Cold or Flu? Here’s 3 Ways To Tell the Difference

Written by: Patricia Bratianu RN PhD RH-AHG Natural Health January 20, 2014 0

Image source: chirorehab.net

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2014/01/20/cold-or-flu-heres-3-ways-to-tell-the-difference/

Colds and influenza are both caused by viruses. You probably know that there are several different strains of flu. That is why flu shots do not always work. The flu vaccine may not protect you from the particular virus with which you come into contact.
Just as there are many types of viruses which cause influenza; there are many viruses which cause the common cold. There are actually over 200 different viruses which produce cold symptoms. That is a big part of the reason why a cure for the common cold has not been discovered. Most colds are caused by a type of virus called rhinoviruses.
What many people refer to as “the virus” is often influenza, “the flu”. Other ills which may be mistaken for a cold or influenza include diverse respiratory ills such as sinus infections, bronchitis or even allergies. These may be caused by bacterial, viral or fungal infections. Most respiratory infections are viral illnesses.

1. How Much Are You Coughing?
One of the biggest differences between colds and flu is the intensity of symptoms. If you have an upper respiratory infection such as a “virus” or a cold, the following questions may help you to determine whether you have a cold or the flu.
Did your symptoms come on gradually, or all of a sudden? Cold symptoms frequently come on slowly. A person with the flu may feel fine in the morning and be quite ill by the end of the day.
What are the qualities of your cough? While coughs are common with both the colds and flu, the cough that you experience if you have the flu may be very frequent. You may have frequent spells of nonstop coughing. You may or may not cough up phlegm.

2. Are You Tired?
How tired are you? If you feel like you are dragging, but still able to function, you may be suffering from a cold. On the other hand, if you are exhausted, and the thought of performing minimal daily routines is overwhelming or impossible, you may have influenza. Fatigue may persist for weeks following a bout with the flu.

3. Do You Have Fevers, Aches and Pains?
Do you have a fever? Is it high or low? Fever is usually absent or minimal if a cold is present. High fevers and shaking chills often accompany the flu.
Do you have generalized aches and pains? People suffering from colds may experience minimal or no generalized body aches; while people who have the flu may have severe aches and pains.
Do you have a headache? You may get a headache if you have a cold due to sinus congestion. Otherwise, cold sufferers generally do not have headaches. Flu sufferers may experience severe headaches unrelated to stuffy sinuses.
Are you sneezing? Sneezing is more common with colds; however it may occur with influenza, as well.
Do you have a sore throat? Sore throats are most likely due to colds; however, if you have the flu and experience a great deal of coughing, your throat may be raw and sore.
You might be a bit tired if you have a cold. If you have “the flu,” all you may want to do is sleep. Fatigue can persist for weeks after a bout of influenza. 
Now that I know what I have, what should I do?
Keep hydrated. If you are unable to keep fluids down, or if you show signs of dehydration, get professional help. Children and the elderly become dehydrated very fast. Pay particular attention if they are ill. Employ measures which enhance immune health. Employ remedies to relieve symptoms. Wash your hands frequently. Stay home from work until you are well. Herbal remedies may be utilized to relieve symptoms, enhance comfort and shorten the time that you are sick. Rest is an important, often neglected, aspect of the journey to restore health.
Colds may last one to two weeks. Influenza symptoms may last up to a month.
If you have any questions, consult with a health care provider, especially if you think that you may have the flu. Pay particular attention if the ill person is a child, elderly or has other health issues, as the flu can be deadly.
Most people are able to recuperate from the flu and colds using simple home remedies. If you seek medical help for the flu, in its early stages, you may opt to use a prescription product which may reduce the duration and intensity of flu symptoms.
If you have a cold or flu, you have a responsibility to others to not spread your germs. Unfortunately, due to business policies and financial needs, often people try to “help” by showing up at work or school before they are fully healed. Avoid this common practice as much as possible. The flu is contagious for one week after symptoms first appear.

Keeping Warm in the Deep Freeze 

If you grew up in the modern West – North America, for example – you probably grew up with central heating, cheap fuel and a near-endless supply of electricity delivered right to a hole in your wall. Generations of us grew up handling the winter chill with one simple technique: reach for the thermostat and crank it up. This assumption of convenience has shaped how we build houses, how we eat, and how we dress for all seasons. It also means that a fuel crisis or depression – or the winter storm that cut power to half a million North Americans a few weeks ago – can leave us completely vulnerable.

Consider, then, that people lived for thousands of years in wintry lands without a thermostat to crank, or without any modern fuel or technology, and obviously did not all freeze to death – nor were they even necessarily uncomfortable. They built their homes differently than we do, they adopted different dress and habits, and lived with a different set of expectations.
Traditional homes in many cultures had thick walls, whose thermal mass absorbed heat during the day and radiated it back during the cool night. Some homes in Ireland, for example, were made of cob – a mixture of sand, clay and straw that could be literally sculpted into a house. I helped built one in County Clare, Ireland, and I’m told it remains cozy inside years later.

Photo: Wikicommons
In many cultures – whether medieval Wales, pre-Columbian America or Ancient Greece – villages were arranged to maximize exposure to sun and light, minimizing the need for burning fuel. Only in recent times have we decided to build without regard to direction or landscape. (1)
“Coupled with other low-tech solutions … passive solar design could all but eliminate the use of fossil fuels and biomass for heating buildings throughout large parts of the world,” wrote Kris De Decker in Low-Tech Magazine. (2)
Of course, many homes used to be easier to heat and insulate, for the simple reason that they were smaller. As recently as 1950, the average new home in the United States was 983 square feet, not much larger than old Irish cottages. By 2004, however, the average had swelled to 2,349 square feet, even though family size had shrunk, and most homes were occupied by just one or a few people. (3)
Realistically, of course, most of us are not going to design new cities or even houses – even if you have an opportunity to build your own home, as we did, budgets and local ordinances might force a compromise with convention. Most people rent or pay a mortgage on an already-built home, and have to retrofit.
Thankfully, retrofitting can go a long way, starting with insulation; according to one organization, 65 percent of American homes have substandard insulation. That wasted energy – whether at the electrical power plant or in the home – has a real human cost; according to a 2003 study, retrofits across the United States would mean 6,500 fewer asthma attacks, and save hundreds of lives and $1.3 billion in health costs. That doesn’t even count the billions we would save in heating costs, the fossil fuels saved for future generations, and the greenhouse gases left un-gassed. (4) (5)
For people who can’t afford new insulation, old clothes stuffed in the attic could also help. Victorians used to insulate inside by putting old wine bottles – empty but re-corked – under the floorboards, creating air pockets. People can simply close off outer rooms and seal them off, keeping heat in areas where people spend most of their time. Trees and vine trellises, moreover, can be positioned to shade homes in the heat and let light through in the bare-branched winter.
You could create your own thermal mass inside your home. A trombe wall is a thermal mass – bricks, black-painted water tanks, anything to absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night. It would usually face the south (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere), and sit inside your windows – but if you want to build a greenhouse, you could build it on the south side and make your outside wall the thermal mass. (6)
What all these approaches have in common is that they maximize external energy coming into your home (south-facing windows, trombe wall) and keep the heat that’s there from escaping (insulation). All of them, though, involve building or installing something new, and some solutions are even more basic than that – so much so that they are often overlooked. More on that next column.
Footnotes:
(1)    A Golden Thread: 2,500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology by Ken Butti and Jon Perlin, as cited in “The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels,” by Kris De Decker, Low-Tech Magazine.
(2)    “The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels,” by Kris De Decker, Low-Tech Magazine.
(3)    “Americans want smaller homes, not McMansions,” USA Today, August 25, 2010.
(4)    http://www.naima.org/insulation-knowledge-base/insulation-and-the-environment/energy-efficiency-environmental-savings.html
(5)    “The Public Health Benefits of Insulation Retrofits in Existing Housing in the United States,” Jonathan I. Levy, Yurika Nishioka and John D. Spengler, Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, April, 2003
(6)    The Passive Solar Energy Book by Ed Mazria.
http://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/do-it-yourself/keeping-warm-in-the-deep-freeze.aspx

 

It is the time of year for runny noses, coughs, fevers and chills.  How do you protect yourself from the cold and flu viruses that you are bound to come across this winter?

I like to try to keep my immune system strong in the first place by eating a clean, real food diet, getting plenty of sleep, keeping my vitamin D levels up, taking cod liver oil and eating fermented foods several times a day.

I do, however, add some other things to our winter arsenal.  Here are 3 of my favorites that you can easily make at home and have on hand. (These recipes can be adapted to fill any size jar.  I note what size jar I used, so you can adjust amounts accordingly).
Cinnamon-Coconut Oil-Honey Elixir:

This winter, I keep reading about the benefits of cinnamon, raw honey and coconut oil for the immune system.

Cinnamon is said to relieve congestion, stimulate circulation, be anti-inflammatory and is also a anti-microbial agent that kills bacteria.

Coconut oil has myriad benefits.  It and raw honey (honey that has not been pasteurized) has powerful anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and can strengthen the immune system.

I thought, why not mix these goodies all together and have it on hand this winter!  We take spoonfuls of this almost every day.  This is a super simple recipe and tastes delicious…almost like a cookie!

Ingredients and Method (8 ounce jar):

• Mix equal parts coconut oil and raw honey together.  (I used my Kitchenaid mixer, but you could do this by hand.  Just be sure your coconut oil is slightly warm so it will mix well).
• Add cinnamon.  I added 1 tbsp cinnamon to an 8 oz. jar. (*update: you can add more or less cinnamon depending on your taste preferences)
• Please note, if this melts, the coconut oil and honey will separate.  No big deal…just give it a stir!

Honey-Lemon-Ginger ‘Tea’:

I saw a similar recipe (honey/lemon ‘tea) earlier this year on Pinterest.  Soon after my daughter had a sore throat, so I thought why not make my own batch!

This is deliciously soothing as a tea with hot water.  My daughter sometimes has it with her breakfast.

In addition to the benefits of raw honey mentioned above, raw honey is also very soothing for the throat and if the honey is local can be helpful for seasonal allergies.

Ginger is very helpful for stomach upset as well as boosts the immune system and protects against bacteria and virus.

Lemons are high in vitamin C and phytonutrients and are anti-bacterial.

Ingredients and Method (16 ounce jar)

• Fill a jar with sliced organic lemons.
• Add approximately 2-4 tbsp chopped fresh ginger.
• Fill the jar with raw honey.
• Store in refrigerator.
• Scoop 1-3 tbsp into hot water and drink like a tea.

“Vapo-Rub”:

Kelly has a great recipe for a cough salve that you rub on your feet.  This recipe of mine is really just a take on Vick’s Vapo Rub.  You know the jelly in the blue bottle that you rub all over your chest and back (maybe even a little under your nose) when you (or your child) are stuffed up?

This recipe has a similar ‘nasal opening’ property but leaves out the petroleum and turpentine oils.   Now this isn’t going to prevent a cold but it definitely is helpful when you have contracted a cold and can’t breath!  Rub it on your chest, under your nose and go to bed! (As always with something topical, test for sensitivity on skin first.)

Ingredients and Method (4 ounce jar): 

• Melt 1/2 cup of coconut oil on the stovetop. (buy quality oil here)
• Add 40 drops camphor essential oil.
• Add 20 drops eucalyptus essential oil.
• Pour into your jar.  Store either in the refrigerator or in a cabinet.  I leave mine in a cabinet so it is easily spreadable.  Sometimes, if my kitchen gets warm, it is melted.  Decide what works for you.

Looking for more cold and flu remedies?

• You can purchase fermented foods and supplements in our Village Green Marketplace.  We have some awesome vendors who will ship the products straight to your door!

Here are is a roundup of natural cold and flu remedies from some of my fellow Village Green Network bloggers:

• Here are some great tips for avoiding cold and flu in the first place.

• Elderberry syrup is a very effective way to ward off or to fight the flu.  Here are a couple of different recipes: One for elderberry tonic, elderberry syrup and elderberry syrup with ginger and cinnamon.  There’s also a great recipe for an elderberry and echinacea syrup that is delicious!  I have made some and mix it with cod liver oil to give to my daughter each day.

• Looking for some cough remedies?  In addition to Oh Lardy’s cough salve, I found a few good recipes from fellow bloggers.  Make your own garlic cough salve.  Here’s a recipe for cough and cold syrup, that doesn’t have the nasty artificial colors and sweeteners like some name brands ones do at the drug store!  Here’s another cough syrup that contains honey and lemon.  How about another with an onion cough syrup?  Wow, our coughs should be covered this winter!!

• Keeping your vitamin D levels up is very important for sustaining your immune system.  Since we synthesize vitamin D when the sun’s rays mix with oils on our skin, it can be hard to maintain in the middle of winter.  I know where I live in Chicago, I feel like we don’t see the sun for months on end, and I know (from blood work results) that I become vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D can be a great defender against illness.  Here are some of the best ways to get vitamin D.  Personally, I keep my levels up with D3 supplements, cod liver oil and a UVB light box from mercola.com.

• How about a cold and flu busting smoothie?  This sounds like the perfect antidote!

• Here are some general immune tips to help you ward off the bugs in the first place!  All natural immune boosters will do the job for sure!  Here are some immune boosting foods for the cold and flu season.  Here are some more tips to build your immune system.

• You can also use essential oils to fight colds and flus.  I have found this to be very effective.   Here are some essential oils you need to stock up your holistic medicine cabinet.

I hope you enjoyed my Roundup of Natural Cold and Flu Remedies!!!!  Keep those immune systems strong and you will bypass most illnesses and the ones you do contract, you can fight off quickly!!!  Stay healthy!
http://ohlardy.com/natural-cold-and-flu-remedies