Although November had a rather mild climate almost every day, with temperatures higher than usual, the cold has now reached the homes of Italians, bringing with it colds and flu. But if you are sick, how can you best cure yourself and what are the effective medicines?
According to experts, the peak of infections will occur around the end of December and the beginning of January, but very often people, when they realize they have caught the flu and experience headaches, colds, stuffy nose and cough, risk taking a mix of medicines that may be hazardous to your health, as well as useless for the specific condition.
Before starting with the advice of pharmacists, it is good to remember that the best procedure to follow starts from relying on the prescriptions that the attending physician assigns after a visit, but if one prefers to carry out a self-diagnosis, it is good to know thoroughly the symptoms that can appear with the flu, so as to understand where to go to act.
For example, if you have a stuffy nose and difficulty breathing, you can use a decongestant, often available in the form of a nasal spray or for oral use, whose active ingredients are able to reduce a constriction of the smooth muscles of the blood vessels of the nasal mucosa, reducing blood flow and consequently also swelling.
Flu medicines: what to take in case of cough and fever
If, on the other hand, the flu includes a wet cough, it will be good to use an expectorant, with which the mucus present can be counteracted also thanks to the help of hot drinks which will encourage the dissolution of the phlegm. The best drinks are tea, camomile tea and warm milk, perhaps with the addition of honey which is an excellent fluidifier.
Another symptom of the flu is dry cough, which can be counteracted with cough sedatives also called antitussives, which inhibit the stimulation of the fibers afferent to the respiratory muscles, consequently attenuating the pains in the throat, chest and respiratory system, often accompanied by hoarseness and asthma-like wheezing.
In case of fever, on the other hand, it is necessary to start evaluating the intake of paracetamol, which is practically the only medicine capable of lowering body temperature. Although these advices are given by expert pharmacists, it must always be considered that it is essential to consult your trusted doctor, especially in this period in which even Covid is returning to rather high levels of contagion.