A lot of people play doctor when it comes to relatively minor ailments, for example, when chilly and damp weather brings on a cold or the flu. Instead of consulting a medical specialist, they simply reach into their medicine cabinets for a remedy – and its associated risks and side effects.

In a recent survey, one in four respondents in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg alone, with a population of about 10 million, said they had taken a non-prescription medicine at least once a month. Experts have mixed feelings about this seemingly widespread practice.