Flu Immune 500

Your head is stuffed with cotton, your sinuses are running and you can’t stop yourself from yet another wild sneeze. Is it a miserable cold or a bout of the flu?

How can you tell the difference? Both have similar symptoms, but to understand what it is you’ve got, you should know what causes the flu or the common cold.

There are over two hundred viruses that are responsible for causing a cold but only three types that produce influenza. Up to 50% of colds are caused by the rhinovirus which affects the sinuses. Influenza primarily affects the respiration system. There are three types of influenza; Type A is the most serious. It was responsible for killing millions of people worldwide in th Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Type B is more localized, it often strikes hospitals or spreads through towns and cities. Type C is milder and not addressed by the flu shots given out every year.

So how can you tell if your symptoms mark the onset of a flu or the cold?

* Headaches and Fevers: While a cold can bring on a headache, it is much more common with the flu. Fevers from a cold are rare. Temperatures may range between 102 and 104 degrees F. A temperature of 104 degrees is common with the flu.

* Chills: If you’re feeling cold and shaky, you’ve got the flu. Chills occur in 60% of all flu cases.

* Stuffy feeling, runny nose: That runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes and sore throat is more the hallmark of a cold. They occur far less with the flu.

* Coughing and sneezing: Yhey both occur in the flu and the cold, but a cough due to a cold is moist and leads to the expelling of mucous from the throat. A flu cough is dry and hot.

* Aches and pains: They are the domain of the flu. You can feel achy with a cold, but the severity is far less and prolonged bed rest will help ease those pains.

* Fatigue: It is often a symptom of the flu and can last long after the flu has passed. It can happen with a cold, but bed rest will take care of any tiredness that comes from a cold.

* Difficulty breathing: Clearly due to a flu, since the flu deals mostly with the respiratory tract. A stuffed up feeling, pressure in the lungs are the symptoms of the flu. The common cold does produce some discomfort, but it is easy to treat with camphor or a little Vick’s Vaporub on the chest. It’s precisely the difficulty breathing that can lead to more serious complications such as pneumonia.

* Loss of appetite: It’s associated with the flu. A common cold does not interfere with your ability to eat