Young Ladies With Vision

Flu or Cold Symptoms?

When you wake up sneezing, coughing, and have that achy, feverish, can't move a muscle feeling, how do you know whether you have cold symptoms or the flu? And if it's the flu, could it be swine flu?

It's important to know the difference between flu and cold symptoms. A cold is a milder respiratory illness than the flu. While cold symptoms can make you feel bad for a few days, flu symptoms can make you feel quite ill for a few days to weeks. The flu -- whether it's typical seasonal flu or the swine flu virus -- can also result in serious health problems such as pneumonia and hospitalizations.

Prevent Colds & Flu

Get a Seasonal Flu Vaccine
Seasonal flu vaccines are the best way to prevent the flu. The vaccine protects against not just one, but three influenza viruses each year. Flu shots are available throughout flu season. This fall, a separate swine flu (H1N1) vaccine will be available as a nasal spray or injection.
Wash Your Hands Frequently
Colds and flu are easily spread by direct contact, so washing your hands often is one of the best things you can do to stay well. Wash hands with soap and warm water, rubbing hands together vigorously for 20 seconds – long enough to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.
Take a Sauna
There’s some evidence that people who take saunas once or twice a week get half as many colds as those who don’t. Breathing in the sauna’s hot air may kill cold and flu viruses. Or relaxing in a sauna may simply reduce stress and improve sleep.
Don’t Skimp on Sleep
Adults who get less than seven hours of sleep a night may be three times more likely to get a cold. So make it a priority to get seven or eight hours (or more) a night. Older children and teens need more than eight hours a night.
Carry Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizers are a good alternative when you can't wash your hands, like when you get off a crowded bus or are in a grocery store -- anywhere germs are out and about. Use hand wipes or gels that contain at least 60% alcohol.
Clean Your Keyboard
Cold and flu germs live longer on hard surfaces such as plastic or metal than on skin or fabrics. Clean shared items such as phones and computer keyboards at work and home with alcohol wipes or a virus-killing disinfectant.
Take a Water Bottle to Work
Drinking water helps flush toxins out of your system. Carry water in a reusable .75 liter bottle and drink throughout the day. How much do you need? If your urine is light yellow or colorless, you're drinking enough. If it's dark yellow, you need more fluids.
Label Your Glass
Sharing is caring, but cold and flu season is not a good time for families or roommates to share glasses or utensils. Label the cup or glass of each person in the house, especially if someone has a cold or flu.
Ride a Bike
Exercise 3-4 days a week boosts your body’s natural ability to fight infection. Taking a brisk walk or bike ride outside provides an added benefit: a dose of fresh air, away from the rooms where germs circulate.
Eat Green and White
A cup of low-fat yogurt a day may reduce your chance of getting a cold. Dark green, leafy vegetables are packed with antioxidants and vitamins, which boost your immune system. Time to make some yogurt-spinach dip!

Treat Colds & Flu

10 Tips on Treating Colds & Flu

Watch Out for Severe Symptoms
Seek emergency treatment if you or your child have trouble breathing, severe or persistent vomiting, fever for more than three days, or extreme irritability; or if flu symptoms get better but then return with fever and cough.
Ask Your Doctor About Antiviral Drugs
If you have swine flu (H1N1) or seasonal flu, ask your doctor if you should take antiviral medicine, which can make the illness milder and shorter. These drugs work best when you start taking them within the first two days of symptoms.
Take Some Echinacea
Evidence is mixed, but some small studies show that taking Echinacea purpurea may reduce the length and severity of a cold by 10% to 30%. Avoid echinacea if you are allergic to ragweed or have an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. To be safe, ask your doctor before taking any herb or supplement.
Drink Hot Tea
Hot tea offers some of the same benefits as chicken soup: inhaling the steam relieves congestion, the warm liquid soothes your throat, and it keeps you hydrated. Green tea and black tea are also loaded with disease-fighting antioxidants.
Cover but Don’t Stifle Sneezes and Coughs
Coughing and sneezing help clear mucus from your airways. But to avoid spreading germs, sneeze and cough into a tissue. If you don’t have one, use your upper sleeve or elbow. Throw the tissue away and wash your hands right away.
Be a Homebody
Wait at least 24 hours after your fever ends (and you stop taking any medicine to bring down your fever) before you go back to work. The same applies for keeping sick kids out of school. This gives anyone who's sick a chance to rest and keeps them from infecting others.
Flush Out Your Nose
Nasal irrigation -- rinsing your nasal passages with salt water -- helps clear nasal congestion and removes virus particles and bacteria. Use a saline nasal spray or neti pot filled with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and baking soda dissolved in 8 oz of warm water.
Soothe a Sore Throat With Honey
Sip a cup of warm water with honey to quiet a cough or relieve a sore throat. Or try this sweet solution: Steep a tablespoon of lemon juice in two cups hot water, stir in a spoonful of honey, cool, and gargle. Don't give honey to kids under 2.
Snuggle Up in a Blanket
Keeping warm lets your body use its energy to fight viruses. But overheating your room can be dehydrating. Use a cool mist humidifier or vaporizer to moisten air and relieve congestion.
Turn on the Shower
Steam can help ease congestion and a stuffy nose. Use a humidifier or sit in the bathroom with the door closed and a hot shower running, and inhale the steam. You can also heat water on the stove and inhale the steam -- be careful not to burn your nose.