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Sneezing, wheezing, and headache? Muscle aches, restlessness, and coughing? It can be hard to figure out whether your new illness is the common cold or the more insidious flu.
Here are a few key differences you can use to decide whether it’s just a cold or something more serious the next time you start experiencing symptoms.
Ask yourself these questions to figure out if you need to go to the doctor, or if your illness will probably clear up in a few days on its own.
For starters, what season it is can give you a clue about whether you’re dealing with the flu or a common cold. “Flu season” generally starts in the mid-fall and goes on until the beginning of the following spring.
So if you’re sick during the late fall or winter, it’s likelier than usual that it might be the flu. A cold can happen any time of the year, though sometimes it can be confused with allergies during the spring or fall.
The flu and colds have different symptoms. The flu is overall more severe than a cold, and it usually involves a fever, sore throat, coughing, headaches, muscle aches and tension, stuffy nose and sneezing, severe fatigue and exhaustion, and sinus pressure.
If you start to experience breathing problems, or if your fever returns or persists, go to the doctor to check if you might have pneumonia, which is a not infrequent complication of the flu and can be dangerous.
A cold often starts with a sore throat before moving into a period of congestion and ending with a cough. The symptoms are generally less severe than those of the flu.
You might experience a slight fever, muscle aches, or headache, but in general, they will be less intense and will not persist for as long.
The length of time for which your symptoms persist can also help you determine whether you have the flu or a cold.
Symptoms of a cold should be most severe for three to five days, though a cough or some congestion might linger. The flu, meanwhile, could go on for a week or even two.
