Cold and flu season is on us in a big way. Hopefully you have been lucky but lots of people are getting sick.
If you are sick, how do you know when you need an antibiotic? This is an important question especially now during cold and flu season.
Antibiotics are used in many cases in which they are not helpful. This can lead to digestive side effects, more frequent infections, and even more severe side effects. At the same time, you wouldn’t want to ignore a bacterial infection and be sick longer than necessary.
How can you tell if an infection is viral or bacterial?
Think about four areas in which you can have symptoms:
- Lungs – productive cough, sense of pressure
- Throat – pain and burning
- Sinuses – pressure, pain, congestion, runny nose
- Ears – pressure, pain
Many find this the opposite of what they would expect, but the more places in which you have symptoms the more likely you are to have a viral infection.
The most common combination would be a cough, sore throat, and a runny nose. In almost all cases, that’s a virus. To read the full article, please click on the link below.