Watch out for spoonful of sugar in your meds

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Because it's cold and flu season, we've been seeing lots of advertisements for over-the-counter cold and cough medicines.

They all tend to blur together, except for one: Coricidin HBP.

This product was developed by Schering-Plough, a pharmaceutical company, that now is a sponsor of the American Heart Association's hypertension Web site: www.americanheart.org.

The HBP in the medicine's name stands for high blood pressure. The point is that many cold medicines contain decongestants that can raise your blood pressure. Coricidin HBP does not.

But people with diabetes can have reactions to over-the-counter products, too. But ads for sugar-free medications are rare.

The American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) points out this problem on its Web site: Always check the label of over-the-counter medicines before you buy them to see if they have sugar. Decongestants and some products for treating colds raise blood sugar levels.

"Decongestants to clear your stuffy nose, and cough syrups, can make your blood glucose [sugar] go up. Some medicines have things in them like dextrose, glucose, fructose and dextrin, which are all names for sugar."

So are sucrose and sucralose, also found in these products.

Of course, people with chronic medical conditions must be on top of their illnesses and know how their bodies react to everything from food to drugs, even those medicines they can buy without a prescription. But many diabetics may be unaware of the sugar that is added to these cold medications. What is it Mary Poppins said? A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

But it doesn't help blood sugar levels if you're sensitive to sugar.

You can find the same cautionary advice about over-the-counter products in many publications, among them, a revised edition of "Diabetes Survival Guide" ($14.95, Ballantine Books). The new soft-cover edition warns, "Check all medications for sugar. Many cold medicines are loaded with it and can throw your control off in a hurry." Sugar-free formulas can be found, though, including Robitussin SF, Safetussin DM, Sorbutuss and Diabetic Tussin. *