Rest is important in treatment of flu

Once infected with flu, it is always better to allow the cold or flu to run its course while you get plenty of physical and emotional rest. This is why in many modern health set-ups, people are advised to rest with no prescription. There is no potential vaccine against a cold and flu though the pharmaceutical industry still makes people to think of flu vaccines or ease your discomfort with a variety of medications that can suppress symptoms.Cold and flu problems are caused by viruses. There is a complex process involved on how they harm your body system. Viruses are nothing but microscopic particles of genetic material, each coated by a thin layer of protein. Due to their design, viruses are not able to reproduce on their own. The only way that viruses can flourish in your body is by using the metabolism of your cells to produce multiple copies of themselves.Once a virus has gained access into one of your cells, depending on the type of virus do reproduce into copies. The virus uses your cell’s resources to replicate itself many times and then breaks open (lyses) the cell so that the newly replicated viruses can leave in search of new cells to infect. Lysis effectively kills your cell.The virus incorporates itself into the DNA of your cell, which allows the virus to be passed on to each daughter cell that stems from this cell. Later on, the virus in each daughter cell can begin replicating itself as described above. Once multiple copies of the virus have been produced, the cell is lysed.Both possibilities lead to the same result: eventually, the infected cell can die due to lyses.The viruses that cause the common cold and flu infect mainly your weakest cells. These are cells that are already burdened with excessive waste products and toxins that easily allow viruses to infect them. So in the big scheme of things, a cold or flu is a natural event that can allow your body to purge itself of old and damaged cells that, in the absence of viral infection, would normally take much longer to identify, destroy, and eliminate. The white discharges from your nose or mouth during a cold or flu consists of dead cells from the upper respiratory tract.Embedded with that mucous are countless dead cells that the body tries to expel and mainly due to the lytic effect of viruses. Sometimes you will have to think that the common cold is a natural way to help you expel such dead cells from your body. Back to our topic of interest, once you get plenty of rest and strive to stay hydrated, properly nourished during a cold or flu, there is no need to get vaccinated or to take medications to suppress symptoms. All uncomfortable symptoms are actually ways in which your body works to eliminate waste products and help your body get through a cold or flu. However, it is sometimes advisable to use pain medication like acetaminophen if your discomfort becomes intolerable. If you take good care of your health, support your immune system through plenty of rest and consistently make health-promoting lifestyle choices, the respiratory cells can stay strong enough. This will help you overcome viral infections of cold or flu that checks membranes of the upper respiratory tract.The difference between a cold and flu is that a cold usually comes on gradually. It makes you to generally feel tired, sneeze, cough and get plagued by a running nose. You often do not have fever, but when you do, it’s only slightly higher than normal. Colds usually last three to four days, but can hang around from 10 days to two weeks.On the other hand, flu comes suddenly and hits hard. You will feel weak and tired and you could run high fever grades. The muscles and joints can probably ache; you will feel chilled and could have a severe headache and sore throat. The fever may last three to five days, but you could feel weak and tired for two to three weeks.Dr Joseph Kamugisha is a resident oncologist in Jerusalem, Israel