Cold or Flu? & What to Do

Written by on in Medical, Preparing Our House Systems

“It’s that time of year,” no, not “when the world falls in love.”  It’s the time of year when cold and flu season are in full swing.  Fortunately, for us, this year the flu isn’t quite as virulent or widespread as it was last year.  In our house last year, it was really bad.  We had three trips to the doctor and one to the ER thanks to the flu.

Cold or Flu? And What to DoCurrently, there are three types of the flu circulating Influenza A H1N1 & H3N2 and Influenza B.  Influenza-like illnesses are being reported as above the national baseline in all 10 CDC regions of the US.  It’s being reported as widespread in 30 states and regional in 17 states.  It’s definitely out there.

Why do you need to know the difference between Cold and Flu?

Colds are annoying. Are you one of those people who just doesn’t handle a cold well?  We all know people like that.  We can probably all be that person from time to time.  The flu isn’t fun either, but what’s the big deal in knowing the difference?

Colds are frustrating, but rarely do they have dangerous consequences.  The flu though can be much more dangerous.  During the 2017-2018 flu season, the flu killed 80,000 people.  To put some perspective on it, it’s like the entire population of Sugar Land, Texas or Champaign, Illinois being wiped out in four to six months.  In the last 30 years, the greatest death toll from the flu fell around 56,000.

So if you know the difference between if you or your family have a cold or the flu, you know for which to potentially seek treatment.

All that being said, what are the symptoms of the cold vs. the symptoms of the flu?

Cold Symptoms IncludeCold or Flu? And What to Do

Symptoms come on gradually
Stuffy OR Runny nose with sneezing
Cough – oftentimes productive
Scratchy Throat
Watery eyes

Flu Symptoms Include

Symptoms come on suddenlyStuffy AND runny nose

Dry unproductive cough
Fever
Sore Throat
Muscle and body aches
Tiredness

The Best Treatment is Prevention

I’m going to get into ways to treat a cold or the flu here shortly, but I think that it should be said here that the best treatment is prevention.  How can you keep yourself and your family from getting colds or the flu?  You can’t keep them inside your house all winter.  You can’t avoid interactions with anyone while it’s flu season.  So how can you go about keeping your family healthy?

One of the things that those of us in our house that are 13 and older, is we take Emergen-C on a fairly regular basis.  This is available through Amazon’s subscribe and save.  Our favorite flavor by far is the raspberry. If you aren’t a fan of Emergen C, you could substitute this for just vitamin C powder.  Swanson’s has a good one.

Cold or Flu? And What to DoWays to Treat a Cold

So now that you know what the difference in symptoms is for both the cold and the flu, you can choose which one to treat with a better chance of efficacy.

So what are some ways to go about treating a cold?

Cut out sugar, dairy, and red meat

Don’t click away yet!  Stay with me and let me explain.  Sugar depresses your immune system.  If your body is overloaded on sugar, it will be less able to fight off your cold.

You should cut out dairy because it causes inflammation.  Don’t believe me? Drink cow’s milk or eat ice cream when you have a cold.  What happens?  You cough more.  Cutting out dairy when you’ve got a cold will help keep your respiratory symptoms from worsening.

Why in the world should you cut out red meat?  This one floored me when I learned about it.  There is nothing “bad” about meat, but when you eat red meat, it takes more effort for you body to digest it which means that you are taking away from your body’s ability to fight off the cold that you have.

Chicken Broth

Really?  I mean seriously, Karen, chicken broth?  Actually yes.  Isn’t that an old wives tale told by grandparents?  Nope.  It’s not.

Did you know that your gut is in many ways the center or controller of your immune system?  Don’t believe me?  Check out this article or Google it for yourself.  Chicken broth soothes your gut and decreases inflammation.  When your gut is soothed and the inflammation in your gut decreases, you body is better able to fight infections – including your cold.

Cold Calm

This is personally my first choice.  It is a homeopathic remedy.  I actually keep a stash of this in my medical supply kit.  I purchase it through Amazon’s subscribe and save.  Using subscribe and save is an easy way to automate my preparedness.

 OTC’s

While I’m more into natural and alternative remedies, there are plenty of OTC’s out there.  For kids, I highly recommend Zarbees.  It’s a natural OTC made with english ivy extract, vitamin C, zinc, and honey.  It worked really well on my youngest when we used it on his cold.

Ways to Treat the FluCold or Flu? And What to Do

Some of these will actually overlap with how you treat a cold because they are strengthening the immune system or lessening the load from other things in the immune system.

Again, cut out sugar, dairy, and red meat and drink plenty of chicken broth.

Last year when my daughter got the flu very badly and ended up in the ER because she was having difficulty moving her arms and hands, she told me at one point that she really wanted to drink some chicken broth.

I’ve been into more natural methods of treating illnesses for awhile, but when you have five out of seven down with this, sometimes you don’t think straight.  Using chicken broth (which I always keep on hand for circumstances such as this), egg noodles from my short-term food storage, and a little canned chicken, I made her chicken noodle soup.  I believe, more than any other thing, keeping her hydrated with the chicken broth in the soup made the difference in her recovery.

Oscillococcinum

I swear by this stuff.  I didn’t get it into my daughter in time last flu season (because I didn’t have it on hand at that moment.  Again, I’ve purchased this through Amazon’s subscribe and save so that I automated my preparedness efforts.  When my husband and I (we were the last ones to get the flu) took this as soon as we had the onset of our symptoms, we got well very quickly.  It really was a help to us.

Elderberry syrup

Elderberry syrup has long been included in the arsenal of many a mom to help treat the flu.  Even a mainstream website like WebMd says that studies show that it’s effective in treating the flu. It’s simple to make, or you can buy it.

Prescription Drugs

While I’m not often a fan of prescription drugs, they do have their time and place.  Doctors can prescribe medications such as Tamiflu or Relenza.

What About You?

Do you have any other distinctions between a cold and the flu to add to the list?  Do you use any other remedies or OTC’s to help treat these ailments?  I’d love to hear!  Leave a comment below and share with all of us.