Dur­ing flu sea­son you need to know what your symp­toms may mean. Do you have the com­mon cold, or the flu? Or do you have symp­toms of swine flu? It’s impor­tant to know the signs and symp­toms to know what to do. If you have a cold, you should prob­a­bly just stay home and rest, drink plenty of flu­ids and treat the symp­toms. But if it’s the flu you should def­i­nitely stay home — not only for your own sake but so as not to spread it to oth­ers. Depend­ing on your age and gen­eral health, you might need to see your doc­tor. But the first thing you need to know is, what are the symptoms?

The symp­toms of a cold:

Most peo­ple are famil­iar with the clas­sic symp­toms of a cold: (1) a runny or stuffy nose and (2) a cough. These are also the chief means of how colds are spread from one per­son to another, and how you caught your cold. Cold germs are mainly trans­mit­ted through the nose and mouth. Some­one with a cold coughed tiny droplets into the air and you breathed some of it in. Or they touched some­thing with cold germs on their hands, which you also touched and then touched your nose or mouth.

The excel­lent advice that’s given every year dur­ing cold and flu sea­son is usu­ally ignored, but it can save you from catch­ing a cold or some­thing worse. If you’re sick, stay home. Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze. And most impor­tant for every­one in areas open to the pub­lic, be it school, work or shop­ping: wash your hands fre­quently, with soap and water. This will help pre­vent spread­ing as well as catch­ing the cold.

Other symp­toms of a cold may include (3) a sore throat and (4) thick spu­tum. If you have a sore throat you it’s likely you still don’t need to see a doc­tor. Most colds with sore throat will go away with proper home care in four or five days. But do see your doc­tor if you see white patches at the back of your throat, or you can’t swal­low, if your throat is very sore and get­ting sorer, or if it lasts for more than a week. Also keep watch on your tem­per­a­ture. If it goes above 103 F (39.4 C) then call your doctor.

You can treat a sore throat at home by gar­gling every hour or so with 1tsp (5g) of salt dis­solved in 8 fl oz of warm water. Also over-the-counter throat lozenges with anaes­thet­ics (Sucrets, Spec-T) may help relieve your sore throat. Treat a stuffy nose with a decon­ges­tant or nasal spray, being care­ful to fol­low the label instruc­tions. Too much med­i­cine is not good for you and can make the med­i­cine become ineffective.

Other cold symp­toms may indi­cate flu:

A cold can bring (5) a headache and (6) a fever, as well as (7) body aches. These symp­toms can usu­ally be treated at home with over-the-counter pain reliev­ers. These include Aceta­minophen (Tylenol, Panadol); Ibupro­fen (Advil, Motrin); Naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn); or plain Aspirin. Talk to your doc­tor if you’re unsure about which one or how much to take. If your fever is not severe (above 103 F (39.4 C)) then you may want to live with it for a while. A fever is one of your body’s defenses against viral and bac­te­r­ial infections.

A high fever, very present headache and body aches are rare with a cold, but are clas­sic symp­toms of the flu. With the flu you may or may not have the stuffy nose and sore throat of a cold, but there’s often a cough. Flu will also make you feel (8) weak and fatigued. It can make you feel mis­er­able. But even the flu is usu­ally best treated at home with rest, plenty of flu­ids, and treat­ing the symp­toms. How­ever, if you also have chest pain, short­ness of breath, or dif­fi­culty breath­ing you should head to the hos­pi­tal right away. These symp­toms call for imme­di­ate med­ical treatment.

Flu can lead to com­pli­ca­tions, espe­cially for those over 65, for dia­bet­ics, and oth­ers whose gen­eral health con­di­tion is com­pro­mised. These com­pli­ca­tions include bron­chi­tis and pneu­mo­nia. These can be life threat­en­ing. Seek a doctor’s care right away.

Unlike a cold that takes seven to ten days to pass, most flu goes away after 24 hours or so. Flu symp­toms that last more than two days should be reported to your doctor.

Other flu symp­toms that may indi­cate swine flu:

Some­times the flu will include (9) nau­sea and vom­it­ing, and (10) diar­rhea. These may also be symp­toms of swine flu (H1N1 Influenza A). This flu tends to last longer than reg­u­lar flu. Despite the reports of a swine flu epi­demic, it is not an ocas­sion for panic. Most cases of swine flu turn out to be mild. Treat this the same as any flu: stay home and rest, drink plenty of flu­ids and treat the symp­toms. Only call the doc­tor as indi­cated above.

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