Cold And Flu: The Quintessential Difference

How will you come to know if you have a cold or you are suffering from flu? One can follow the symptoms make the difference. It is very important to know the difference between the symptoms caused by flu and cold. Flu is much more severe illness than cold; the latter is a much mild respiratory illness.
Cold can definitely make you feel low and sick for few days. Flu can make you sick and make you feel low and reduce your immunity for weeks.

Symptoms Of Cold
When one suffers from cold, the most common symptom can be sore throat which one will suffer only for the first two days. In the next three to four days one can come across other symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose and a bad cough. For adults fever is possible. Children may get sick and have cold as well.

Cold symptoms generally last for a week. Any individual suffering from cold in the first two to three is contagious and should therefore take measures so that others don’t get affected. Even after a week if you don’t cure that means you are suffering from bacterial infection and you might need to consume antibiotics. There are many people who mistake cold for allergic rhinitis commonly known as hay fever. It is important to consult a doctor if you don’t get fine after a week as there may be possibilities that you might have developed an allergy due to something, some kind of infection or probably sinusitis.

Flu Symptoms
Flu symptoms are much more severe than cold symptoms. They include sore throat, severe headache, muscle ache, cough etc. Swine flu would add on diarrhea and vomiting to one’s sickness. Recovery from flu might take four to five days. But at times even if your sickness takes a week or more to recover it’s perfectly fine. A complication of flu that young teens might develop is pneumonia or any kind of heart of lung problems.  It is advised to consult a doctor when you experience shortness of breath. Flu viruses are generally known to enter your body through the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth or your nose.

These are the probable symptoms and the difference between a cold and flu. It is important to take prior precautions like washing your hands very often, avoiding any kind of close contact with the ones who are suffering from cold or flu as close contact can be contagious. One can also take an annual flu vaccination and save you from getting affected by flu.

Treatment
You can consume pain relievers and other medications to reduce your fever and you’re cold. Your doctor may also give your some antiviral drugs for the flu to be cured. Thereby your treatment depends on whether you are suffering from cold or flu. Do not consume medicines or give your child medications which may not be prescribed by the doctor. There is a line between cold and flu but as said before flu is more severe.