Health bytes :
What NOT to do if you have the flu
It started - the achy muscles, runny nose, fever, chills, and cough.
It’s the flu. But, there’s no time to be sick.
In the overzealous search for a cure, people make missteps. Here’s
what to avoid when suffering from the flu:
Don’t take antibiotics
A virus causes the flu. Only an anti-viral quashes virus.
“Don’t expect the usual antibiotics to have any impact on the flu.
There are prescription antiviral drugs that work on influenza and
nothing else [works],” says Dr. Susan Rehm, vice chair of Cleveland
Clinic’s infectious diseases department.
Antibiotics can also have nasty side effects, causing yeast
infections, upset stomachs, and diarrhoea.
“Now we are seeing antibiotics in the long term can affect the
bacteria in your gut,” says Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of
infection control at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
Besides being entirely ineffective at curing the flu, when people
take antibiotics too often they can develop a resistance to them. Then
when they need them, the antibiotics fail.
Don’t dose with vitamin C
“The data on [vitamin C] is a little weak,” says Safdar. “If you take
an excess of anything that is a water soluble vitamin, the excess goes
out in the urine.”
Popping vitamin C pills or using cough drops with vitamin C in them
probably won’t boost the immune system or make the flu go away faster.
“In some ways, you are spending a lot of money, where the value is
not at all proven,” Safdar says.
Skip the nasal spray
Some turn to decongestant nasal sprays to help with the agony of
clogged noses, but they might do more harm than good.
“They [the sprays] are very drying in the nose and the throat,” says
Rehm. “Many of them may not work in the long term.”
She says that nasal sprays should only be used for three days at
most. And, the more often people use them, the less likely they are to
work.
“You will get a rebound swelling once the effect has worn off,” she
says. This swelling and congestion means people need to turn to nasal
sprays again and again.
Rehm says nasal congestion often signals a cold, not the flu. That’s
one of the reasons why she recommends people see their doctors within
48-hours of the symptoms, when an antiviral is most effective.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that
children under 2, people over 65, and people with chronic conditions
receive antiviral medication for the flu to avoid complications.
Don’t go to work
“If you think you have the flu, the place for you is in bed and at
home,” says Rehm. “Flu symptoms last five to seven days; you should not
begin to resume normal activities until 24 hours after the last fever.”
Going to work or school with the flu means sick people infect others.
And, there is more than one strain of flu, meaning people risk becoming
infected with another strain, says Rosen.
“You become susceptible to other infections as well. It is just not a
good thing [to go out] because your immunity is down,” she says.
- Today Health
|