Cold and Flu

All injections are uncomfortable, there is no getting around the fact that you will feel it and it might sting. But as intramuscular (IM) shots go, flu shots don't hurt very much, especially if given correctly. There is also a new intradermal (ID) injection for flu that has a 90% smaller needle than IM. See below for more info about ID flu vaccine.

Shots can vary in how much you feel them depending on who gives them. The needle should go in fast, and the vaccine should go in slowly, and then you will have less discomfort. How much a shot hurts also depends on how much you expect it to hurt, so try to relax your muscles, take deep breaths and think happy thoughts.

More:

The key is to not look, do not tense up because then it will hurt worse.

More facts about the ID flu vaccine:

• Approved for use in adults only (ages 18 - 64), given in a single dose
• Inactivated type of vaccine ("dead" virus particles used)
• May provide increased immunity over other types of flu vaccines due to the reactions of specialized immune system cells available in the skin
• Preservative free
• Injected into the skin layers, usually in the upper arm (deltoid) area
• Microinjection system provides:
  • Improved acceptance by needle-averse individuals
  • Needle is not readily visible to the patient
  • Needle size 90% smaller than IM needles, 30 gauge
  • Needle depth 1.5 mm
  • Smaller amount of vaccine solution injected 0.1 mL
  • Less antigen per injection, 27 mcg compared to 45 mcg IM
  • Trials indicate less pain with injections
  • Can cause more local injection site symptoms of mild to moderate redness, swelling, and other site reactions than IM, for 3-7 days
  • Fewer systemic reactions (fever, headaches, muscle aches, etc.)
  • 75% of trial participants were very satisfied
  • 96% of clinicians giving the ID vaccines would recommend

Anecdotal information from some WikiAnswers contributors:

• I just got back home from getting mine, and it did hurt worse than the seasonal flu shot that I got before.
• When I got my swine flu shot I was pleasantly surprised to have less local reaction to the shot than with other flu shots. Usually, my arm will get red where they put the shot and be very sore when I try to move it for several days. It did not do this with my swine flu vaccination. (If you get a sore arm, the thing to do to make it better faster is to use it normally.)

This will pretty much complete our series on the lesser bodily secretions, unless somebody really wants to go into the smegma thing. As is true of all God's creation, mucus is good for you. No doubt you could stand to have a little less of it at times, but this shouldn't decrease our esteem for a fluid that is only trying to defend us against germs, dust, and other foreign matter. Evidently, since you got a cold, this defense against germs wasn't entirely successful. But the mucus is trying. You might show a little appreciation.

Under normal circumstances--that is, when you don't have a cold--nasal mucus is part of the system by which your body conditions "inspired air." (Inspired air is the term doctors use for inhaled air. They could just say "inhaled," but inspired has a much more elegant ring.) The air swirls through your nasal passages and gets warmed up. Meanwhile the dust and whatnot strikes the mucus-lined sides and sticks. Or to put it more technically, it strikes the mucus-lined ciliated epithelium of the posterior nasopharynx and . . . well, I guess "sticks" is not the word you want to use in this context. Adheres, let's say. The cilia (little hairs) and mucus then transport the debris to the rear of the mouth, whence you can hawk it up. This is called postnasal drip. Another of life's little annoyances that you ought to be grateful for.

As I say, the above mechanism is not a foolproof antimicrobial defense, and sometimes you get a cold. Your mucus then kicks into overdrive in an attempt to shed the virus or whatever bad thing it is you've got. Sometimes the mucus succeeds, at least to the point where you can continue to breathe through your nose. Sometimes it doesn't and your nose plugs up, and the infection takes root in your sinuses, producing the dreaded green globs and making you sound like your head was whittled from a potato. You think this is better than having a runny nose? I think not. Sorry if I sound like I'm dumping on you, but I'm trying to put matters in perspective. Your problem isn't the mucus, it's the germs.

The reason you have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mucus when suffering from a cold is that the mucus-producing cells lining your nasal cavity extract the stuff mostly from your blood, of which needless to say you have a vast supply. The blood transports the raw materials (largely water) from other parts of the body. Fluid from your blood diffuses through the capillary walls and into the cells and moments later winds up in your handkerchief. (This process isn't unique to mucus; blood is the highway for most of your bodily fluids.) Incidentally, you produce less mucus than you may think. One experiment showed that on the peak day of a cold the average person produces about 14 grams of drippings, or roughly half an ounce.

Another question I'm asked from time to time is, what's the chemical formula for snot? (Listen, I've heard worse.) I have no definite answer to this. Ninety-five percent of mucus is H2O, while the remainder is protein, carbohydrate, lipids, and miscellaneous, the proportions and nature of which vary. I found some discussion in the medical literature about what makes mucus, um, stringy, but figured this was something you'd just as soon not know.

Finally, I came across an article entitled "Effects of Drinking . . . Chicken Soup on Nasal Mucus Velocity." About time somebody researched this. The article says the "Jewish penicillin" (authors' term) is indeed salubrious, although only for half an hour, largely because the healing vapors penetrate the nasal passages and loosen things up. So eat your chicken soup already; mama was right all along.

It is not clear how the name of the common cold came to be. We know it is called common because it is, but why "cold"? Several explanations have been given. Anthropologists have studied transcultural medicine (Ethnomedicine) and noted that certain disease typological categories (as well as foods categories) are classified as hot and cold diseases (and hot and cold foods for helping the diseases in various cultures). Cold and Hot foods are not deemed as such due to their thermal temperature or spiciness exclusively, but rather according to culturally constituted definitions.

Even though the common cold is caused by several hundred different viruses, such as the rhinoviruses, it is often during cold weather when most people get colds, and hence that might be one reason why it may have originally been called a "cold". Before viruses were known to exist, it was incorrectly thought by many that the cold weather of fall and winter is what caused a cold (see more below).

According to the humoral theory of disease, the various symptoms of the cold, such as phlegm and mucous production, were considered a "cold humor". The humoral theory posits the presence of four humors-Dam (blood), Balgham (phlegm), Safra(yellow bile) and Sauda (black bile)- in the body. Further, the temperaments of people were thought to be expressed by the following typological categories: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic according to the preponderance in them of the respective "humors", i.e., blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. The humors themselves are assigned temperaments: blood is hot and moist, phlegm cold and moist, yellow bile hot and dry, and black bile cold and dry. We have all heard certain folks being referred to as being "hot blooded".

In order to combat "cold humor diseases" the allopathic medicine prescribed was often of the opposite humor, e.g., hotchicken soup for a common Cold, or a cold pack or bath for high fevers. Admittedly, the explanation (or more appropriately "hypothesis") above is highly speculative, but at least a starting point for the discussion.

The related questions below may be of interest in regard to the notion that a cold was caused by the weather or by a person being cold and/or wet. This popular belief/myth has been proven incorrect by scientific study, although many people continue to believe that they will catch a cold if they get chilly even to this day. One question below is related to the myth and the other explains the reality of current information about why colds and flu occur more in the winter if it is not because of the cold weather (hint: it is the humidity--see more below.)
Because it was originally believed to be caused by cold weather.

1. Drink more fluids.
2. Get more rest.
3. Take over-the-counter medications meant to relieve symptoms (pain reliever/fever reducer/expectorant). You can ask a local pharmacist what medications he or she would recommend.