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Cold and Flu
Questions and answers about the "Common Cold"; symptoms in the upper respiratory tract like sneezing, scratchy throat, and runny nose, but adults don't typically have fevers. Colds are usually caused by the rhinovirus (up to 40% of colds), or Coronaviruses (about 20%), but there are more than 200 viruses that can cause the common cold. Also questions about the seasonal flu, also called "regular flu", caused mostly by Type A and Type B Influenza viruses. Flu starts with similar symptoms as a cold only it hits faster and harder and usually includes fever in adults. Although the "stomach flu" is a common term, it is not a real diagnosis. The proper medical term for stomach flu is gastroenteritis (an intestinal disease, sometimes viral but also bacterial), it is often mistaken for influenza because the flu can sometimes include vomiting and diarrhea.
4,331 Questions
Can you build immunity against alcohol?
Not in the sense that it will have no effect, as in immunity to measles.
Tolerance -- meaning that it takes more drinking to feel the effects -- does increase, and is one of the first signs of a developing addiction to alcohol (alcoholism). Note: it is not a "danger sign," it means that addiction is happening.
What is it when your so cold and got cold feet nose and hands?
Bad blood circulation and/or quickly escaping bodyheat (in cold weather for instance) so your body focuses on the vital organs having the needed blood and staying warm. I do have a problem with a cold nose. It is called the "Cold Nose Syndrome". There are so many women and men who have this condition. I know that I have a thin nose and not much insulation, and it did seem to get worse with weight loss. However, it still occurs. There is a solution and it is the "nosewarmer". The site where you can find a lot of information about this syndrome is www.comfynose.com. They have nosewarmers for sale plus other items for women that make us comfortable. Raynaud's Phenomenon seems to trigger the cold nose but it just happens with a lot of women as they age.
Are nipples supposed to be hard all the time or just when you're cold or wet?
Everyone is different. When you are young your nipples may be hard a lot of the time. As you get older your nipples tend to become hard only when you are cold, wet or sexually aroused.
Can fatigue cold and flu symptoms and backache be symptoms of pregnancy?
It could be. It has been my experience (I have had two children and one miscarriage) that everytime I am around 3 weeks or so I get flu-symptoms with a sore throat, etc. and I feel queasy and then about the 4th week I will start getting a morning sickness feeling around 9 a.m. every morning even though I have never vomited with any of my pregnancies (unless it was food that didn't sit right)
What is the best treatment for the flu in a teenager?
No different than an adult, except avoid using aspirin because of risk of Reye's Syndrome in children and teens. See the related question below for how influenza is treated.
Too many different conditions can cause those symptoms to determine what it might be without an examination by a health care professional. Those can be symptoms of the common cold, the flu, allergies, mononucleosis, bacterial infections, etc. If you also have a fever over 102F, then you should contact your provider (e.g., doctor) for advice. If no fever, then one of the more likely causes is a common cold virus, but your tummy usually doesn't hurt with those, unless it is muscles that hurt from the coughing.
Why are dead or weakened viruses used instead of normal viruses to create a vaccine?
Vaccines are used to build immunity in the recipient. Dead or weakened viruses do the job well. More importantly, it is pointless injecting a full on dose of a virus into someone you are trying to protect against that virus. Dead or inactive pathogens(things that cause disease) are used in vaccines so that they do not harm the patient. However, they still make the immune system of the patient react how it normally would if the pathogen were to infect them.
The purpose of a vaccination is to introduce into the body a sample of the germs that you want to be protected from so that the immune system can react to the germs and create antibodies to stop or kill them without your having to get the disease to gain that immunity. In order to give you a sample of the germs without making you sick from them, they use weakened or dead (inactivated) germs in the vaccine. Your immune system does not know that they would not make you sick, so it reacts as if they would and creates the antibodies that it will keep stored in case you ever do come in contact with the full strength germ later. That is how you develop immunity by using a vaccine instead of by having the disease.
Do you have to have a Swine Flu needle to survive?
To survive what? Getting the swine flu? No, you do not have to be immunized to survive. Most people will survive getting the flu, but older people and really young people are at risk of dying.
If the shot was given in the last few days, then you can help by moving the arm, even though that will not feel very good at first, the motion will help "work the soreness out". Often people avoid moving the arm and that will make it take longer to get better. You can also help by using warm compresses (not hot) to help increase the circulation to heal the tissue reaction to the injection. That will also be soothing. It is common for this type of soreness to occur as a mild reaction to the vaccine. If it is not gone in a week to ten days, then you should contact your health care professional for advice.
Does sanitizing hands prevent rhino virus?
Yes! See the related question below for information on how to wash hands properly to get rid of viruses.
Flu shots have been administered intramuscularly (IM) in the upper arm in adults and in the thigh in children aged over six months. Children under six months can not be vaccinated yet. There is also now a new intradermal (ID) injection for flu for adults ages 18 - 64.
The typical IM syringe needle is a 25.4 mm (1 or 1 1/2 inch) long needle and it is usually 22-25 Gauge size. It really isn't very big as medical intramuscular injection needles go.
The ID syringe needle is tiny in comparison (90% smaller) and is very useful for the needle-averse patient due to small size, less pain on injection, and the needle is not readily visible in the special micro-injection system.
ID needles are short, injected only 1.5 mm deep (0.039 inches) and are thin (30 gauge).
The amount of vaccine in an adult dose of the IM H1N1/09 flu shot is 0.5 mL (one half cc), which is a very small amount (approximately 1/10 of a teaspoon). But the micro dose of ID vaccine is only 0.1 mL.
The IM vaccine's dose of antigen is 45 mcg while the ID contains antigen in a dose of 27 mcg for as good or better immunization. The skin has special immune system cells available that help the ID vaccine work better.
In trials 96% of clinicians administering the vaccines would recommend the ID vaccine.
My questions, did you take the medication as prescribed?
Did you have a chest X-ray done?
It could be that you did not follow the right procedure . Such as: antibiotic medication can be prescribed for 3,5,7,10 days or indefinite
or without a proper chest X-ray ou can't really know what's going on, and you can't R/A certain disesases like PNA, or better yet you might have to use another antibiotic.
Can you take doxycycline and get a flu shot?
It is usually OK to get a flu vaccine when using antibiotics; there is no drug interaction problem.
However, if you are taking antibiotics, then you must have a bacterial infection. If your infection is still acute - and you have ongoing symptoms such as a high fever - you may want to consult your health-care professional to be sure that your body will be able to tolerate the immune response needed to create immunity to the virus while you are also fighting an infection by a different type of organism.
Before receiving the injection the person about to give you the vaccine will ask you a series of questions that will include questions about fever or other infection symptoms, ask this clinician if there is any reason you should not have the injection, given your current condition.
What damage does a common cold do?
The common cold does not do any permanent damage.
Temporarily it can affect the health in number of ways, i-e, runny nose, cough, malaise, headache, sore throat, fever, sleep disturbance, loss of concentration, loss of smelling ability, etc.
The common cold is a viral infection and always self-remitting. It goes away without medication in a week. Medication is for controlling symptoms. There in no drug which can cure it completely. Residuary symptoms may remain up to 2 weeks.
What to gargle with for head cold?
Use salt water to gargle. Salt water will draw out edema fluid, killing bacteria causing the sore throat.
How do you get rid of a stomach bug?
You can get rid of a stomarch bug by taking Ginger which you can buy from a hearb shop or sainsburs/waitrose or you can buy rennie gels which help alot where you can get them from superdrug.!
What does drinking hot honey and lemon actually do for you if anything when you have a cold?
Hot honey is soothing to the throat and is supposed to help with sore throats. Lemon helps with the cold. It never seemed to work for me. Some believe it is just a comfort thing and you could also add a little whiskey if you like the taste.
The word novel used in this context means new or unusual. The 2009 pandemic swine flu H1N1/09 was initially dubbed the Novel Influenza by the CDC as a means of identification in communications since it was a brand new and never before seen subtype of influenza unnamed at the time. So if someone refers to novel influenza, they are likely currently talking about H1N1/09 swine flu.
