How to Treat the Flu or a Cold

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Hill and today we are going to talk about how to treat the flu or a cold. Now, the first thing to talk about is how these things are different. The flu is one virus that causes cold symptoms. Runny nose, stuffy nose, fever, cough, sometimes with influenza, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle aches, joint aches, a general feeling of malaise, all these things can be caused by a bunch of different viruses. So how do you know whether this is a cold, or whether it's influenza, this very specific virus. Many doctors offices, emergency rooms, and urgent cares offer tests to rapidly diagnose the influenza. That said, these tests aren't always perfectly accurate. And doctors may choose to treat you for influenza based on your symptoms, or based on what they know is going on in the community, even when the test comes back negative. Now, there are several medications that we can choose to treat influenza, and which one is best depends on how old you are, what type of flu you have, we divide it into flu A and flu B, and what's going on in the community this season. Different influenzas circulate every year, often more than one, and knowing what kind of flu it is may make a difference in what medication works for it. The important thing to remember is no medication is effective against the influenza virus after the first forty eight hours. So, if you feel like this might be the flu, you're going to want to get checked out in the first two days of illness before it's too late to treat. Now, treating colds is a different matter. Colds refer to over a thousand viruses that cause similar symptoms, the ones we just described, the nose throat, cough, fever, etcetera. Usually they're not quite as severe as the symptoms you see with influenza, but there is some overlap. Unfortunately, there are no great medicines for making colds go away any faster than the seven to ten days they're normally going to last. So, you're looking at supportive care, Tylenol, and ibuprofen for fever, Malays, chills, aches. You can use a humidifier to help keep the phlegm in your chest moist, make it easier to cough it up. Cough suppressants have not really been shown to do very much, especially in children, especially children under age six. We do not recommend the use of over the counter cough suppressants, decongestants, or other cold medicines except perhaps for guaifenesin which is used in Mucinex. For older people, you can try those medications, but be aware they might make you jumpy, they might keep you awake, and they haven't been shown to do just a whole bunch to relieve the symptoms of colds. The most important things to know is when is a cold not a cold anymore. There are several things that should make you seek care from your doctor. A fever with a cold should last for three days. It shouldn't last for four days or more, so if you're fever is going on that long, it may be time to seek care. Older children such as teenagers and adults may develop sinus pain or pressure here, or here, often on one side rather than both, that may be an acute sinusitis, and you might want to talk to your doctor about whether antibiotics are indicated. Sometimes they are, sometimes not. If you have a fever or an acute worsening of symptoms that occurs more than seven days into the illness, that can also be a sign of a sinusitis, and you may want to have that evaluated. Obviously wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain, those things should never be happening with a plain cold, and those would all suggest a more serious illness that deserves immediate evaluation. Likewise, ear pain, or thick, yellow drainage from the eyes, sticking them shut, also suggest disease that may need to be treated. Talking about treating colds and influenza, I'm doctor David Hill."