Uncomfortable and inconvenient: A cold always comes at the wrong time. It is triggered by viruses, which are expelled during coughing and Sneezing around. This is the so-called droplet infection. Also, close physical contact can lead to infection, just like Touching door handles, handrails in the Bus or other contaminated surfaces, then, when a handle at the mouth, nose or eye.
A rule of thumb is: viruses find it easier if the immune system is weakened – for example, by lack of sleep, too little exercise, but also by staying in overheated and poorly ventilated rooms.
What follows after the infection, strongly depends on the excitation. Experts distinguish more than a hundred types of cold viruses, says doctor Hans-Michael mill field from Bremen. “There is viruses in the nose, others in the throat or on the bronchi. So, too, the complaints are different then.”
Cold, flu, bacterial infection?
Although one often speaks of a “flu”, have the flu and the common cold virus is nothing to do with each other. There are different types of viruses that cause different diseases. During a cold the body temperature rises, if at all, only slightly, begins a real flu abruptly with a high fever. Even otherwise, the symptoms of real flu are significantly more pronounced than in the case of a flu-like infection.
The symptoms of a common cold, over time, exacerbate and add to that fever, it’s often due to an additional infection by bacteria. The risk for a second infection is especially great if Cold ignore the warning signs your body, and do not spare them.
Anyone who can’t pause due to Job and family, despite the cold, or wants to, ends up, instead of the doctor, often in the pharmacy. “Patients come with the expectation that the common cold should directly disappear after a single application of the preparation complete, so this is one of the most difficult consulting situations at all,” says Andreas Kiefer, pharmacist, Koblenz, and President of the Federal chamber of pharmacists. “But it is extremely common.”
Basically, It was still not found a means to shorten the time of the common cold. Is possible instead to treat the discomfort is to sell about painkillers headaches, to relieve irritation of the throat by means of lozenges or to facilitate a nasal spray, the breath. Otherwise, the body requires rest.
“Many underestimate the insanity in the strength of the immune system is the cost the body,” says the pharmacist. The exhaustion that was felt by many people, then, is a result of the immune system. Who run a lot of cold doping from the pharmacy, must expect longer to fail than planned. Then the body gets the pathogen in the handle.
The first two days are the worst
Normally, a cold lasts one to two weeks. Worst of all, the first two to three days, be mill field says. Anyone who has been to this range yet fever or complications, you should contact a family doctor first, preferably by phone. The telephone contact contactors the practice staff and other patients from the infection.
“I can remember again and again in situations, where sometimes 30 to 40 patients a day call and have the same symptoms signs,” says the physician. This will give an indication of what type of virus was in circulation.
It is so far, is prevention – especially through regular hand washing, thorough Ventilation and plenty of movement. The clothes should not be so hot that the body does not cool in the middle. Many also vitamin supplements to be helpful – according to jaw, a rather unnecessary investment. In the case of a well-balanced home-cooked food, sufficient nutrients would be included.
The German nutrition society recommends that adults, for example, depending on your lifestyle, approximately 95 to 155 milligrams of Vitamin C per day. This has been put juice in an Apple, a pepper or a glass of fresh orange. For this reason, experts consider it to be superfluous, Vitamin C as a dietary Supplement, take.
Makes sense but, the in-house pharmacy in a timely manner to increase. Mill field is recommended for the pain and fever tablets lowering agent, nasal drops and lozenges. Sage tea to Drink, and Inhale, as well as peppermint oil can help to preference. Of products that combine different active ingredients to each other, discourages the pharmacist, however, so it may lead to accidental Overdoses or interactions.
Who was unsure, the previously used drugs in the pharmacy. It was irrelevant, however, whether catch a Cold reset for the relief on medicinal plants, home remedies, or medications. Because heal all of this can only relieve. Mill field: “all of This makes it a little easier to survive the time until you get back to being healthy.”