It's cold and flu season.

• Author: Keaton, Joanne
• Position: Cold and flu medications made in Indiana

Did it seem to you like we had an early cold--as in common cold--season this winter? The experts--including the people at Miles in Elkhart who make Alka-Seltzer Plus cold remedies--confirm that we did indeed.

Allen Burch, product manager for the Alka-Seltzer Plus line, says the cold season follows a bell-shaped curve, usually starting about the first of October. Illnesses peak around Christmas and decline slowly in January; by February or March the season usually is over. But last fall, colds started in mid-September.

Last winter was a top year for colds, yet by early December this season's illnesses were running even higher, up as much as 32 percent over last year. Cold-remedy manufacturers were caught short a year ago; this year the Alka-Seltzer people hope to have plenty of their products on the shelves for sufferers.

The Alka-Seltzer line stems from a home remedy used in the 1928 flu epidemic: aspirin and baking soda dissolved in hot lemon juice. Though other ingredients have been added to the traditional base, Burch says there is "something to be said for those old-fashioned remedies--why change it if it works?"

Miles didn't change Alka-Seltzer, but added Alka-Seltzer Plus about 25 years ago. Now, the older Alka-Seltzer is used mostly for digestive distress, while Alka-Seltzer Plus attacks various incarnations of the cold and flu. What's unusual about the Alka-Seltzer line, says Burch, is the fact that the spin-offs--the Plus products--now outsell the original antacid.

The Alka-Seltzer Plus line now has four variations: Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine, Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough Medicine, Alka-Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine, Alka-Seltzer Plus Sinus Allergy Medicine. Since cold preparations have low summer sales, Alka-Seltzer Plus Sinus Allergy Medicine helps keep Alka-Seltzer Plus...