Resources

Home Management of Dehydration: A Quick Guide
Dehydration occurs when your body loses more fluid than it takes in, leaving it without enough water and electrolytes to carry out normal functions. While severe cases require immediate medical attention, mild to moderate dehydration can often be managed effectively at home.

Phase 1: Recognition
Before treating, identify the severity. Common signs of mild dehydration include:

• Extreme thirst and dry mouth.
• Dark yellow, strong-smelling urine.
• Dizziness or lightheadedness.
• Fatigue or “brain fog.”

Warning: If you experience confusion, fainting, an inability to keep fluids down, or have not urinated in 8+ hours, seek emergency medical care immediately.

Phase 2: The Best Self-Care Technique
The gold standard for treating dehydration at home is Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT). This is more effective than drinking plain water alone because it replaces lost electrolytes (salts) that help your cells absorb water.

How to Perform ORT:

1. Use an Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS): Reach for products like Pedialyte, Hydralyte, or WHO-standard rehydration packets. These contain the specific ratio of glucose and electrolytes needed for rapid absorption.
2. The “Sip, Don’t Gulp” Rule: Drink small amounts frequently—about 1 to 2 tablespoons every few minutes. Gulping large amounts of fluid can trigger vomiting or bloating, worsening the condition.
3. Temperature Matters: Aim for room temperature or slightly chilled fluids. Extremely cold or hot drinks can sometimes irritate a sensitive stomach.

Phase 3: Supporting Recovery
Once you have started ORT, follow these steps to stabilize your recovery:

• Avoid Diuretics: Stay away from caffeinated coffee, tea, and soda, as well as alcohol. These can increase fluid loss through urination.
• Modify Your Diet: Stick to “water-rich” bland foods like watermelon, cucumbers, broths, or gelatin once you can tolerate solids.
• Cool the Body: If dehydration is heat-related, move to a shaded or air-conditioned area and apply cool, damp cloths to your skin.
• Rest: Physical activity increases fluid loss through sweat. Keep movement to a minimum until your urine is pale yellow.

Home-Made Rehydration Recipe

If you cannot get to a store, you can mix a basic solution using household staples:

Instructions: Stir until the sugar and salt are fully dissolved. Drink small sips over the course of several hours.

Managing a Persistent Cough: From Acute to Chronic

A cough is your body’s way of clearing irritants from your airways, but when it lingers, it shifts from a helpful reflex to an exhausting burden. Whether your cough is acute (lasting under 3 weeks, usually viral) or chronic (lasting 8 weeks or more), management focuses on soothing the throat and addressing the underlying cause.

Immediate Relief: Home Care Strategies
For most coughs, the goal is to reduce irritation and thin mucus so it can be cleared more easily.

• Hydrate to Thin Mucus: Drinking plenty of water is the most effective way to thin secretions in the lungs and throat. Warm liquids—like herbal tea or broth—are particularly soothing.
• The Honey Method: A spoonful of honey (for adults and children over age 1) can be as effective as some over-the-counter suppressants. It coats the throat, reducing the “tickle” that triggers a cough.
• Optimize Air Quality: Dry air is a major cough trigger. Use a cool-mist humidifier or take a steamy shower to add moisture to your airways.
• Elevate Your Head: If your cough worsens at night, use extra pillows to prop yourself up. This prevents mucus from pooling in the back of your throat (post-nasal drip).

Identifying the Cause

Management strategies change depending on why you are coughing:

Cough suppressants over the counter include Robitussin and Delsym. Any medication with a DM a the end of the name is designed to suppress a cough. DM stands for Dextromethorphan.

If these medications don’t work, prescription cough suppressants may be needed. Talk to your health care provider to explore these options.

When to See Your Healthcare Provider

A persistent cough can sometimes be a “red flag” for more serious conditions like pneumonia, heart failure, or lung disease. Seek medical advice if you experience:

1. Hemoptysis: Coughing up blood or rust-colored mucus.
2. Shortness of Breath: Difficulty catching your breath even while resting. Also known as air hunger.
3. Wheezing: A whistling sound when you breathe.
4. Duration: Any cough that lasts longer than 8 weeks requires a professional evaluation to rule out chronic issues.

Practical Tip: The “Cough Drop” Alternative
While medicated lozenges work, any hard candy can help by increasing saliva production, which naturally lubricates the throat and reduces the urge to cough.

Note: Avoid using over the counter multi-symptom cold medicines unless your symptoms match ALL of the active ingredients. Often, a single-ingredient suppressant or expectorant is more effective.

When looking for content to share in this category, a great article by Carla Louise Fedigan appeared in LinkedIn. She says it better than most anyone. It’s brief and worth a read.

Five Medications that are not good to take that have been commonly used.

This page offers excerpts from an article by Trisha Pasricha published March 16, 2026 in the Washington Post

Here’s the link to the Original article

Some of us have a medicine cabinet that looks less like a pharmacy and more like a museum. It’s good to take an inventory of medications you have in your home to toss out those that have expired or are not useful.

#1 Baby aspirin (81mg): Many take as a prevention of a heart attack or stroke. Evidence shows that this does not prevent either of these problems. First, it is not safe for children and is supposed to reduce clotting. It doesn’t do this well as a prevention, but if you have had a heart attack or a stroke, it offers a little protection to avoid more complications. For people who have never had a heart attack or stroke, the data found that the bleeding risks from aspirin, including gastrointestinal bleeding, outweighed the cardiovascular benefits.

Final verdict? It’s not worth the effort unless you have a need. Toss it and don’t look back.

#2 The decongestant Phenlephrine, which is an active ingredient in many popular over-the-counter nasal decongestants.  In 2023 the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted unanimously that, based on the data, phenylephrine is no more effective than a placebo. It turns out phenylephrine gets so thoroughly absorbed in the gut before it reaches circulation, very little of it makes it to your nasal passages.

Pseudoephedrine does work to shrink sinus mucous membranes, but in a nasal spray can be habit forming. This drug is now only available behind the counters at pharmacies as some folks cooked it down in quantity to make crystal methamphetamine. So, that medication is not routinely available.

Final verdict? If you see phenylephrine in a pill form, it’s useless. The other drug, pseudoephedrine, is not all that great either and can be habit forming. It’s best to avoid both of these.

#3 Colace has been around for decades with the goal of helping address a good bowel movement due to constipation.

Colace doesn’t work better than a placebo when used as a stand-alone stool softener – and the evidence has been pretty clear for years. As far back as the 1950s it was known that that docusate sodium (Colace) provides no statistically significant benefit over a placebo for constipation. More effective medications can be used for constipation including psyllium fiber in liquid, pills, or capsules.

Final verdict? Don’t waste your money on Colace (docusate sodium) pills.

#4 The antihistamine Diphenhydramine (which is the active ingredient in Benadryl) feels harmless because it’s been around forever and is fairly inexpensive. It is not harmless, particularly for older people. There is a strong recommendation to avoid this medication in the elderly due to side effects including confusion, sedation, dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention and a higher risk of falling down. Older adults clear it from their systems much more slowly than younger people, meaning it hangs around longer and hits harder. This is especially crucial to consider when you’re already on other common medications such as certain antidepressants, bladder drugs or stomach medications. Adding diphenhydramine can complicate health problems.

Final verdict? Use only in younger adults and occasionally in children, but if you are over 65 it’s best to avoid this medication.

#5 Codeine-containing cough syrup: Research has proven that codeine does not suppress a cough. It is no more effective than a placebo for reducing a cough from the common cold. What codeine does reliably produce is constipation, sedation and, in rare cases, respiratory depression. It also carries the risk of dependence, so leftover bottles are exactly the kind of thing that shouldn’t be left sitting around accessible to family members.

Final verdict? Avoid codeine-containing cough syrups.

Evidence changes and the above reflect results of studies that point to a change in how we take medication that help and do away with drugs that do not help or may do harm.

When evaluating the health of children, several items need to be addressed. Consider these points:

• Dehydration signs, such as no wet diapers for 8 hours or more, no tears when crying, or sunken soft spots on infants. These are urgent signs that rehydration is needed.
• Difficulty breathing: If your child is having to work at breathing and you notice retraction like skin pulling around the ribs or neck when breathing or you notice nasal flaring, the child is struggling to breath. This may be due to a known problem such as asthma but warrants an evaluation as soon as possible.
• Fever: The threshold for fever for neonates (under 2 months old) for a temperature over 100.4F. Alternating acetaminophen with ibuprofen can be an immediate treatment along with hydration, yet if the fever continues to climb or does not break, a consultation with a health care provider is needed.

Mental health problems can be critical, requiring immediate attention. If you or someone you know is suicidal, seek services immediately in the closest hospital or free-standing emergency room.

The Suicide Hotline is easy. Call or Text 988. Or visit the official 988 Lifeline website.

If text-base support is desired, text the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for confidential services and mental health support in the US.