Winter Ills: Cold vs. Flu

Don’t you think that sick people should stay home? Unfortunately, demands of life keep pushing us forward to do daily routines, like going to work, shopping, meeting with people, regardless of how we feel. As a result, we end up catching and spreading viruses and bacteria waiting to claim the next victim. Colds and flu are the most common ailments that steal our health. The best solution is not to get sick. This may mean avoiding public places and talking to other people – this is a sure way not get their bug. Easier said than done, isolation on an island is not an option.

There are a few things you can do to prevent and treat both colds and flu, but it’s important to know the distinction between these two. Most people confuse simple colds with much more serious flu. Even though the symptoms may be similar, these are two different illnesses.

Flu or Cold - Clearing the Confusion
The common cold is caused by one of more than 200 different viruses, called rhinoviruses (from the Greek rhis, meaning nose) and coronaviruses (meaning ‘surrounded by a corona, or halo of spikes’). These viruses can stay alive as droplets in the air or on surfaces for as long as 3 hours after someone with a cold has coughed or sneezed. If you touch the contaminated surface and then touch your nose or eyes - you will catch a cold.

Typical symptoms appear 2 or 3 days after you’ve been exposed to a source of infection and include nasal congestion, watery eyes, sore throat, and coughing. You are most contagious for the first 3 or 4 days after the symptoms appear and may be contagious for up to 3 weeks. This illness can last from two to 14 days, but two-thirds of people recover in a week. If symptoms occur often or last much longer than two weeks, they may be the result of an allergy rather than a cold. Colds occasionally can lead to secondary bacterial infections of the middle ear or sinuses, requiring treatment with antibiotics. High fever, significantly swollen glands, severe facial pain in the sinuses, and a cough that produces mucus, may indicate a complication or more serious illness requiring a doctor’s attention.

The body aches that accompany both cold and flu are actually caused by the body’s own immune system in response to virus attack. In general, cold symptoms are milder than the flu.

Most colds occur during the fall and winter. Although many people are convinced that a cold results from exposure to cold weather, or from getting chilled or overheated, researchers found that these conditions have little or no effect on the development or severity of a cold. The real reason for this seasonal variation is that colder days prompt people to spend more time indoors where viruses will spread from person to person very easily, especially in humid conditions. The most common cold-causing viruses survive better when humidity is low-the colder months of the year. Cold weather also may make the nasal passages’ lining drier and more vulnerable to viral infection.

Influenza
Influenza, otherwise known as flu, is a respiratory illness that affects your breathing passages. Flu is caused by viruses Influenza A and Influenza B that continually change over time, which enables them to evade the immune system of its host. It usually begins with sudden weakness and fatigue accompanied by sore throat, nasal stuffiness, headache,fever, dry cough, and chest pain. You will start having flu symptoms usually in 1 to 4 days after being infected, but may become contagious 1 day before symptoms appear and for 3 to 7 days after the onset. Children can be contagious for longer than 7 days. Most people who get the flu recover completely in 1 to 2 weeks. The great danger of influenza is its tendency to develop into a particularly severe form of pneumonia.

Have you heard of "stomach flu"? Well, it doesn’t exist. The flu is a respiratory (breathing) illness, therefore you cannot have a "stomach flu." Although nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea can sometimes accompany influenza infection, especially in children, these symptoms are uncommon with the flu. The term "stomach flu" is a misnomer that is sometimes used to describe gastrointestinal illnesses caused by organisms other than influenza viruses.

How to prevent getting sick
Sadly enough, the main culprit is the common sneeze or a simple cough. These innocent projectiles can inaugurate 100,000 infectious particles that travel up to 12 feet through the air as fast as 200 miles an hour.

Solution: if you suspect someone near you is sick, advise that person to go home and run away as fast as you can, away from the virus.

Even if no-one sneezes or coughs in your face, the danger might be as close as the next shopping cart or a door handle. A typical problem comes from simple face touching - first you touch the handle, then rub an eye or a nose, and the virus and bacteria have invaded a new host and are happily thriving inside your body.

Solution: put a pack of wet wipes or a small towel into your purse to wipe the sweat from your face frequently and keep hands away from your face.

Viruses are very friendly with every subject they come in contact with, especially moist objects. Moisture is a gateway for infection, making taps, sinks and water fountains real factories for germs and bacteria.

Solution: avoid public drinking fountains, carry your own water bottle wherever you go and never touch the bottle neck.

Accelerating Recovery
What about getting vaccinated? There is a claim that a flu shot can decrease your chances of getting sick by 70% to 90%. Unfortunately, you have to get a flu shot every year because the virus constantly mutates and the last year’s injection will not work for you this year. There is no shot for preventing more than 200 viruses of simple colds.

Solution: make an appointment with your doctor and get it done as soon as you can. It takes less than one minute to save yourself for the next 365 days.

Nonprescription cold remedies, including decongestants and cough suppressants, may relieve some cold symptoms but will not prevent, cure, or even shorten the duration of illness. Moreover, most have some side effects, such as drowsiness, dizziness, insomnia, or upset stomach, and should be taken with care. Aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen and naproxen sodium (as in Aleve) relieve body aches, sinus pain, and reduce fever. Researchers, however, have found that aspirin and acetaminophen can suppress certain immune responses and increase nasal stuffiness in adults. Decongestants open up nasal passages and ease breathing and antihistamines may relieve inflammatory responses such as runny nose and watery eyes that are commonly associated with colds.

Solution: take these remedies only as immediate emergency, such as an important meeting.

Supplementing with vitamin C, zinc, astragalus, combination of echinacea and goldenseal may reduce the severity and duration of symptoms.

Solution: you can find supplements such as Cold and Flu EZ and individual capsules of listed immune boosters at your local chemist or even grocery store.

Don’t worry about whether to feed a cold or starve a fever. Eat when you’re hungry.

Solution: if you have no appetite, think that you have no energy to digest food since all the channels are fighting the virus; besides, you might be able to shed some bodyfat while eating less. If you are hungry, remember that your body needs energy to heal itself and preserve your hard earned muscles; so enjoy a good nutritious meal.

Remember to drink at least ten glasses of water a day. Caffeine and alcohol are dehydrators and may be the worst choice when you are sick.

Solution: have a filled water bottle at work and at home. Drink some H2O every time you see it even if you are not thirsty, keeping your hydration to the max.

Continuous stress may deplete your energy reserves and weaken your immune system.Without proper replenishment you can easily run your body down. Eating fresh healthy nutritious foods can be challenging and not always accomplishable.

Solution: take a multi-vitamin and multi-mineral capsule daily to ensure better nutritional support. Also, many different immune support formulas can be very effective if taken on a regular basis. Good pharmacies and health food stores will offer you quality products that contain ingredients such as CoQ10, Ginseng, taurine, tyrosine, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, and amino acid glutamine.

Your grandma was right by feeding you chicken soup when you got sick. After all, sick people have been swearing by it for at least 800 years. The real reason for chicken soup’s healing power is that as a hot fluid, it speeds up the heart rate, increases metabolism, helps clear out stuffed nose and throat by soothing the mucus membranes. Soup is also an excellent means of hydration – a number one priority of nourishing support whenever you get sick.

Solution: avoid buying chicken soup from the shop – it is usully loaded with salt and preservatives, and due to long-term storage has lost all the nourishing goodness of the real chicken soup. Try to make your own: simply put boned chicken meat, carrots, onions, garlic, peas, potatoes, celery and any bounty of vegetables you like into a large pot of water, a pinch of salt, red and green peppers, coriander seeds on top, set on low heat. In an hour you will have the freshest most delicious bowl of steaming hot aromatic chicken soup even your grandma couldn’t make!

Don’t you love your breath after eating garlic and onions? Maybe it is not the most attractive scent, but spicy foods like garlic, horseradish, ginger, and chilli pepper increase mucus production, sooth the throat, and trap viruses and bacteria.

Solution: get some odourless and truly ‘sociable’ garlic pills from your local health food store and enjoy some spiced up dishes that are milder for your breath and stronger for your health.

Even though there’s no real proof that hot steam and green tea can cure a cold, it may still be one of the best ways to help relieve the symptoms of the common cold, since hot liquids can soothe mucous membranes and relieve congestion.

Solution: take a hot bath or make a trip to the steam room, add a few drops of essential oils of eucalyptus – this will ease your breath and clear the congestion. Drink some green tea with lemon afterwards, and go to bed - sweet dreams will help you heal!

If you try to exercise regularly and have a workout scheduled, but feel like you’ve got a cold or a flu, should you exercise?

Solution: if you have symptoms of a common cold with no fever (i.e., symptoms are above the neck), moderate exercise is probably safe. But you’ve got to postpone on all desired intense training until a few days after the symptoms have gone away.

Other than that, you know that reducing stress, adequate sleep, nutritious diet and regular exercise will all stengthern your immune system.

Solution: comply with described instructions and you will feel better, look better, and enjoy life to the fullest potential without ever getting sick.