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Build your immune system.  This is your body’s most powerful weapon against this viral infection.  It might surprise you that you can make remarkable strides in this area with a little effort and forethought. 

There are two fairly simple ways to build your immune system (aside from eating properly).  That’s through the use of herbs and dietary supplements.  These two modalities of natural treatments may also help provide you with some relief from the symptoms.

You might never have heard of the first herb that’s being suggested – Boneset – but it was a highly regarded herbal remedy of the Native Americans and later by the early American colonists.  They depended on it to alleviate the symptoms of the influenza – when they had little else with which to battle the infection.  Today, professional herbalists are re-discovering this effective natural remedy in this regards.  It’s also effective as an expectorant.  It helps break up the mucus in your lungs.

Goldenseal is another herb prized by Native Americans.  It may be a useful natural remedy for you when it comes to the flu.  Be prepared, though, for a bitter cup of tea if you take it in this form.  It is not a naturally sweet plant.

Lemon balm.  Even the name sounds as if it should be a pleasing, calming plant.  And indeed it is.  But it’s also a great tool to use when you’re fighting the flu.  Professional herbalists say that it not only helps you to sweat, but it also relieves the fever that accompanies the flu.

Garlic capsules may also help you through your week-long bout with the flu.  Many recommend you take two capsules three times a day during this week to help boost your immune system.

Don’t ignore the use of essential nutrients in your search for relief from the flu, either.  Consider pumping your system with vitamin C.  Dr. James F. Balch and his wife, Phyllis, a certified nutritional consultant, recommend between 5,000 and 10,000 mg in servings divided evenly throughout the day.

You may also want to stock up and have ready zinc lozenges.  Zinc stimulates and strengthens your immune system.  The moment you feel the symptoms of the flu grab you begin to use these lozenges.  Continue to use them until your symptoms disappear. 

Before you embark on any program of nutritional supplementation or herbal therapy, be sure to consult with your personal health care practitioner.  He’ll know if any of the alternative or complementary aids you wish to use will conflict with any of your prescription medications.

Similarly, be sure to consult with a professional herbalist before using any herbs.  She’s the perfect individual to help you decide what herbs will do you the most good.

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While anyone can come down with the symptoms (and most of us do at one time or another), this viral infection normally concentrates its efforts on those individuals with particular health problems.

These individuals who are at a “high risk” for this illness are really more susceptible to a double whammy of infections.  They’re not only more likely than the rest of the population to contract the flu, more often than not, they usually have weakened immune systems or other health problems that also increase their odds of developing complications.  For any individual who is at high risk of developing this normally innocuous, but annoying, illness, also, unfortunately views the influenza as a very serious illness.

What constitutes a high risk individual?  You’re automatically at high risk for the flu if you already possess some form of chronic lung disease, like asthma, chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, emphysema or tuberculosis.

If you possess heart disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes or some other form of chronic metabolic disorder, you’re considered to be at high risk for contracting the flu as well.

The presence of severe anemia can place you at high risk, as well as possessing a depressed immune system because of a specific disease or a treatment.

You don’t need to have a particular illness, though, to be considered at a greater risk of developing the flu.  If you have a lowered immune system, you are in this category.  Also your age alone can place you at greater odds of developing influenza.  If you’re 65 years or older you’re automatically considered more susceptible to catching the flu.  Similarly living in a nursing home or a chronic care facility also increases your chances of getting the viral infection.

Thankfully, the flu can be prevented.  Each year a flu vaccine is made available.  Since the virus that causes the flu likes to change its form regularly, the composition of the vaccine is different every year.  Its composition is based on the best estimates of what the virus is expected to look like for the coming flu season.

The viruses found in the vaccine are inactive to ensure you can’t actually contract the flu through the inoculation.  The vaccine, though, produces antibodies so your immune system can recognize the virus and build an immunity to it.

It usually takes between one to two months following the injection for your system to be at its peak protection.  Then slowly, your protection declines.  The best time to get vaccinated is in November.  It’s a great idea because the inoculation not only strengthens your immune system against the flu, but it also reduces your odds of getting a severe case of it.

Many individuals hesitate to get inoculated fearing that they may experience an adverse reaction to it.  The vast majority of people experience no side effects from a flu shot.  One of the most common reactions is the development of a swollen, red, tender area where the shot was given.  This disappears in a few days.  But only one-quarter of the individuals who receive the shot experience this.

An even smaller percentage of individuals may actually experience a slight fever within 24 hours of the vaccine.  They may also find they have a mild case of the chills or a slight headache.

If you have an existing respiratory disease and receive a flu shot you may find that your respiratory symptoms may worsen temporarily.  However, within several days, these symptoms will improve.

The vaccine is incubated in a chicken egg culture.  If you know you’re allergic to eggs then you shouldn’t receive the shot.

Individuals in the high risk category for acquiring the flu should definitely be inoculated.  Those people, who don’t fall into the category themselves, but care for individuals at high risk, should also get the vaccine.

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The method your personal health care practitioner uses to diagnose whether you have the flu depends on whether an epidemic of the illness exists.

If an epidemic already exists, then your practitioner’s job is easy.  He only has to observe your symptoms.  He may take blood to ensure that no complications are present alongside the flu.  An uncomplicated case of the flu shows a lowered white blood cell.

Once your health care practitioner has confirmed your influenza, she’ll send you home.  But not without a list of instructions.  She’ll advise you to get plenty of bed rest and to drink plenty of fluids.  In addition, she’ll recommend you take aspirin or acetaminophen to alleviate the fever and some of the muscle aches.  She may write you out a prescription for cough medicine or simply recommend a good over-the-counter cough syrup.

Amantadine – an effective antiviral drug – has a good track record in helping to alleviate the symptoms of the flu.  Your health care practitioner may prescribe this,

If your case of the flu is compounded by pneumonia, then you’ll definitely be required to take fluid and electrolyte supplements.  You may be administered oxygen to assist your breathing and you may even be placed on a ventilator, depending on the severity of your pneumonia. You probably will also be treated with antibiotics for a bacterial infection.

There is really nothing more your health care practitioner can do.  Hospitalization for an uncomplicated case of the flu is normally not required.

Here are some steps you can take, though, during your recovery that should provide you with some relief.

First, when your personal health care physician tells you to increase your fluid intake, listen to her.  The last thing you want is to get dehydrated. 

Take warm baths to ease your muscle soreness.  If you have an herbal therapy bag that you can warm up and place on some of the sore areas, now would be a good time to use it.
Keep your social calendar to a minimum.  If you have to, cancel meetings.  Don’t go out visiting unnecessarily.  Similarly, limit the number of individuals you invite into your home.  This works both to protect you as well as your potential guests.  You don’t have to worry about developing any bacterial infections from others.  It also protects your guests from catching the flu from you.

Be extra attentive to the proper disposal of used tissues.  The virus can lurk on a tissue for a while.  If another person accidently bump it or touches it, he may be the next victim of the flu.

Similarly, be ever mindful of washing your hands.  Once again, your mother’s advice proved to be correct.  You can eliminate the transmission of the virus with some attention in this area.

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You’re well aware that it’s all too easy to contract the flu.  You can acquire this viral infection either through direct or indirect contact in a myriad of ways.

If you’re near someone who sneezes, you have the chance of catching it from him.  If your co-worker coughs too close to you, you may develop it.

Another excellent way of coming down with the flu is to use a drinking glass which has been previously used by an infected individual. 

Once the virus infects your body, it invades the lining of your respiratory tract.  This causes inflammation and many of the symptoms we’ve come to dread.

The virus is especially frustrating to the medical community because of its elusive ability to change its unique form yearly.  This means that every year each of us is once again at the mercy of a new viral strain.  And this means that even if you had the flu the year before, you have to start at square one in protecting yourself from the new strain.  Your body has no immune resistance to this updated version of the virus.

If you do acquire it from someone else, don’t think you’ll know within hours.  However, if you were unlucky enough to catch it you’ll know within a day. The influenza viral lurks in your body for a full 24 hours before surfacing.  If you were near an infected person who sneezed at 3 p.m. Monday at work, you’ll know by 3 p.m. Tuesday if you’re infected as a result of that encounter.  If you haven’t come down with any symptoms by then, it means you didn’t catch the flu – this time!  You still need to take precautions to keep yourself free of the infection.

Your first indication that the flu has a good hold of you is the sudden onset of chills.  This will undoubtedly be followed by a fever typically rising to 101 or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.  You’ll also experience a headache, a general malaise or lethargic feeling, as well as muscle aches and weakness, particularly in your arms, legs and back.

Other symptoms of the flu include coughing, sometimes accompanied by laryngitis or hoarseness, running nose and watery eyes.

The majority of these symptoms subside after three to five days.  You may discover, though, that your cough and your weakness persist a little longer.  This is normal and unless it is extremely bothersome, no real cause to worry.

If your fever lasts longer than five days, though, you should consult your health care practitioner.  This continue presence of this stubborn symptom could indicate that you’ve developeda health complication as a residual reaction to the flu.  Your body may even be trying to tell you that you have pneumonia.

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You know that dreaded feeling only too well.  It starts with a headache – but it doesn’t end there.  You feel weak.  Your arms, legs and back ache miserably.  At first you have the chills, then you’re feverish.  You don’t need your any medical expert to tell you – it’s the flu.

More formally referred to as influenza by the medical community, this illness is not only common, but highly contagious.  It’s a viral infection of the respiratory tract.

Because it is so contagious and is spread to readily when any infected person coughs or sneezes, outbreaks of the flu are fairly common.  But don’t let it’s near constant appearance fool you.  The flu is dead serious.

There are two fundamental reasons to remain ever watchful against the flu.  First, the virus causing the flu is constantly changing.  This makes it impossible for your system to build a strong immunity against it. The virus’s ever-changing form is the exact reason why flu vaccines aren’t 100 percent successful for every person.

Second, as a viral infection, this illness just can’t be treated with antibiotics.  The best your health care practitioner can do is to give you medications to ease your symptoms.

Flu symptoms usually linger for about a week (though if you’re the one suffering with them, it seems like they stick around for a lot longer!).  If you develop a bacterial infection along with the flu, though, those symptoms may indeed persist a little longer.

Don’t be surprised if following your bout with the flu, your body remains tired or sluggish for a week or even more.  Your system experienced considerable stress in battling the virus; it’ll need some time to recuperate.

The is one illness that really knows no boundaries.  It’ll strike just about anyone, regardless of her age.  Its incidence, though, seems to be highest in school-age children.  This is due, in all probability, to the close contact children undergo while in school for five to six hours a day. Many students, in addition, spend even more time around potentially infected children by attending day care either before or after school – or both.

One recent study suggested that if flu vaccination efforts seriously concentrated on total vaccinations of school-aged children, the vast majority of the cases in this country would never occur.  It makes sense.  Once a child gets sick with the flu, she’s likely to spread it to other family members. Then these family members take it to work or church or just about anywhere else.

All age groups are certainly susceptible to the flu, but specific groups feel its effects more severely than others.  Those who may come down with the worst cases of the flu include the very young, the elderly, as well as those with chronic diseases.  These groups also run the highest risks of dying from the virus.

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