Your head is throbbing, your neck itches, and your nose is clogged. How can you tell if you have the flu or a cold? It can be difficult to be certain unless you visit your doctor because symptoms often overlap.
Colds and influenza (flu) are both contagious respiratory infections, although they are brought on by various viruses. The common cold can be brought on by a variety of viruses, whereas the flu is only brought on by influenza viruses.
Because the symptoms of the flu and the common cold are similar, it can be challenging to distinguish between them based just on symptoms. Flu symptoms are frequently stronger than those of the ordinary cold and usually start more suddenly. Flu is typically more severe than a cold.
Here are some fundamental rules for distinguishing between cold and flu symptoms and how to determine which one you are experiencing.
Common Cold Symptoms
A sore throat is typically the first sign of a cold and subsides within a day or two. By the fourth and fifth days, nasal symptoms, a runny nose, congestion, and a cough have also appeared.
Although adults rarely have a fever, it is possible. Children who have a cold are more prone to experience a fever.
For the first several days after developing cold symptoms, the nose is overflowing with watery nasal discharges. These thicken and darken over time. Dark mucus is normal and typically does not indicate that you have a bacterial illness, like a sinus infection.
One of the distinctive symptoms, primarily associated with the common cold, is sneezing.
Typically, cold symptoms last for about a week. You are infectious for the first three days after developing cold symptoms. You should thus stay at home and get some much-needed rest since you can spread the cold to others.
After a week, if your cold symptoms do not appear to be getting better, you may have a bacterial infection and require antibiotics.
Common Flu Symptoms
Cold symptoms typically last longer and are less severe than those of the flu.
Flu symptoms include coughing, congestion, fever, headache, aches and pains in the muscles, and sore throat.
Vomiting and diarrhea are other common symptoms of the swine flu in particular.
Though most flu symptoms progressively subside over a period of two to five days, it’s not unusual to experience fatigue for a week or longer.
Pneumonia is a frequent side effect of the flu, especially in young children, the elderly, or those with lung or heart conditions. Inform your physician if you experience breathing difficulties. A fever that returns after going away for a day or two is another typical symptom of pneumonia.
The mucous membranes of the nose, eyes, and mouth are all common entry points for flu viruses, just like they are for cold viruses. It is crucial to maintain hands clean by often washing them in order to avoid contracting a virus every time you touch one of these surfaces. This will help you avoid the flu and cold symptoms.
Is it Cold or Flu Symptoms?
How can you tell if you have the flu or a cold? Many specialists advise taking your temperature.
With nasal congestion, a cough, pains, and lethargy, flu symptoms frequently resemble cold symptoms. However, a typical cold rarely exhibits fever symptoms higher than 101 degrees (38,3 C).
You’ll likely experience a fever at first when you have the flu virus, and you’ll feel awful. With the flu, body and muscle aches are also more typical.
You can use this to identify whether you have the flu or the common cold.
FEVER
Cold: Sometimes, usually mild
Flu: Usual; higher (100-102 F or 37,8-38,9 C; occasionally higher, especially in young children); lasts 3 to 4 days
HEADACHE
Cold: Occasionally
Flu: Common
GENERAL ACHES, PAINS
Cold: Slight
Flu: Usual; often severe
FATIGUE, WEAKNESS
Cold: Sometimes
Flu: Usual; can last 2 to 3 weeks
EXTREME EXHAUSTION
Cold: Never
Flu: Usual; at the beginning of the illness
STUFFY NOSE
Cold: Common
Flu: Sometimes
SNEEZING
Cold: Usual
Flu: Sometimes
SORE THROAT
Cold: Common
Flu: Sometimes
COUGH
Cold: Mild to moderate; hacking cough
Flu: Common; can become severe
COMPLICATIONS
Cold: Sinus congestion; middle ear infection
Flu: Sinusitis, bronchitis, ear infection, pneumonia; can be life-threatening
Usually, the time of year will give you some sense of what you’re dealing with. The standard flu season runs from fall to spring of the next year.
How to Prevent Flu and Colds
Both the flu and the common cold are preventable because they both spread through water droplets that are released from the mouth or nose while coughing or sneezing.
For a while, these droplets will remain in the air until they settle on surfaces and contaminate them. By inhaling these droplets or touching your mouth or nose after coming in contact with a contaminated surface, you could contract these viruses.
The ideal practices for staying healthy are:
1. Avoid being too near to sick people.
In the winter, when people tend to stay indoors to avoid the cold, viruses spread quite quickly. Reduce your risk of contracting an infection by avoiding prolonged close contact with sick people.
2. Stay in your home if you are ill.
At times, especially at work or school, it may be impossible to avoid intimate contact with other people.
To prevent infecting others, you should stay at home if you are unwell. Before the flu season is over, it is possible to become re-infected numerous times once a bug spreads around the office.
You can lessen your probability of contracting the flu again by limiting the number of flu cases in your workplace or school.
3. Cover your lips and nose so you don’t transfer germs.
It will stop virus-carrying water droplets from traveling into the air and infecting other people if you cough and sneeze into a tissue or handkerchief. Even if you are healthy or have received a flu shot, this is particularly crucial during flu season.
4. Be hygienic and wash your hands.
Germs and bacteria cannot spread when people practice good hygiene. Regularly washing your hands with soap, water, and antibacterial gel lowers your risk of having infectious material that could make you sick on your hands and lowers your risk of spreading infectious germs to surfaces you touch.
5. Get the flu shot (flu only)
Because there are too many viruses circulating at once for a common cold vaccination to be effective, it is not possible to develop one.
For the flu, there is a vaccine, though. The flu shot is the most effective way to avoid influenza, however it does not provide complete immunity.
You need to get a flu shot every year to ensure that you are protected for that flu season because the flu virus varies from year to year.