flu Archives - Elite Care Family Medicine

It’s that time of year again--sick season. That means illnesses like the flu and pneumonia will become more prevalent. These illnesses are often confused for the other so we thought it was a great time to establish the key differences between pneumonia and the flu and how to tell which illness is ailing you.  The Difference Between Pneumonia and the Flu First, the flu is a viral infection while pneumonia is a lung infection that can develop from either a...

After a historically low flu season last fall and winter, health experts are convinced that getting the flu vaccine is more important than ever this year. Why? Many health experts believe the low flu activity over the last year has lowered immunity to the virus and made patients, especially high-risk groups, more susceptible to getting the illness. That's why now is the best time get the 2021 flu vaccine. When Should I Get the 2021 Flu Vaccine? The flu season...

Influenza is one of the most common yet complicated illnesses experienced during the cold months in the United States. It’s common because nearly everyone gets the flu at some point in their life. It’s complicated because it affects everyone differently. Same Flu, Different Effects Though the symptoms are the same, the severity and duration of the symptoms vary. Some people groups including young children, pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems, and...

Few people doubt the flu vaccine has been instrumental in preventing prolonged illness and even flu-related deaths in modern times, but even the biggest proponents of the vaccine admit we’ve got a long way to go before it’s considered “perfected.”  “Even in a good year, the effectiveness of the vaccine is about 60%. On a bad year, it’s as low as 10%. And there’s a reason for that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of...

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...

When most people have cold symptoms like fever, runny nose, or a cough, they expect to slow down. They expect to be back to normal in a few days. If symptoms linger or worsen to the point where they're not enough to keep a person off their feet, but they’re bad enough for that person to notice, it may be walking pneumonia. Walking pneumonia sounds scary, but it’s actually a less severe case of pneumonia. With walking pneumonia a hospital stay is often not...

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...