Your throat is scratchy, your nose is stuffy and you have a little fever. Should you: a) Take two aspirin and call the doctor in the morning? b) Blame the flu shot you got two days ago?
c) Stock up on echinacea and zinc lozenges?
The answers are: a) no, b) no and c) maybe. Or maybe not.
That's the problem with colds and flu. Americans suffer through more than 1 billion of them annually, according to an estimate by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But most of us don't really know how to prevent them and, once we have them, how to treat them effectively. The information out there is confusing and often contradictory.
No, that's not the problem with colds and flu. The real problem is just how miserable such minor illnesses can make you. (Minor if you're an otherwise healthy adult.)
Last time we checked, they didn't have a cure for the common cold; but the news is more promising as far as the flu is concerned. New drugs shorten its duration and lessen symptoms. And a flu shot will keep you from getting the flu more than 70 percent of the time. This year's is particularly effective.
"It's your first line of prevention," says Dr. Trish Perl, hospital epidemiologist for Johns Hopkins. "All the strains of flu CDC has tested this season are included in it."
Even though flu shots take two weeks to become active, it's not too late to get one. The flu season, which struck hard about a month earlier than usual, will probably last to the end of March. And no, you can't catch the flu or a cold from a flu shot; it's not a live vaccine.
Flu shots won't keep you from getting colds; they're caused by different viruses. If you want to prevent both colds and flu, your best bet is:
Hand-washing 101
Think Lady Macbeth. Think Howard Hughes. Washing your hands incessantly and thoroughly is probably the most effective way to avoid catching a cold. What happens is that you transmit the disease to yourself by touching a contaminated surface -- a telephone, a doorknob, a keyboard where germs can lurk for hours if not days. Then you touch your nose or eyes before washing your hands. The damage is done.
"It's by far the most effective thing you can do," says Charles Inlander, author of "77 Ways to Beat Colds and Flu" (Walker and Company, 1996). "It's a thousand times more effective than not kissing someone who has the bug."
