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Cold and Flu
A cold and the flu (also called influenza) are alike in many ways. But the flu can sometimes lead to more serious problems, like the lung disease pneumonia.
A stuffy nose, sore throat, and sneezing are usually signs of a cold.
Tiredness, fever, headache, and major aches and pains probably mean you have the flu.
Coughing can be a sign of either a cold or the flu. But a bad cough usually points to the flu.

Symptoms of Cold and Flu
A cold often starts with feeling tired, sneezing, coughing and having a runny nose. You may not have a fever or you may run a low fever--just 1 or 2 degrees higher than usual. You may also have muscle aches, a scratchy or sore throat, watery eyes and a headache.
The flu starts suddenly and hits hard. You'll probably feel weak and tired, and have a fever, dry cough, a runny nose, chills, muscle aches, severe headache, eye pain and a sore throat. It usually takes longer to get over the flu than a cold.
Help Yourself Feel Better While You Are Sick
A cold usually lasts only a couple of days to a week. Tiredness from the flu may continue for several weeks.
To feel better while you are sick:
� Drink plenty of fluids.
� Get plenty of rest.
� Use a humidifier -- an electric device that puts water into the air.
� A cough and cold medicine you buy without a prescription may help.<[url=BellaOnline ALERT: For anti-spam reasons, we restrict the number of URLs allowed in a given post. You have exceeded our maximum number of URLs.

Well I have just had a bout of Bronchitis. The first time I have ever had it and hopefully the last. I ran out of breath talking and walking. I coughed so much my chest and stomach muscles aches.

I sincerely hope any one who reads this does not endure what I have just been through.

Keep healthy.

How long did it take you to get over the Bronchitis?
I've had it now for a few weeks and am so sick and tired of being sick & tired! I can only walk a few paces before I have to stop & try to catch my breath and the coughing never seems to end.

Mavis, you may need to check with your doctor about getting on albuterol temporarily.

When I had pneumonia last year they wound up putting me on albuterol for a while (even though I wasn't suffering from asthma per se). But just because my lungs needed it to help stop the spasming that went along with the disease. They also put me on steroids to help the lungs heal.

Bronchitis can often affect the lungs the same way. If it is not getting any better - and especially if you are still having trouble breathing, you need to go back! You might even be setting up "walking pneumonia" without realizing it.

Albuterol (or Xopenex if Albuterol makes you hyper) helps a lot, as do the steroids. I had bronchial pneumonia in February (the baby had a different pneumonia in January). Thankfully we have a nebulizer at home (both kiddos have asthma) which helped a lot--using the liquid version gives you the moist air plus the meds. But even the multi-dose inhalers provide a lot of benefit.

Definitely go visit your doctor again!

Oh, and my cough lasted a good six weeks. I let it go too long before seeing the doc in the first place.

I went back to see my doctor after no improvement for the 10 days of antibiotic. She then made an appointment for me to go for a pulminary functions test - but that won't be for another 3 weeks now. She won't give me anything else until after the test. I have since gone to a natural health store and have started taking one of their herbal remedies for breathing problems (the annoying cough is nothing compared to not being able to breath). I've been taking that for 5 days now without seeing any improvement.

Oh so sorry for you.. maybe you should ask your doctor to prescribe you with something else to treat it. Hopefully your pulmonary tests were ok.

One tip for those who get colds and flu frequently-you need to do some major immune boosting. Try adding the herb astragalus to a smoothie with blueberries and green tea every morning. When I began drinking more green tea and following a good immune boosting program, I stopped getting any colds and flu-this has lasted about the last 5 years.

Your doctor is right.

When I went in for the pulminary funcations test, I ended up in the hospital for just about 2 weeks. It seems that there was hardly any oxygen in my blood (41%). There were some crystal like markings in my lungs, in the x-rays, so the did a CT Scan and then decided on a bronchialscope (sp). During that, they deflated one of my lungs (ooops), so most of the time in the hospital was spent in recoving from that. Although they did get the samples they were going for, they got negative results for an avian illness they were looking for, but decided that I must have hyper-sensitivity to my birds. But, being on oxygen for that hospital stay has got me back on track & finally feeling fine again.