Table of contents:
- Habits that aggravate cold and fever symptoms
- 1. Letting go of pain
- 2. Take antibiotics
- 3. Take high doses of vitamin C
- 4. Taking many drugs at once without a doctor's prescription
- 5. Too often use nasal sprays
- 6. Not drinking enough
- 7. Lack of sleep
- 8. Smoking
- 9. Too stressed
Cold and fever symptoms both make the body feel messy. Surprisingly, these two diseases can get worse even though you have taken medication. Wait a minute. Before blaming ineffective drugs, maybe some of your habits are behind it.
Habits that aggravate cold and fever symptoms
1. Letting go of pain
Colds and fevers seem like trivial illnesses and they are often overlooked. You may also tend to procrastinate taking medication because you think your symptoms aren't too severe.
Even so, the more you let your cold and fever symptoms get worse. Ignoring disease is the same as allowing viruses and germs to spread more and more in the body. As a result, your immune system decreases and the possibility of transmission will be even greater.
The sooner you treat cold and fever symptoms, the sooner you can get back to health. Non-prescription pain relievers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen can help relieve symptoms.
2. Take antibiotics
Both colds and fevers are most often caused by viral infections. So if you have been taking antibiotics all this time, you are actually doing something wrong. Antibiotics are drugs to treat bacterial infections, not viruses. Taking antibiotics will only make cold and fever symptoms worse because the virus that causes them isn't eradicated.
3. Take high doses of vitamin C
Vitamin C can help strengthen the body's resistance and fight minor infections such as colds.
However, recent studies have noted that taking high doses of vitamin C has not been shown to improve symptoms of both cold and fever. Consumption of high doses of vitamin C has the potential to cause diarrhea. In some cases it can even increase the risk of iron poisoning.
4. Taking many drugs at once without a doctor's prescription
Taking a lot of medicine at once without a doctor's recommendation does not speed up the healing of colds and fevers, but makes it worse. Because, there will be a risk of interactions between drugs that might actually cancel out the effects of each drug.
If you are taking a decongestant that contains pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine, or oxymetazoline, be careful about certain side effects that can worsen disease progression.
Therefore, be sure to take cold and fever medicines only as directed by your doctor. Ask your doctor whether this medicine can be taken together with other medicines, especially if you have other comorbidities.
5. Too often use nasal sprays
Saline nasal sprays can help relieve cold and fever symptoms. However, if it is too much, this treatment has the opposite effect.
If you use a decongestant spray for at least three to four days in a row, your nasal membranes will actually swell even more. So, use this drug only as a doctor's prescription according to the recommended dosage.
6. Not drinking enough
Every time you get sick, your fluid needs increase. The reason is, the liquid is useful to help melt the mucus that is blocked in the nose so that trapped viruses can escape through the mucus. The less you drink, the more inflamed your cold and fever symptoms will be.
Apart from plain water, you can meet your fluid needs by drinking diluted juice, hot tea, or broth which can help relieve cold and fever symptoms.
7. Lack of sleep
When you have colds and fevers, you really need extra sleep. The reason is, sleep can help the body fight infections that make you sick. Even though it sounds cliché, this method can help speed up recovery from colds and fevers that you experience.
A study shows that getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night can increase the risk of catching the flu by three times. If cold and fever symptoms make you wake up frequently in the middle of the night, you can work around this by sleeping early or taking a proper nap.
8. Smoking
If you have a cold or fever but continue to smoke, it's best to stop immediately. Smoking even in a healthy body can damage the lungs, especially if it is continued when you have a cold or fever.
When you smoke, the harmful substances in cigarettes will enter the body and slowly damage the lungs. As a result, it will be harder for the lung cells to fight off the infection, so you will cough frequently. This also applies to those of you who are often exposed to secondhand smoke, which is known as passive smoking. The impact will be the same as being an active smoker, you know.
9. Too stressed
Too much reported stress could be the reason why your cold or fever gets worse. This is because stress can affect the immune system by forcing it to work harder. The more stressed you are, the longer the cold and fever will stay in your body.
Therefore, try to relax more by taking deep breaths or engaging in other relaxation techniques, such as yoga, to quickly stop colds and fevers.
