 [ Symptoms ] 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 relieverfever 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 [ Disease ] 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