Dave Hepburn
Province
HEALTH
Q: How can I differentiate a cold from the flu?
A: A cold is not as dramatic as the flu. The flu hits hard and fast. One moment you’re dancing the macarena and the next you’re begging for a quick death, primarily because of the flu. Your fever is more intense than with a cold, your muscles and joints ache and you become light-headed. Along with this you may also get all the usual cold symptoms that everyone nose so well. With the flu you don’t want to get out of bed. With a cold you want to get out of bed and strangle the person who came to your office with a cold looking for a miraculous cure that apparently nobody but your doctor has discovered.
: Can we catch a cold from
spending too long in the cold?
A: We can’t catch a cold from the cold any more than we can catch the flu from having flown.
Q: How can I avoid contracting the flu?
A: The best way to avoid getting sick is to not breathe. Specifically, not breathe the respiratory droplets of those who are teeming in viruses. Do not touch stuff that sick people touch, like pharmacy doorknobs, toilet levers, anything at Costco or teachers. WASH YOUR HANDS as though you suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Wash for 20 seconds at a time. And, of course, get a flu shot.
Q: But the flu shot could possibly make me sick.
A: The only way you can catch the flu from the flu shot is if the flu shotter has a case of the flu and then coughs and sneezes all over the flu shotee while giving the shot.
Q: What about supplements to prevent cold and flu?
A: Sorry. Echinacea has been a dismal failure. Cold FX works only if you are Donald $. Cherry.
Q: What’s the best way to treat the flu/cold?
A: Chicken soup is as good as it gets, unless you’re the chicken. The best you can do is treat the symptoms.
So for aches in your muscles and joints: ibuprofen. For a stuffy nose: decongestants, etc.
Antibiotics are useless for either cold or flu and end up doing nothing but giving you a yeast infection.
If you catch the flu early there are a couple of anti-viral agents that might lessen the duration and the severity of the flu in some people.
So it may be worthwhile to see a doctor in the first hours after you have been belted by the flu.
But if you have a cold, stay away from my freakin’ office.
Get a grippe . . . OK, so you have a grippe but I do not wish to catch your cold, no I do not, Sam I am. Go see a reflexologist or Svend Robinson. I’m sure they have a cure. I have no cure.
Hey, if you’ve got a 30-pound hernia dragging off the floor or a Doberman attached to your kidneys or an aorta about to burst then great, I’d love to see you.
But if you come with a cold then all you will do is give me the cold and I will be forced to leave the office to go and see my doctor.
Dr. Dave is a B.C. physician and guest speaker. E-mail him probing questions at [email protected]
