cold Archives - Elite Care Family Medicine

Up North, cars are coated with powdery white snow during the winter. We don’t get much snow in Mississippi but in the spring we do find a fine powder coating our vehicles, only this powder is yellow and causes many of us to sniffle and sneeze throughout the season. We’re talking about pollen, of course, and those dreaded allergy symptoms.  Is it Allergies, a Cold, or Something Else? During the spring, it’s difficult for allergy sufferers to know whether...

One minute you’re fine and the next a steady stream of blood is gushing from your nose. A nosebleed occurs when one of the many fragile surface blood vessels in the nose break. Even if the particular cause of a nosebleed is unknown, most cases are minor and treatable from home. Patients experience two kinds of nosebleeds. An anterior nosebleed occurs when the blood vessels in the front of the nose break and bleed. A posterior nosebleed occurs in the back or the deepest...

Since a cold and a sinus infection share similar symptoms. Knowing the difference and being able to tell which one you have can be tricky. We’ll make it a little easier on you with these questions you need to ask. What is a cold? A cold is a virus in the upper respiratory system. The common cold can be caused by many different types of viruses. A cold is usually harmless and symptoms usually resolve within two weeks. Symptoms include runny nose, nasal congestion,...

So it hits you right in the middle of the day. You start feeling sluggish. You get chills and a headache. Maybe you feel a little bit irritable. You reach for the thermometer, stick it under your tongue, and sure enough it reads 100.0° Fahrenheit. You have a low-grade fever. But what causes a fever? What is Fever? Fever is a natural response that helps fight off foreign substances such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and toxins. Body temperature is set by the...

One minute you’re fine. The next your nose is runny, your throat is scratchy and you have nowhere near the amount of energy you usually do. These are all signs you're coming down with something, but you don’t have to retire to your bed with a box of tissues yet. Nip that cold in the bud with these tips. Get plenty of sleep. You're tired for a reason. Listen to your body and get all the sleep you can. Sleep helps your body fight the infection that’s causing you to...

When cold weather hits or allergy season comes around, you can hear it. The sound of countless people hacking up a lung. While coughing is a pain, its purpose is to protect you. It’s a reflex that rids the body of things that don’t belong in your respiratory system like inhaled dirt, food, germs, and excess mucus. Many things can trigger a cough, but here are a few of the most common. Viruses Cold and the flu are the most common causes of a cough. The purpose of...

There’s no doubt winter is the season for colds. Even the name “the common cold” seems to suggest that lower temperatures contribute to the nose-running, throat-burning misery. For many years medical professionals denied this correlation. Researchers told us the cold weather had nothing to do with getting sick. Turns out, grandma was right on this one and the researchers were wrong. It was and still is common knowledge that cold and flu germs make us sick. When the...

Have you had your flu shot yet? The flu season is in full swing, and while this season has been well below epidemic levels Mississippi has still been one of the states hardest hit this year. According to the CDC, Mississippi had an influenza-like illness rate of 6.1% well above the national average of 2.3%. The nation has experienced a mild flu season overall as of the week ending December 2, 2017. However, the disease has caused hospitalizations and casualties this...

What’s the best way to protect yourself from getting sick? Need a clue? It’s not any kind of secret home remedy. It’s not any kind of pill. You should be doing it multiple times a day. Give up? It’s washing your hands. Washing your hands is the easiest and most effective way to prevent germs from spreading. Why is washing your hands so important? Feces (a.k.a. poop) from people and animals is a major source of germs like salmonella, E coli, and norovirus that...

For some, catching the flu means missing a week of work, watching a ton of Netflix, and drinking a lot of soup. For other people, catching the flu means a hospital stay and the possibility of not going home. Influenza is a serious disease. It can lead to hospitalization and sometimes even death. It’s a respiratory infection that can cause serious complications. Some of these include viral or bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, asthma flare-ups, heart problems, ear...