Understanding Colds and Flu#
We know that colds and flu come from viruses. We also know neither has a cure. If you’re determined to combat them – or at least to reduce their miserable effects on you when they do strike – you’ll need to have the answers to the following questions.
What’s the difference between viruses and bacteria?#
Bacteria do not cause colds or flu, but can cause secondary problems. They are some of the simplest and oldest single-celled beings known to humanity. Some bacteria are beneficial (molds in blue cheese and penicillin), others harmful – or pathogenic – causing disease to the human body. Bacteria reproduce rapidly by simple cell division, dividing in two, then in two again.
Viruses are much smaller. None are beneficial. All viruses cause disease, including colds and flu. A virus is a parasite that can’t reproduce on its own: it invades a host cell and commandeers the host’s genetic material as its own by breaking down the host cell’s molecular structure and merging with it. In its reproductive process, a virus destroys the host cell.
When you are fighting a viral or bacterial infection, time is not on your side. It’s important to know what symptoms bacterial and viral invasions initiate so that you know how to treat your infections.
Neither viruses nor bacteria are seasonal. Both can cause fever. A bacterial infection is differentiated from a viros by its single major symptom such as a phlegm-filled cough, an earache, or a sinus pain. A virus has multiple symptoms that may include a runny nose, headache, muscle aches, dizziness, dry cough, and hoarseness. Antibiotics fight bacteria, but they do not work against viruses.
How do viruses and bacteria make me sick?#
Bacteria produce poisons that are harmful to your cells. If they multiply rapidly enough, the poisons overwhelm your immune response, and you get sick. Viruses make you sick in one of several ways. Once you are invaded by a virus, your immune system may react symptomatically (prompting a cough or a sore throat) or with a disease process (producing antibodies that attach to the germs they’re fighting as both travel throughout the body). Viruses can destroy or damage vital organs they invade. Or by changing (mutating) the genetic characters of some of your genes, viruses can cause cancer. Finally, a viral invasion can weaken your immune system to a point where you become more susceptible to other infections that your body cannot fight simultaneously.
Bacteria and viruses may enter the body the same way, through direct contact with some part of the respiratory system. Bacteria are more versatile than viruses, and can enter the body on food, through the urogenital tract or other skin openings, including open wounds. Some viruses, including those that cause colds and flu, produce symptoms quickly, while others may lie dormant for months or years before starting an infection.
How does the flu differ from a cold?#
Colds and the flu are caused by viruses. Multiple cold and flu viruses exist, which explains why some colds or cases of flu last longer or seem milder or have more symptoms than others. Of the 20 identified major virus families, most colds come from five. Three other viral families produce flu – identified as A, B or C strains or types.
Type B and Type C flu are generally mild in adults: both can be confused with bad colds. Once a person has a Type C flu, immunity accrues for life, so repeat attacks in the same person are rare (young children are especially susceptible to Type C flu, and their cases can be particularly serious).
Type A is the least stable and the most volatile when it comes to mutating. Immunity to Type A is neither significant nor long lasting due to its genetic makeup that keeps altering. Type A flu strains – which cause more severe symptoms than a cold (a higher fever, extreme fatigue and a system-wide respiratory congestion) – are the flu viruses of epidemics and pandemics.
Most colds come from one of five virus families. A cold is known as an upper respiratory infection, which means it’s restricted to the nose, throat and surrounding air passages. Most colds are not accompanied by fever, chills, or the more severe symptoms identified with flu.
Flu, most notably a Type A strain, is almost always more severe than a cold. The defining characteristics that separate flu from a cold are its sudden arrival, usually heralded by a high fever and chills.
The two share the symptoms of fatigue, coughing, and nasal congestion. In a typical case, each bout of flu runs its course in almost the same length of time: just about a week (although residual weakness, lack of energy, and depression can last up to several weeks after most symptoms have passed). Generally, a person takes less time to rebound after a cold.
Tips on Prevention#
Since there are no known cures for colds or flu, prevention must be your goal. A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu, in fact, is apt to make your whole life healthier.
Hygiene#
– Wash your hands often during the day, preferably with a disinfectant, antibacterial soap. Washing with plain hot water if no soap. Wash more frequently if you’re around sick people. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands.
– Don’t cover your sneezes and coughs with your hands: the germs and viruses cling to your bare hands. Use a tissue and dispose of it immediately, then wash your hands. Or look away or down while expelling the germs in the air.
– Get rid of your cloth handkerchiefs: switch to paper facial tissues instead, and throw them away immediately after using. Be sure to wash your hands once you’ve blown your nose.
– Don’t touch your face: cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose or mouth.
– Use disinfectants at home and work: be especially alert in winter months, when colds and flu are at their peak. Regularly wipe down household and office objects that are frequently touched – telephones, desk, kitchen implements etc or those you may be sharing with a cold or flu-ridden friend or relative.
– Use paper cups in the bathroom: splurge, especially during cold and flue season, and buy a supply of paper cups for the bathroom. Viruses thrive in the bathroom, living for hours or longer on glassware, toothbrushes, and even towels.
– Don’t share your toothbrush: it’s even a good idea to throw out your toothbrush when your cold or flu is over
– Change towels often when there’s a cold or flu in the house: when you wash soiled cloth towels, use a hot-water wash or one that contains bleach to wash away all of the germs
– Keep the sick room healthy: change and wash bed linens and bed clothes once a day, air out the room by opening doors and windows periodically, rinse oral or anal thermometers in rubbing alcohol after each use; wipe with disinfectant all lamp and light switches, telephones, remote TV controls, or anything else the sick person or visitors might touch; empty wastebaskets of dirty facial tissues
– Humidify your surroundings: adequate moisture is essential for the proper functioning of mucous membranes. To adjust humidity in your office or home: keep relative humidity at a constant, between 50 and 60%; invest in a humidity gauge that measures the air’s water content, add a drum humidifier to your furnace, especially if your home’s heat is very dry, use a portable humidifier in your bedroom or office and be sure it is cleaned regularly – preferably daily, remember that air conditioning dehumidifies and can dry you out as much as indoor heating can – check gauges on window and central air units to see if there’s a relative humidity setting and set it between 50 and 60%, moisturize a room by placing pans of water around near a heat source such as a radiator(change water regularly) or add plants
– Drink plenty of fluids: water, natural fruit juices and noncaffeinated herbal drinks. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce (~250 ml) glasses of water or liquids a day. If it’s too much, try 4-ounce sizes and drink throughout the day. When your urine is close to clear, there is probably adequate liquid intake.
– Use a saline nasal spray: if you can’t affect the humidity around you, buy a simple, non-medical saline nasal spray and use it several times a day, or whenever your nasal passages feel irritated and dried out.
– Breathe through your nose, not your mouth: breathing through your mouth dries out the mucous membranes in your throat
– Dab unmedicated petroleum jelly in each nostril: using a dab of petroleum jelly in the morning and again before bedtime will keep your mucous membranes in fighting shape
– Take a sauna: by indulging in a sauna twice a week, you may be able to reduce your susceptibility to colds by up to 50%
– Be antisocial: consider restricting your visits to sick friends and family, just as you may want to wait until a week after someone you know has finished with a cold or the flu
– Get fresh air: by opening windows and doors for a few minutes and circulating fresh air in a room in cold weather, you can help push out airborne viruses
– Immunization: get a flu shot, especially if you’re in a high-risk category. Flu shots won’t keep you from getting a cold.
Diet and Nutrition#
– Eat healthy
– Eat your age: as you get older, the need to eat smarter intensifies. That’s when your metabolism slows and you need fewer daily calories but as many or more nutrients. Get all of the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you need to keep your immune system in fighting shape to resist colds and flu.
– Practice “genetic nutrition” to keep your immune system in tune: limit foods that are personally bad for you.
– Eat foods containing “phytochemicals”: sulforaphane (broccoli, cauliflower), allylic sulfides (garlic, onions), flavonoids (green plants, citrus fruits, berries)
– Eat yogurt: eating a daily cup of low-fat yogurt can put a crimp in your susceptibility to colds and flu
– Eat garlic
– Reap the benefits of immune-boosting herbals and botanicals: ginger (teas, cooking), ginseng (teas, rot, tincture, powder), kelp (salt replacement), reishi mushrooms, royal jelly
Vitamins and Minerals#
– Include vitamins and minerals in your cold and flu-fighting artillery
– Try vitamin C: experiment with the dosage (500 – 1.000 mg); don’t take the pills on an empty stomach
– Add zinc to your diet: men need 15 mg and women 12 mg – wheat germ, whole grains, seafood, meat
– Review whether you’re getting these other immune-boosting and antioxidant vitamins in your daily diet: vitamin A (10.000 I.U.), B-complex vitamins, iron (10 mg men)
– Reach your vitamin quota by eating whole foods
Lifestyle#
– Don’t smoke
– Cut alcohol consumption: even in moderate doses – up to 4 ounces a day – alcohol dehydrates the body. For every ounce added, alcohol takes more fluids from the system, also depleting the essential A, B and C vitamins
– Reduce your caffeine intake
– Sleep to beat colds and flu: make it a habit to meet your needed sleep quota
– Create and mantain as pollution-free an environment in your home as possible
– Beware of pollution at work
Stress#
– Reduce stress to keep colds and flu at bay: learn to tolerate uncertainty, anticipate change, develop competencies, satisfy wants (within reason), resolve conflicts in your life, clarify your values, reduce demands on yourself, assume control of your life, finish unfinished business, seek support, minimize change
– Relax
– Learn the difference between relaxation and “doing nothing”: relaxing by concentrating on a happy memory, an activity you love, a place you dream of travelling, or a person who makes you feel good about yourself
Attitude#
– Think positively
– Don’t worry yourself sick
– Laugh away colds and flu
– Make friends
– Schedule rewards and happy times in your life
– Schedule work breaks and vacations
– Aim for balance in your life
Exercise#
– Do aerobic exercise regularly to keep your immune system in top condition
– Try acupressure exercises if you can’t do aerobics
– Train your body and your mind using meditative movement therapy: Tai Chi, Yoga
Tips on Treating Colds and Flu#
While there’s no cure, there’s also no one right way to treat a cold or a case of flu.
– Know when not to treat symptoms
– See which over the counter drugs might be appropriate, when treating a cold or flu
– Buy store brand relief
– Take analgesics to releave pain and/or lower your fever, if your discomfort is extreme
– Avoid the shotgun approach to relieving nasal congestion
– Use a decongestant to relieve nasal congestion
– Limit use of a nasal spray to three days
– Don’t take antihistamines for colds and flu
– Use cough medicines sparingly and wisely
– Treat sinus infections early
– Ask for a doctor’s appointment in the morning
– Blow your nose often: press a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other
– Use a bulb syringe filled with warm salt water (mix 1/4 teaspon salt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in 8 ounces of warm water), if your congestion is higher up in the nasal passages: hold one nostril and squirm in the other. Let it drain and repeat 2-3 times until treating the other nostril. Repeat several times daily. Or use a store-bought saline spray.
– Try time-tested home remedies for colds and flu: chicken soup, stay warm, rest, gargle, teaspoon of salt dissolved in warm water four times a day, inhale steam, drink warm liquids, use a humidifier
– Take more vitamin C: take 4-10 grams daily
– Try taking zinc gluconate lozenges
– Adjust your vitamins when you have a cold or flu
– Eat these infection-fighting foods: bananas, bell peppers, blueberry, cabbage, carrot, chili peppers, mushrooms, mustard, onion, pineapple, plum, raspberry, rice, seaweed (kelp), soybean, strawberry, tea, yogurt
Use this relief-by-symptom reminder list the next time you have a cold or the flu
– aches and pains: take analgesics for discomfort; try acupressure, massage, ginger, garlic
– loss of apetite: drink juices, bland hot soups until apetite returns. Don’t force solids too soon. Move to bland foods (plain toast with jelly, boiled vegetables, chicken)
– chest pain or tightness: rub chest with mentholated salve, followed by steamy shower (rule out pneumonia by checking symptoms)
– chills: increase fluid intake, layer clothing, take herbal remedies that are ginger-based or capsaicin (hot pepper) based
– cough, dry: drink fluids, suck on lozenges, gargle, cough supressant if losing sleep
– cough, phlegm-filled: sleep with head raised on extra pillow, cough into disposable tissue, suck menthol lozenges, drink herbal teas with honey
– diarrhea: follow clear liqued diet (water or ginger ale, no medication), include bananas and rice in your diet, herbal solutions containing garlic
– earache: sit upright, yawn, steamy shower, keep body moist and room humid
– fatigue: rest or sleep until you don’t feel tired, drink ginseng herbal tea for energy
– fever: let a fever of 101 F or below run its course without medication. Only take if discomfort is extreme. Take an analgezic every 3-4 hours. Drink fluids and rest or stay in bed.
– nasal congestion: blow nose gently and often, use saline syringe or spray, take a decongestant in spray form or nose drops
– sore throat: drink warm or hot fluids, including herbal tea with honey, suck on menthol lozenges, gargle with salt water
