Colds and flu are common virus infections that may cause running nose, cough, sore throat and sometimes fever or pains in the joints. There may be mild diarrhea especially in younger children. These infections are quite common and easy to spread from person to person therefore labelled communicable. As a matter of fact, it affects the way we act and react in many cases to our environmental conditions. While some people felt that there cold environment caused them to have flu or cold, this might not be very right in all sense but such person might have contacted this via a carrier sometimes ago. Colds and flu almost always go away without medications. So its usually advisable not to use ampicillin, tetracycline or any other antibiotics because they waste your money without delivering you from the infections anyway. Now as the case goes, its usually good to identify cases and know the very right type of medication to use as it will help solve the problem on the long run.
NOTE: If injections are given, they may cause harms in cases. One type of cold is caused by Polio Virus. Now if such person suffering from the infection is injected, the needle jab can bring on paralysis in the limb injected.
In the case of cold and flu…
- Drink plenty of water and get enough rest
- Aspirin or Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) helps lower fever and relieve body aches and headaches. More expensive cold tablets are no better than aspirin so no need to waste money buying them.
- No special diet is needed. Though fruit juice especially orange juice or lemonade can be of great help
So for treating coughs and stuffy nose that comes with colds, You can actually do the following…
- In little children, carefully suck the mucus out with a suction bulb or syringe without a needle.
- Older children and adults can put a little salt water into their hand and sniff it into the nose. This will help loosen the mucus.
- Breathing hot water vapor also helps clear stuffy nose
- Wipe a runny or stuffy nose but do not blow it. Blowing the nose may lead to earache and sinus infection.
- People who often get earache or sinus troublr after a cold can help prevent this trouble by using decongestant nose drops like Phenylephrine or make nose drops with Ephedrine tablet. After sniffing a little salt water, put the drop in the nose like this…[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”16″ bg_color=”#026072″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]With the head sideways, put 2 or 3 drops in the lower nostril, Wait a couple of minutes and then do the same to the other nostril[/mks_pullquote]
NOTE: Use Decongestant drops no more than 3 times a day for no more than 3 days.
Now, if cold or flu lasts more than a week, or if the person has fever, cough up a lot of Phlegm (Mucus with pus), has shallow fast breath or chest pain, he could be developing bronchitis or pneumonia. An antibiotics may help here. The danger of cold turning to pneumonia is greater in older people and those who have lung problems like chronic bronchitis.
Sore throat is often part of a cold. No special medication is needed but it may help to gargle with warm water. Though if in case of sore throat which suddenly starts with high fever, it could be a strep throat. Special treatment is needed.
Prevention of Colds
- Getting enough sleep and eating well helps prevent colds. Eating oranges, tomatoes and other fruits containing vitamin C may also help
- Contrary to general belief, cold do not come from getting cold or wet. A cold is caught from others who have the infection and sneezes the virus into the air. So cover your nose while someone sneezes
- To keep from giving cold to others, you need to eat and sleep separately and take special care of yourself keep the issue contained and then managed. Babies should be taken away from infected person as they can also catch it while you sneeze or cough.
- To prevent a cold from leading to earache do not blow your nose instead, wipe it. Teach children to do that same.
Well, as the case may be, preventing or curing the frustrating cold infection is quite a tough task especially if you are having a long day. This can be annoying but care need to be taken so as to keep it managed and then cured. Hope this helps.
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