Description

Icyou.com's consulting physician, Mona Khanna, MD, MPH talks about the differences between the common cold and allergies.

Transcript

Well there are couple of things, first of all that symptoms are very, very non-specific, runny nose, watery eyes, sometimes associated with the headache, congestion, postnasal drip. Those can be associated not only with cold, but also with allergies and that's what we really need to differentiate between the two. Colds are more likely to be associated with body aches, with fever, and with sore throat. You generally don't see those symptoms with allergies. Allergies on the other hand are links to people who have nasal polyps, which are outgrowths of tissue in their nose. People who have asthma tend to be more allergic as well; and so you need to look to see whether or not your particular symptoms are associated with other symptoms that can lead us into the direction of whether or its not cold, or its an allergy. If you have an allergy you may already know it. We find that people tend to develop those symptoms of runny nose, and sniffing, and postnasal drip in the fall and in the spring, and that's pollen is at its greatest levels and we have some of the other environmental factors too. But also remember in the winter time people stay indoors more. So if they are allergic to things like dust mites, to things like pet here they have more exposure to those things, because they are indoors more. so that may cause the stuffiness and the runny nose and the other symptoms, that may make you think you have a cold, which is due to mostly the viruses in the air, but it could be allergies. So that's why it's important to try to differentiate the two, because they are treated differently. Another great clue is to whether or not you have allergies, or cold as if you take regular treatment for cold, whether it be Tylenol for your headache, or some kind of decongestant; and you don't get relief, while you may need a stronger allergy medicine, and that could help point you in the direction that you have allergies. Some people with allergies severe allergies actually get allergy shots on a regular basis. So there are different kinds of treatment and whether or not you are responding to one type of treatment is a big clue as to whether or not its a cold or an allergy. At some point if you have a cold that's not going away despite all of these things that you have tried. You may want to go to your physicians and make sure it's not an allergy, because there is no reason to be a misery, there is no reason to be miserable during the winter months if its an allergy that's not being treated properly. You can get that treatment and then you can get rid of symptoms and signs and you can go on and do whatever you need to do in your life.