The first thing you notice about an illness is also the worst part about it: the symptoms. Once you’ve tackled the root cause of what’s wrong by speaking directly to a doctor, your next focus is likely on how you can properly manage the various symptoms you’re struggling with. Luckily, each symptom that you face can be likely handled in multiple ways.
Whether you’re looking for the nearest STD testing facility or are looking to simply ease your cold symptoms, the following article will be helpful to you. You should keep in mind that most symptoms are tied to an illness of some form or fashion.
Most Common Illness Symptoms
The following is meant to accompany professional help, not replace it. If your symptoms get worse or if you have more than one of the following at any given time with no clear cause, talk to a doctor to start treating the underlying issue.
Cough
One of the most common and annoying symptoms that a person may face is dealing with a cough. People tend to hate coughing because it distracts them from whatever they were trying to do, and on top of it all, people around them find constant coughing to be annoying.
Unfortunately, simply holding a cough back doesn’t work and only makes the next coughing fit worse. The good news is that coughing is so common that there are a ton of home remedies to fight it.
Common remedies like a simple spoonful of honey, sipping on warm drinks, and taking advantage of steam are all great options to consider to help bring a little it of relief. The sweet, golden syrup that is honey is great at suppressing coughs and has been proven across cultures for centuries.
In fact, by now, you’ve more than likely heard people recommending tea with honey to their loved ones when coughs strike them, and there’s a good reason why. Honey carefully coats the throat and has some intrinsic antibacterial properties—plus, it tastes good, too!
Combine this with a warm drink like tea to soothe the throat and open the sinuses, reducing the cough. Steam has a similar effect but is inhaled instead of drunk. If these aren’t available, find a cough drop or hard candy that you can suck on.
The increase in saliva will decrease how much you cough by a significant amount until you can properly treat the symptom.
Fever
When you start to feel sick, you’ll likely catch yourself placing the back of your hand against your forehead long before you consider grabbing a thermometer. You likely got this instinct from when you were ill as a child and your parent or caregiver would do the same to check for a fever.
Unfortunately, the best treatment for a fever is to simply wait it out. The illness is the cause of the increased body temperature, so when it goes the fever will as well. Minor fevers can likely be rested off as a result. Higher temperatures that aren’t cause to visit the hospital can be treated with rest, hydration, basic cooling efforts and medicines like ibuprofen (commonly known as Advil).
As you try to cool yourself, keep ice and cold baths or showers out of the picture. This will simply make you feel cold while trapping more body heat inside your blood vessels, making the problem worse. Any wet washcloths should be roughly room temperature and removed after a short period of time.
Fatigue
The worst common illness symptom is fatigue. Most of the others can be treated in some way, like honey for coughs and cool washcloths for fevers. Fatigue, which feels like extreme tiredness, can only be treated with rest and removing the offending illness.
Other things can cause fatigue as well, though. Poor diet, not enough exercise and even stress can all cause fatigue. Even missing a single night of good sleep can cause a minor bout of fatigue. Eating a balanced diet and taking supplements when necessary can help reduce this fatigue, especially when paired with regular exercise. Both of these actions will also improve the quality of your sleep which solves that problem.
If you’re ill and feeling fatigue as a result, try your best to eat something healthy as you recover and try taking a supplement or two as well to help give your body the nutrients it needs to help fight back.
Avoiding exercise until the fatigue begins to wane may be best as it may make the fatigue worse by straining the body even further.
Headaches
Headaches can be incredibly annoying—they’re typically debilitating, come in many different types and have a myriad of causes. While each type has its own unique causes and remedies as a result there are a few things you can do to alleviate the pain.
The most obvious solution is to take over-the-counter pain medication, and should this medication not be enough or the cause is overusing it, you may need to look elsewhere for solutions. A good rule of thumb for every headache is to relax your jaw, neck and shoulders. Keeping even just one of these things tense can create tension in the muscles and worsen a headache.
Using a heating pad or warm compress on your neck and shoulders may help relax them and provide further relief. There are also a few stretches that help as well. Of course, staying hydrated will also relieve some of the pain, especially if mild dehydration is the culprit.
Muscle Aches or Pains
We typically associate muscle aches and pains with rough illnesses, such as the flu. There’s no need to panic if you experience this symptom, though—the best answer is once again rest.
To be more specific you need to rest the muscles that are aching or in pain. This may mean something as simple as using one arm less or it could be as unfortunate as staying in bed all day depending on how far the aches reach.
For aching, this is about all you can do aside from take more over-the-counter pain medications. If you’re experiencing pain, though, then minor stretching and stress relief can also aid in your recovery. You may even be able to apply a warm or cold compress to reduce the pain.
Should the pain worsen, stick around for multiple days, or even be accompanied by a fever then seek medical attention. There is likely a more serious underlying issue at play.
