Jon Baird, MPAS, PA-C, ATC, and Travis Layne, MMS, PA-C, faculty members in the Master of Physician Assistant (PA) program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, discuss some of the basics, and the myths, of cold and flu season.
The Difference Between the Cold and the Flu
How do you know if you have the flu or just the common cold? Layne explains, “It’s like the difference between a migraine and a headache. Migraines usually stop us and we have to go lie down. The flu interferes with interactions of daily living. People complaining of aching from head to toe.” Whereas, “the common cold is more runny nose, sore throat, and cough.”
Baird clarifies, “There’s no such thing as the ‘stomach flu.’ There’s gastroenteritis, and that can cause you to throw up and have diarrhea. But there’s no such thing as the 24-hour flu. It’s probably gastroenteritis or one of the viruses (there are half a dozen we could mention) that cause the common cold or acute nasopharyngitis. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills.” Layne adds that “generally with an upper respiratory infection, you get a fever.”
And most people think that when your body feels hot, it means you have a fever. But Baird explains that it’s when you feel cold that you have a fever. “If the temperature in the room stays the same, but your internal temperature goes up, the difference between those two is what makes you cold. That’s what gives the mechanism of shivers and cold.”
He adds, “Elevated body temperature works in your favor in terms of recovery because it inhibits viral replication.”
Layne adds that your age also affects how serious a fever is. “Depending on your age, that depends on how aggressive we treat the fever.”
What about the Flu Shot?
“We’re living in a cool period of the history of the world,” said Baird. “We have resources all around the globe that are working together to monitor the situation. Influenza is always around but there are times and seasons when it tends to be more epidemic–when it occurs more than normal.”
He explains that health organizations around the world test for influenza in those areas of the world to see which flu strains tend to predominate. With that information, they work to manufacture a vaccine “that’s the best guess of what we’re going to get here.” The entire vaccine manufacturing process takes a few months, and “every year we experience an antigenic shift, meaning the influenza virus is evolving, it’s constantly changing,” says Baird. So by the time the virus gets here, it may be entirely effective or less effective due to that shift.
Tragically, Layne notes that “there are always deaths related to the flu.” With the flu vaccine, the goal is to “keep people out of the hospital and from developing complications that come with getting the flu.” He says, “And we know that [the vaccine] is effective. Especially with young kids and older people, or people with diabetes or people who take medications that cause them to be immunocompromised.”
Baird adds, “The flu shot isn’t a forcefield. People who are vaccinated and people who aren’t vaccinated can become exposed to the virus.” It’s about your body’s response to the virus. Some years your body will have the antibodies to fight it before it goes full-blown and other years you might get the full force of the flu.
When Should I Go to the Doctor if I Feel Sick?
“If you feel like you need to go into the doctor, go to the doctor,” says Baird. Layne adds, “If you have a fever, muscle aches, runny nose, and coughing, then red flags might be coughing up a lot of phlegm, or you get short of breath, or chest pain. Everyone is different and there are different risk factors. People don’t die from the flu. They die from complications from the flu. They develop secondary bacterial pneumonia and then it goes from there and can lead to respiratory failure.” Or “It can start with the flu and then they develop symptoms like the worst sore throat and can’t swallow. In that case, they might have developed strep throat, which requires antibiotics, and not just rest and liquids like if you had the flu.”
Listen to the entire RMUpload episode here.
