harmful? no but often unnecessarily. i agree with you. just take the medication that you need to help control the annoying symptoms. some combination cold medications do not even make sense. including a decongestant that drains mucous combined with an antihistamine that dries it up and a cough expectorant that makes you cough combined with a cough suppressant that stops the cought! that is really like taking kaopectate and a laxative at the same time.
is it bad for you to take medication that does not relate to your symptoms? . for example day quil severe cold and flu has acetaminophen (pain reliever/fever reducer) dextromethorphan hbr (cough suppressant) guaifenesin (expectorant) and phenylephrine hcl (nasal decongestant). to reiterate my question would it be harmful to take this if you really only need the expectorant suppressant and decongestant (or some other combination) to treat your symptoms?