How many times have you dismissed sniffles as “just a cold,” and carried on with a stuffed nose and sinuses assuming that the symptoms would eventually run their course, perhaps a bit more quickly with a few doses of Mom’s homemade chicken soup?
Influenza is another story. The common cold eventually fizzles, but the flu may be deadly. Some 200,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized and 36,000 die each year from flu complications .
So what is the difference between a cold and the flu – and how can you be sure which one you have?
What causes the flu? How is it different from a cold?
The flu is a viral infection caused by the influenza virus, a respiratory virus. The common cold is also a viral infection caused by the adenovirus or coronavirus and there are many, many subsets with a lot of variability. That’s why it’s said there’s no cure for the common cold [and] there’s no real vaccine. The flu is known to be from influenza and is preventable with vaccination.
Colds tend to produce runny nose, congestion, sore throat. Influenza is more pronounced in that it infects the lungs, the joints and causes pneumonia, respiratory failure and even death. It tends to infect the intestinal tract more in kids, with diarrhea and vomiting. Because of the relative immaturity of the gut, they may absorb more virus and that wreaks more havoc on the intestines. Flu causes epidemics and pandemics with the potential for mortality, whereas the common cold is a nuisance for us.
How can someone who’s feeling ill distinguish between cold and flu, or an allergy?
Flu typically starts in early November and can go until March. The peak time is now — November to January. Allergy is typical in spring or fall, and cold more so in winter.
The body can respond in only so many ways, but there are things you can use to differentiate. Allergic symptoms are similar to those of a cold, but [result from] your immune system responding to something benign. Usually there’s no fever, and there’s an allergic manifestation of itch in the back of the throat or the ears. It’s unlikely with allergy to have body aches. With a cold, there’s sometimes a low-grade fever.
You can tell the difference by the length and severity of the illness and whether you’ve had a similar experience in the past. Both colds and flu usually last the same seven to 10 days, but flu can go three to four weeks; the flu virus may not still be there, but you have symptoms long after it’s left. Allergy can last weeks or months.
Are the treatments for these illnesses different?
For any of these things, if it affects the nose or sinus, just rinsing with saline that gets the mucus and virus out is a first-line defense. It’s not the most pleasant thing to do, but it works very well. There are classes of medicines that can help the flu — Tamiflu and Relenza — antivirals that block viruses’ ability to reproduce and shorten the length and severity of the illness. But they have to be taken within 48 hours or the cat is proverbially out if the bag [because by then] the virus has done the most of its reproduction. For a cold or flu, rest and use decongestants and antihistamines, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, chicken soup and fluids.
Zinc supposedly helps the body’s natural defenses work to their natural capacity and decrease the severity and length of a cold. Cells need zinc as a catalyst in their protective processes, so if you supply them with zinc, it helps them work more efficiently. You should also withhold iron supplements. Viruses use iron as part of their reproductive cycle, so depriving them of it blocks their dissemination.
The majority of these infections are not bacterial and do not require [nor will they respond to] antibiotics. My rule of thumb is that a viral infection should go away in seven to 10 days. If symptoms persist after that, you’d consider if it’s bacteria like Strep or Haemophilus influenzae. Those bacteria cause illnesses that are longer lasting.
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS