I’m full of cold or flu. Taken some paraceptamol to reduce the fever. What do you like to do to feel better even for a short period of time. Need some tips! Feeling so crap
Spicy food.
This helps circulate the sinuses and keeps them ventilated. Doing so prevents infection and overall makes the experience more bearable.
Fevers are your body fighting the infection so unless it gets too high you should just let it do it’s thing. Keeping the fever will shorten the duration of a mild or moderate illness. If your fever gets up to 102-103f or ~39c take medicine to reduce it, if it hits 105f or 40c then you are in danger of cooking you brain and should go to the ER. Stay well hydrated, getting some electrolytes is a good idea if you are sweating more than usual or vomiting. Eat regularly, your body is using extra calories to fight the infection so even if you activity level is lower you need the same or a little more calories than normal. The more balanced your diet the better. Have something to do. Don’t just focus on the illness and lay around getting bored, do some light housework, engage is a light hobby, catch up on some TV or movies, replay an old favorite video game. Anything to keep your mind engaged and to make the time pass faster.
Water + rest. Take off work!
Your body is fighting hard
In addition to what people have advised so far, I can’t stress enough how important rest, and especially sleep is when you’re ill. Whenever I’ve fallen ill with a cold, flu, cough, etc., I find that if I try to fight it and go about the day as normal, the illness lasts much longer. If I try to sleep it off, I get better a lot faster. If you can, and especially on the first day, don’t go to work, don’t run errands, and especially don’t go to the gym/exercise. Good luck!
Mostly, I sleep. When I’m not sleeping, I play relaxing video games or watch older TV shows/movies. So it’s like Stardew Valley and Better Off Ted/Airplane all day.
And, of course, chicken soup or your regional equivalent sick people food.
Drink a lot. I personally always like tea brewed with a few thin slices of ginger. It’s refreshing and makes me feel better.
Chicken soup (placebo yes but works for me)
Ibuprofen
Not just a placebo! At least when made with a proper bone broth. There have been some studies showing it has anti-inflammatory properties, not to mention all the great nutrients it has! (source)
Had this bad boy in the fridge…
Paracetamol is acetaminophen and is not supposed to be regularly mixed with ibuprofen.
That’s not true
You can take it at the same time and usually you take it in 2 hour intervals alternating.
They are entirely different drugs with different mechanisms. Taking too much paracetamol/Tylenol/acetaminophen is extremely dangerous for your liver and dosing instructions should be followed exactly. Prolonged use of ibuprofen or other NSAIDs can lead to gastrointestinal ulcers and kidney damage, so only take it for as long as you have to. They both have instructions to take a dose every 6 to 8 hours, so if you’re in significant pain or you have a really bad fever, you can alternate them every 4 hours. For example, paracetamol at 8am, ibuprofen at noon, paracetamol at 4pm, etc.
Also, be careful of “cough” or “cold” medicines like NyQuil/DayQuil, because they usually have paracetamol/Tylenol in them and that counts towards the daily dose limit.
You are not supposed to swallow them together or right after the other, that’s right. But you can alternate them safely and take ibuprofen before the paracetamol starts wearing off (roughly four hours after the other).
Of course it’s not ideal to take ibuprofen regularly for days on end. And don’t exceed the maximum dose at any given time.
Personally paracetamol does nothing for me, so I rely on ibuprofen solely.
Depends on your symptoms.
- Paracetamol for a general feeling of malaise
- Ibuprofen for fever and muscle and joint aches
- A decongestant like pseudoephedrine if your nose is clogged up, but not the “alternative” phenylephrine that’s often pushed now in over the counter decongestants. It just doesn’t work. A xylometazoline spray works too, but I try to avoid it because it can easily lead to rebound congestion.
Last time I was down with the Plague™, I was in bed, chugging jugs of thyme tea (helps a lot with wet cough), and taking ibuprofen/pseudoephedrine for the fever and stuffy nose. Also I watched the entire history of the Earth documentary series while sorting out my mystery embroidery floss. That helped a lot to keep me busy. Sleeping is good but I feel like I lose track of time and that triggers my depression. But I usually recommend it a lot to my patients.
If you’ve been ill for just a few days and it’s available to you, get a COVID-19 test and seek Paxlovid. The new variants are about so many are sick with it and Paxlovid is effective at reducing illness severity. Same is true of Tamiflu for the flu but it’s likely to be COVID-19 at this time.
Paxlovid
In the UK I bet it’s hard to get this unless you’re in a high risk group with severe symptoms. I am up to date on all my jabs though.
Ah, yea the UK is very strict on Paxlovid eligibility. Glad you’re up to date on the vaccines, if it is COVID that should help with initial illness and resting as much as possible can help with reducing Long COVID development. I may have missed others make this suggestion but a good heat pad or similar for aches can be wonderful. Hope you feel better soon.
I like to cook a spice tea with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and black pepper (cook it all for 10 minutes), and then add some fresh orange juice and honey. Goes well with deliriously binge-watching a series from my “to do” list.
Sounds nice, I think feel like having a cold now.
So do you actually add tea leaves or you just cook the spices? I suppose ground versions don’t work for this?
If you want to add tea (sometimes I add black tea), just let it steep for the normal duration after cooking the rest and before adding the orange juice and honey. For the best result/taste you should grind the spices right before cooking. (Pre-)ground spices work to; you might use a little bit more of them. A word of warning on the pepper: use very little at first. Cooked it the water it is a lot hotter/more stinging than you might expect.
Soup always makes me feel better. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something hot and healthy and tasty. And a piece of bread to mop up afterwards.
Spicy food. It makes your nose run like crazy depending on spice level, but it’s not a thick, stuffy feeling. It gets the juices flowing! Hydrates your nostrils so you can blow your nose easier.
Make sure you’re well-hydrated
For a cold?
Soup, spicy food, hot drinks, salt water gargle, and sometimes I’ll use OTC cold medicine (but be careful because they usually have tylenol in them so you don’t want to drink or take other medicines that can fuck up your liver).
