*Cough Cough* … Drops

by Tori Toh

Can you overdose on cough drops?

Cough drops can help soothe a sore throat or a dreadful cough but can the active ingredient inside, menthol, be harmful if you take too many?

Menthol, composed of peppermint oil, is what gives the cooling effect to these candy-like lozenges. It effectively gives a temporary numbing effect that can help relieve your sore throat or cough. In a single cough drop, there is usually around 1-15mg of menthol. The lethal dose is stated as 50-500mg of menthol per kg of body weight. Therefore, someone who weighs 150 pounds would need to consume 340 (to 3400) drops to die from menthol poisoning (in ae5 relatively short span of time too). Quite unlikely you’d think!

Although there is no standard limit to how many you can consume at a time due to varying menthol amounts between products, cough drops should be treated as any medication with a label of a safe dosage and people with other medical conditions asking their doctor first before taking.

A study published in Case Reports in Medicine described an 86-year-old man taken into the emergency room with symptoms of heartburn, muscle weakness and decreased kidney functions. The doctors later discovered he had eaten 2 bags of menthol-rich lozenges daily for 20 years. His symptoms cleared after he had stopped eating them and had physical therapy, but this case is not the only one.

A 21-year-old died after inhaling high amounts of peppermint fumes containing menthol. The fumes caused him to fall into a coma and 10 days later had died due to this. There was no evidence of consuming cough drops of any sort  with it only suggesting his death due to the toxic levels of peppermint fumes. The detailed case can be found at the  International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research.

There have further been cases of severe allergic reactions to menthol and it irritating people with sensitive skin and at times swelling and burning occuring. Diabetic people can furthermore be affected due to the high sugar contents of the cough drops. Some lozenges contain vitamins and minerals like zinc and vitamin C which are beneficial for the immune system but can be harmful in excessive quantities.

This is not to deter you away from cough drops of course, they are still useful in providing relief from colds and allergies, but to bring awareness. However cough drops are not the solution to treat an underlying health problem and if a cough continues severely then people should see a doctor if symptoms are lasting more than a few days or are getting worse.

To soothe your cough drop craving, find the full article by Jennifer Berry.  

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