Fever, headaches and tiredness, how to know if it is an influenza or a cold? You cannot make a mistake. In the vast majority cases, influenza is accompanied by such symptoms as you cannot merge it with a cold or another winter infection.

Influenza is much more aggressive than cold

In case of cold, the nose runs, they feel weak and tired. Sometimes muscular pain happens, but they are not very intense. Also a person got cold can have a little of fever and headaches, but these symptoms are not much marked.

In the comparing, influenza is much more aggressive. Symptoms are very intense and of violent appearance (high fever, make tired important, big weakness, muscular pain, aches) with a feeling of intense general feeling of faintness (they feel ‘poor ‘). These symptoms nail generally in the bed in some hours and for several days.

It is therefore not so much the nature of the symptoms that differentiates an influenza of a cold, that their intensity and their suddenness.

What is interest to be able to differentiate a cold of an influenza?

It is primordial. Because if there is no treatment against the cold, benign viral illness which recovers spontaneously in some days, on the other hand, we have an antiviral medicament against influenza (Tamiflu ®). This treatment allows to cure an influenza in one-two days or to attenuate symptoms strongly, instead of imposing on you the bed for at least a week.

To cure or to attenuate symptoms? Difference is fond of the speed with which the treatment after the beginning of symptoms is taken.

Indeed, to be efficient, Tamiflu ® must be taken as early as possible, that is to say in 24 hours according to the beginning of symptoms (at the latest in 48 hours). It is therefore primordial to consult his doctor very fast so that he prescribes you this treatment.

At the adult, he comes in the form of capsules: a capsule twice a day during 5 days. At the child of more than a year, it is about a potable solution, to adapt according to its weight, also twice a day during 5 days.

Finally, Tamiflu ® is also pointed out in prevention at the persons who were in contact with a person infected by the virus: a tablet one time a day during ten days.

Get tired, small depression, apathy: symptoms which appear regularly right in the centre of the winter. But why do we feel devoid of energy at some instants of the year? French Gérard Pons, Président de l’ Association of luminothérapie, brings the truth about these seasonal depressions.

In winter, a tiredness or a some lassitude are often felt. Why?

The deficit of the sun draws some apathy away. It comes from a rather simple scientific mechanism. The sunlight passes in the eye, then in the brain, where is the hypothalamus.

When natural light is important, the hypothalamus secretes a hormone which is aimed at holding on the alert. On the contrary, when light drops, he produces some melaniline, a soporific substance.

In winter, when the day lasts less for a long time, the brain is therefore going to produce more melaniline, putting us in a state of drowsiness and of tiredness, famous ’seasonal depression’.

How long lasts this ’season ‘?

In France, this ’season ‘ lasts from November till April: days are shorter and it is often dark due to bad time. That being the case, the persons the most sensitive to these seasonal depressions, that is to say, in more scientific terms, organism of which secretes most melaniline, can be subject there at other instants of the year. This phenomenon was besides determined in Florida, in full summer, simply because there had been big storms during several days!

How to tell the temporary depression?

To tell the winter depression, the most important is to become clearer well, what is not always simple when they work eight hours a day in an office lighted in artificial light.
For it, it is possible to go to the doctor who has specific lamps, and to make sessions of exhibition. Unlike UV, light broadcast in medical practices is not damaging for the skin.
The basics are to become clearer well, naturally or with subterfuges when it is not possible in another way.

Depression is a known illness. It is defined by very strict criteria. However, our psyche is not so simple and does not come back always easily into huts. Also, there are concealed depressions, that is to say hidden behind signs completely different from classical signs of depression.

Concealed depression: when the body expresses moral suffering …

Nathalie stays in the bed for 3 weeks. She extremely has backache and feels so much exhausted that her doctor prescribed him a stoppage. Willy-nilly, she has no morale and her position in front of a computer to the office does not encourage her to go back fast to work. She must make physiotherapy and crawls along hardly in the sessions which her doctor prescribed him. In reality, Nathalie saw an episode of concealed depression.

When a person is depressed, her mood is attained. But sometimes, as for Nathalie, it manifests itself in an unusual, concealed way. In that case, the body speaks in first. It is it who expresses the present moral suffering. Then Nathalie suffers from physical disturbances which do not make think, at the beginning, of a more psychical illness.

What physical disturbances is it possible to notice in a concealed depression?

He can involves headaches, backache, pain in the chest, digestive disorders (troubles of belly), of various pain in all body, of vertigo …

Of course, more classical disturbances of depression can also be present, such as sleep troubles or disturbances of appetite, tiredness, mood sinks, the difficulty of concentration, misses him interest for habitually nice stains, a reduction of sexual desire …

How to tell difference between a physical illness and a concealed depression?

In the case of a depression, when pain is present, they are often rather vague, not very focalized on a definite point. Difficulties of sleep are often rather characteristic. These are often waking very early the morning with a difficulty in going back to sleep.

Why does the depression hide?

It is because often, there is a shame to confess that they are depressed. They do not dare to confess it in its circle, but often, they do not confess him either to oneself. It makes that the job of screening of a depression by the doctor is not always easy! And a depression, even concealed, is a true depression. She must treat herself in the same way with a psychotherapy linked to a treatment antidepressant.

What are objective criteria of a concealed depression or not?

(According to DSM4 or textbook of diagnosis of mental diseases).

Two criteria at least have to exist among 5 following (specific criteria):

- Depressive mood,

- Loss of interest or of pleasure for activities,

- Feeling of decrease in value or of excessive or inappropriate guilt,

- Recurrent suicidal ideas.

And 5 criteria are necessary in all among precedents (specific criteria) and following (specific criteria):

- Sleep troubles

- Agitation or psychomotor slowing down,

- Confusion of appetite (increased or weak with loss or weighty benefit),

- Difficulty of concentration,

- Tiredness or loss of energy.

Nose which runs, blocked or that itches? Uninterrupted sneezes, in salvos? Eyes which cry, which go red? It is about the allergic rhinitis, which makes fear the spring to the millions of allergic persons in pollens.

Allergy and allergic rhinitis, it is what?

Allergy and allergic rhinitis are at the origin of very embarrassing symptoms which the majority of the persons concerned do not succeed in relieving: nose which runs permanently, blocked nose, difficulties in breathing, sneezes in salvos, nose which scratches, eyes which sting, watering of the eyes, etc.
All these signs are not serious, they are even recovering from the banal. However, this triad of symptoms corrupts considerably the quality of life because sleep is unsettled with notably numerous nocturnal waking, the installation of a tiredness and the demonstration of headaches. Such consequences reverberate directly on the activities of leisures, professional or even daily.

Why allergic rhinitis also makes also mourn eyes?

Allergic rhinitis attains the nose mainly. Nasal symptoms are due to an inflammation of the nasal mucous membrane which draws away a blockage and a congestion of the nose.
But very often, the symptoms of allergic rhinitis exceed the sphere ORL and spread very quickly in the ocular region. On the whole, 66 % persons attained by allergic rhinitis feel a discomfort linked to eyes, which itch and water. In these conditions, the doctors speak about allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. According to the strictness and the frequency of ocular signs, they also speak about allergic conjunctivitis. Symptoms are then more intense: eyes which go red, tickle, cry, of eyelids which swell, with notably an embarrassing feeling of sand in eyes.

Why is the allergy to the dust mites more frequent in autumn and in winter? How does she manifest itself? How to eradicate this million microscopic animals whom are the dust mites?

Why is the allergy to the dust mites more frequent in autumn and in winter?

The dust mites proliferate all year long in our houses. But they have a predilection as hot places and humid. That’s how they proliferate in pillows, mattresses, carpets, chairs, fuzz And more intensely in autumn and in winter, when the time is humid and that our accommodation is heated well and is less aired.

How manifests itself the allergy to the dust mites?

The dust mites are involved in respiratory diseases, but also in skin disorders and oculars.

The most classical answer is allergic rhinitis: nose which runs, repeating sneezes, itches, etc.

The dust mites can also launch allergic rhino-conjunctivitises: besides the symptoms of allergic rhinitis, watering of the eyes, redness and prickle of eyes.

Finally, all these reactions are at the origin of sleep troubles and of tiredness which draw away a deterioration of the quality of life and of disabilities in the daily.

How to eliminate the dust mites?

Too much do not heat his accommodation: 19-21°C and 16-18°C in the room.

Limit the rate of humidity to 50 % maximum.

Air the room regularly every day, or even several times a day by dry time.

Ban moquettes, carpets, chairs in cloth, and other nests with dusts and with dust mites.

Cover the mattresses of dust covers anti-dust mites.

To treat the symptoms of allergy to the dust mites, it is necessary to consult his doctor, ideally an allergist, who will assess opportunity to accomplish a desensitizing to the dust mites.

With spring, the season of respiratory allergies returns. And as though to sneeze all day long was not enough, for the allergic, the night is often a bad time to be crossed.

Respiratory allergies and sleep

A recent study on allergies and sleep showed that allergic rhinitis, one of the most frequent respiratory allergic affections, was very often accompanied with sleep troubles. These would be caused, across a still badly known mechanism, by a reaction of the brain to the inflammation which touches cloths of the nose. This phenomenon comes to get worse an already unpleasant situation at first …

Even more embarrassing symptoms at night

Indeed, the respiratory allergies, which are accompanied by important production of phlegm, of cough, of cloths congested in the nose and in the throat, sometimes seem linked to prevent sleep to begin, cough or sneezes do not help to fall asleep. And even once they succeeded in closing the eye, as the nose is crimson and blocked, it is possible to breathe only by the mouth. And this breathing is not optimum on long length: congestion gets worse, mucous membranes become dry, or even painful. The person suffering from allergy is uncomfortable, thirsty, and wakes up very easily. The result of every it is an unsettled sleep, which returns the all the more difficult days with tiredness, difficulties in concentrating and possibly petulance.

How to spend good nights in spite of allergies?

The first stage, it is to make sure that the allergies are under control. It means to consult a competent allergist and to follow the treatment of possible bottom which will have been prescribed. Some medicine anti-allergy are likely to draw drowsiness away, it is useful to decide on an hour in which you take them according to this side effect. Moreover, some “knack” is recommended by the specialists and the persons affected by allergies:

- Change sheets regularly to avoid that allergens as dust mites or dust pile up there.

- Wash hair in the evening to get rid of allergens kept in hair in the course of the day, especially for allergies in the pollen.

- Take the time, before going to lie down, to make a soft rinsing of the nose with a nasal specialised spray (not willy-nilly medicinal). It will free you from allergens which are already in your respiratory tract and will improve the humidity of mucous membranes.

- To raise the height of the head of the bed of some centimetres makes breathing easier (but aggravate the problems of legs).

- To drink enough throughout the day returns the easier and more liquid phlegm to be evacuated.