12 Things You Need To Know About This Upcoming Flu Season

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9. How To Find Out If You Have The Flu, A Cold, Or Something Else

The flu and a cold have very similar symptoms, which make it difficult to tell which one you have. Here are the big differences: A flu will give you body aches and a high fever. Colds might give you a low grade fever but no body aches. Colds also seem to be confined to the head; the flu generally travels to the chest area as well. Also, the flu will develop much faster than a cold. With the flu, you might start to feel a tickle in your throat at lunchtime, and by 3 p.m. you are sick as a dog. Colds generally develop slowly over two or three days. By the way, if you start vomiting or have diarrhea, you probably don’t have the flu, but some type of stomach ailment. Small children sometimes get diarrhea or vomit from the flu, but not adults.

10. Drink Water

This might seem like a no-brainer, but many people stop drinking their normal eight glasses of water once they are sick because they feel like crap, and they stop thinking about anything else other than the fact that they feel like crap. Drink plenty of water, herbal teas with honey and lemon, and clear broths to help your body stay hydrated, flush out toxins, and create an environment that is generally inhospitable to viruses. Avoid milk as this only makes mucus thicker and more difficult to remove from the body.

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