Flu overview.

The more you know about flu, the more effective measures you can take to prevent the disease and avoid flu or swine flu complications.

Flu, shortened from influenza, is highly contagious respiratory disease caused by influenza A or B viruses. Flu spreads through the respiratory tract.
The common cold and flu simptoms are basically the same, but flu is much worse. Sneezing, coughing, headache, sore throat, congestion - these are symptoms of both cold and flu. But when you caught flu you can have high fever and feel tired and exhausted. As a result of flu the illness can develop to pneumonia - very dangerous disease, whereas after common cold you don't have serious complications.

You may think that it's a good idea to take antibiotics. But the answer is no. Antibiotics help in case of bacterial infections and both cold and flu have viral origin. Antibiotics are helpful in treating bacterial infections as a result of cold or flu.
There are no specific medicine to treat cold, but some antiviral medications can defeat flu.

The flu virus is spread between people in close contact through inhaling the air with flu virus or through contact of surfaces with respiratory secretions. If you make hand contact with infected person the flu virus is spread when you touch your nose, mouth or eyes. Remember, the more often you wash your hands, the less is risk to catch flu.
Modern medicine is quite effective in flu prevention, but still more than 30 thousand people die in the United States every year because of flu.

To prevent some strains of flu, nasal spray (like FluMist) or a flu shot can be used. Nasal vaccine FluMist contains weak flu virus and may cause light flu simptoms. The flu shot contains inactivated virus and cannot cause the flu. After taking one of these vaccines your immune system starts to develop antibodies that protect you from the influenza virus.

There are three types of flu viruse - A, B and C. Each type can mutate or develop new strains, that's why your immune system has to produce new antibodies for each flu strain. Type A mutates more often and causes epidemics once in 1-2 years. Type B causes epidemics every 3-5 years. Type C usually has no influenza symptoms.

Antihistamines and decongestants for common cold treatment.

Decongestants and antihistamines medicines can be sold over-the-counter in combination with other cold relief medicines or separately. They treat such cold symptoms as sneezing, congestion and runny nose.

Here is the list of over-the-counter decongestant and antihistamines that help treat cold symptoms.

Decongestants.
Sudafed - helps to treat pressure in nose, ears and head and relief congestion. Side effects - increased blood pressure and heart rate, restlessness, nervousness, wakefulness.

Antihistamines.
Benadryl, chlor-trimeton, dimetane, tavist - help to relief sneezing, itchy throat, runny nose. Side effects - coordination problems, dry mouth, drowsiness, upset stomach, loss of appetite.

Antihistamine/decongestant.
Advil Cold and Sinus, Chlor-Trimeton D, Comtrex, Dimetapp, Drixoral, Tavist D, Tylenol - sneezing, congestion, headache, itchy, runny nose. Side effects - antihistamine and decongestant side effects.

Antihistamine eye drops.
Visine-A - eye redness, itchy, watery eyes. Side effects - blurred vision, eye redness when overdosed.

Cold treatment.

Taking cold medicines you can ease cold symptoms, although there's no one universal medicine for common cold. You may use decongestants and antihistamines to relief cold symptoms. They are produced in different forms.

Decongestants relief swelling in your nose and help to increase airflow through nasal passages. When your immune system attacks cold viruses your nose starts to produce mucus. You feel pressure in the nose and head. It leads to congestion in your nose and it becomes hard to breath. Decongestants help to reduce these symptoms and ease breathing. It's produced in forms of spray or pills. Don't use sprays for more than 3 days.

Another type of cold medicine are antihistamines. When you have a cold virus, certain cells in your sinuses and nasal passage produce chemical - histamine. Your nose starts to itch and swell. Antihistamine medicine prevents histamine from interacting with tissue in your nose and relief cold symptoms. Effective antihistamines are chlorpheniramine and brompheniramine. But they have one negative side effect - they make you want to sleep. So it's better to take them for the night. Allegra and claritin are relatively new types of antihistamines.

Make sure you use recently manufactured types of decongestants, since its older versions contain PPA (phenylpropanolamine) that may increase risk of stroke.

Common cold symptoms.

If you are constantly sneezing an coughing can you tell is it symptoms of a common cold or flu? Or may be it's allergy symptoms?

If you know the difference between common cold and flu symptoms you can take proper actions and have better results in fighting the illness. So what's the common cold symptoms?

More often common cold starts with a sore throat and your nose drips with watery nasal secretions. You feel tired and start sneezing and coughing. In a few days nasal secretions become thicker and darker. You can have mild cough for a week or two without any changes. If you have lung problems, a cold can increase their influence. If you have dark mucus when you cough it can be results of bacterial infection and you need to consult with your doctor. And if you have fever symptoms then you probably have the flu, not a cold.

Common cold symptoms may last for two days to a week. If it lasts for more than two weeks you should see your doctor to check if you have an allergy.
Allergies are the results of overactive immune system activity. Your body overreacts to some substances , e.g. pollen. It produces chemicals such as histamine. As a result you start sneezing, coughing and have a runny nose.

Now, what if you have the flu, not a cold? Simply, take your temperature. When you have a cold your temperature usually won't be above 101 degrees F. Remember, that some of common cold symptoms are similar to flu symptoms. Flu caused by different influenza viruses. It's an acute respiratory infection. To prevent spreading viruses you have to wash your hands more often. As a result of flu you can have headache, muscle aches and fever.

Cold overview.

Today we'll talk about common cold. The common cold caused by a large number of viruses. As a result we feel different symptoms in the upper respiratory tract. The main virus is usually the rhinovirus. It is the reason of about one third of colds. The other major virus is coronaviruses. These two viruses cause half of all colds. The virus enters your body through your mouth or nose. When someone touches common objects the rhinovirus is easily spread.

So what causes a common cold? There are some factors that make you more vulnerable to cold virus. It's not enough to just get wet to catch cold. Probability to catch a common cold is higher when you are under emotional stress, very exhausted or have some type of allergie.

Now, that's how common cold starts. The virus is passed from infected person to you. It happens when you breathe in the air after someone has sneezed or you touch the same surface and then touch your nose. Your body starts to send white blood cells to fight cold germs. If your immune system has never met this type of virus it starts another attack. It requires a lot of energy, you feel very tired and your nose produces a lot of moisture.

In the United States, cold happens more often during the winter and fall, especially in the northern areas.