medicine cabinet as an emergency temporary aid to relieve symptoms of dry and wet cough. Still others use syrup instead of going to a specialist, and only in case of a long illness do they come to the doctor for a different purpose. Fourth do not use syrup either because of intolerance and contraindications, or remain adherents of other drugs.
The opinion of doctors
Doctors often prescribe this drug for children. With pediatricians and mothers, the medicine received good reviews. Licorice syrup is characterized by a pleasant taste and a convenient liquid consistency. The effectiveness of the drug has been proven for centuries, minimum contraindications, the use of prescribed dosages reduces side effects to almost zero. For adult patients, syrup is good for its affordable price and versatility.
Doctors who are configured to treat patients with minimal costs and risks, note the positive properties of the drug with enviable consistency and prescribe licorice more often than other cough drugs.
Analogs
Unfortunately, in medical practice, there have been no drugs that are suitable for all categories of patients, without exception. That is why science and the pharmaceutical industry do not stand still, and doctors do not stop looking for and prescribing analogues of the long-known drugs. Experts who love licorice syrup for its excellent healing properties cannot escape this fate. The following medications are headed by a list of drugs identical in composition or on the principle of influencing the disease: “Licorice extract thick”, “Licorice extract dry”, “Pertussin”, “Ambroxol”, “Bromhexin”, “Altay”, “Gedelix”.
The thick extract differs from licorice syrup in a glass bottle by the consistency and method of application. If the liquid version is used without preliminary preparation, washed down with water, then you need to tinker with this form of the root: first pour boiling water and heat in a water bath, then filter and squeeze the raw materials, and then dilute to the desired volume. Dry extract is prepared similarly to thick, warming in a water bath.
However, thick and dry extracts have many protectors who see great naturalness and usefulness in this form of medicinal plant.
Pertussin is available in liquid form with thyme extract as an active agent. It is used to treat respiratory problems. Both the use of licorice syrup and the use of Pertussin are not recommended for patients with diabetes. In addition, thyme is a contraindication for children under 3 years of age.
"Ambroxol", having the same active substance in the form of hydrochloride, can be used in infants from 1 year in the treatment of respiratory tract. The medicine has a large percentage of assimilation by the body, a high rate of elimination and has contraindications only individual intolerance and gastric ulcer.
In Bromhexine, the base is also constituted by the eponymous hydrochloride. Most often, the medicine is used for pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma and tuberculosis. There is an age restriction that does not allow the reception of funds up to 5 years. Also, the drug is not used during pregnancy.
"Altai" is approved for use from birth. The basis is the extract of a medicinal plant with the same name. The ban is an allergic reaction known to the patient to a plant or auxiliary components of the drug.
The remedy approved for use in infancy is Gedelix. The drug eases the cough reflex and is prescribed by pediatricians, in accordance with the instructions for children. Licorice syrup can be used for bronchial asthma, and in Gedelix it is one of the main contraindications.
The plant composition and various forms of licorice root production gave a long life to the medicinal extract and allowed it to be widely used. A syrup prepared on the basis of natural ingredients is most often found in doctor's prescriptions for diseases of the respiratory organs. Patients at risk of self-medication are advised to consider contraindications, keep in mind the possible development of adverse reactions and use the medicine according to the instructions, without violating the principles of treatment and dosing.