I have a cold and it is in the coughing stage. Very annoying, stops me from sleeping! Anyways, a few questions occured to me:
- I have that annoying cough where nothing actually comes up, it just "feels" like you need to cough all the time because something is tickling the inside of your throat (dry cough?). How does that happen? Ie is there some sort of sin tag on the inside of my throat, or a bit of aught phlegm or what?

- I have Tylenol Cold tablets, and they say they suppress coughing. How do they do that? Do they slightly numb the throat/ lungs? Do they relax the muscles? Stop the nerves fro sending a coughing reflex to the brain?

Tickling can be something like a histamine reaction, where the throat is getting irritated by histamines doing their thing. When it comes to colds usually a runny nose - post nasal drip is the real culprit as 'stuff' (we won't discuss what - ewwwww) runs down the back of your throat draining from nasal and sinus cavities.

Cold tabs and the like usually dry you out they usually contain two or more of these active ingredients: Pseudoephedrine, Acetaminophen and/or Dextromethorphan and/or Chlorpheniramine Maleate

Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant that shrinks blood vessels in the nasal passages. Dilated blood vessels can cause a stuffy nose.

Acetaminophen is a medicine used to relieve pain and reduce fever.

Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant. It suppresses the area in the brain that causes coughing.

Chlorpheniramine is an antihistamine. Chlorpheniramine blocks the effects of the naturally occurring chemical histamine in your body.

Other information on each and another is found here: http://www.chop.edu/consumer/j...d=70981#antitussives

Suppressing a cough is not a 'bad idea' if its from say post nasal drip, it is a bad idea if you have fluid in your lungs. In case you do have stuff in the lungs you need an Expectorant like guaifenesin which helps to loosen phlegm and crud in the lungs (waters it down a wee bit) and makes it easier for your body to expel the stuff via coughing.

Also the diphenhydramine can be found in a lot of these cold medicines, not only do they help you to sleep they also 'dry' you out slowing or stopping the runny nose, thus the post nasal drip associated with colds - thus stop your coughing.