Seasonal flu (also known as influenza) is a highly infectious illness caused by a flu virus.
The virus infects your lungs and upper airways, causing a sudden high temperature and general aches and pains.
You could also lose your appetite, feel nauseous and have a dry cough. You may need to stay in bed until your symptoms get better. Symptoms can last for up to a week.

How it is spread
The flu virus is spread in the small droplets of saliva coughed or sneezed into the air by an infected person. If you breathe in these droplets, you may become infected.
Flu can also spread if someone with the virus touches common surfaces such as door handles with unwashed hands.

The infectious period
Symptoms develop one to four days (two days on average) after being infected.
People with flu are usually infectious (can spread the virus) a day before symptoms start, and remain infectious for five or six days. Children and people with weaker immune systems (such as cancer patients) may remain infectious for slightly longer.
Try to avoid all unnecessary contact with others during this infectious period.

A video of how flu spreads
This video is quite good, it gives an intro as to how the flu enters your immune system and reproduce itself.

How common is it?
Seasonal flu is a very common illness that occurs every year, usually during the winter months (October to April in the UK).
The number of people who consult their GP with flu-like symptoms varies from year to year, but is usually between 50 and 200 for every 100,000 people. This is in addition to the many people with flu who do not see their GP.

Outlook
Your symptoms will usually peak after two to three days. You should begin to feel much better within five to eight days.
However, elderly people or those with certain medical conditions may develop a complication such as a chest infection. This can lead to serious illness and can be life-threatening.
In the UK, about 600 people a year die from seasonal flu. This rises to around 13,000 during an epidemic.
A seasonal flu vaccine is available free if you are over 65, have a serious medical condition or live in a residential home. For more information see Seasonal flu jab.

With no cure in sight for the cold or the flu, current treatments can at best bring symptom relief or shorten the duration of those symptoms. You can take one of a variety of medications that may help relieve your symptoms. Or you can take the natural approach.

1. Drink hot liquids
Hot liquids relieve nasal congestion, help prevent dehydration, and can soothe the uncomfortably inflamed membranes that line your nose and throat. Plus it’s nice to drink warm.

2. Blow your nose often — and the right way
It’s important to blow your nose regularly when you have a cold rather than sniffling mucus back into your head. But when you blow hard, pressure can cause an earache. The best way to blow your nose: Press a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other. Wash your hands after blowing your nose.

3. Stay rested
Resting when you first come down with a cold or the flu helps your body direct its energy toward the immune battle. This battle taxes the body. So give it a little help by lying down under a blanket.

4. Take vitamin C
Boost your immune system with Vitamin C every few hours. It will ensure your immune system is in top condition to fight the virus.

5. Gargle
Gargling can moisten a sore throat and bring temporary relief. Try a teaspoon of salt dissolved in warm water, four times daily. To reduce the tickle in your throat, try an astringent gargle — such as tea that contains tannin — to tighten the membranes. Or use a thick, viscous gargle made with honey, popular in folk medicine. Steep one tablespoon of raspberry leaves or lemon juice in two cups of hot water; mix with one teaspoon of honey. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before gargling. Honey should never be given to children less than 1 year old.

6. Take a steamy shower
Steamy showers moisturize your nasal passages and relax you. If you’re dizzy from the flu, run a steamy shower while you sit on a chair nearby and take a sponge bath.

7. Use a salve under your nose
A small dab of mentholated salve under your nose can open breathing passages and help soothe the irritated skin at the base of the nose. Menthol, eucalyptus and camphor all have mild numbing ingredients that may help relieve the pain of a nose rubbed raw.

8. Apply hot or cold packs around your congested sinuses
Either temperature may help you feel more comfortable. You can buy reusable hot or cold packs at a drugstore. Or make your own. Take a damp washcloth and heat it for 55 seconds in a microwave (test the temperature first to make sure it’s right for you.) Or take a small bag of frozen peas to use as a cold pack.

9. Sleep with an extra pillow under your head
This will help with the drainage of nasal passages. If the angle is too awkward, try placing the pillows between the mattress and the box springs to create a more gradual slope.

10. Echinacea and goldenseal for your stomach
Use herbs such as echinacea and goldenseal which are said to help with influenza, also try ginger tea to settle your stomach.

11. For you throat
Take slippery elm and marshmallow for an irritated throat and cough.
Also you can dissolve a zinc lozenge under your tongue every two hours, not only are these a great immunostimulant, they will also make your throat feel better.

12. Garlic pills to cleanse
Try to swallow 2 garlic pills 3 times a day; these act as an antiboitic and are said to cleanse the system.

13. For your nose try Eucalyptus
Inhale eucalyptus oil by putting five drops in a hot bath or a cup of water.

14. As soon as you can eat..
Start with broth (chicken or vegetable) and dry crackers once you can tolerate food.

Remember, serious conditions can masquerade as the common cold and a mild infection can evolve into something more serious. If you have severe symptoms or are feeling sicker with each passing day, see a doctor.

Allright, in London it’s getting cold and it’s only October !

I thought i’d write about all the natural remedies i have seen on the web to deal with a sore throat. Please contribute, add your comments and give me your recipes.

Cure number 1 : Drinking tea with ginger powder or fresh ginger.

Cure number 2 : One way to help is to gargle salt water. However salt water gargling is only good for miner sore throats some people say.

Cure number 3: Throat Home Remedy. Mix Together in a mug: Hot water + Juice from 1/4 of Lemon, 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of cayen pepper. Adding honey also soothes and sweetens!

Cure number 4: Sore throat can also be cure by adding hony in black pepper powder. Another version of this is Hot Lemon with ginger honey and black pepper.

Cure number 5: For painful throat with tonsils gargle by mixing 1 ts of salt, a pinch of turmeric and 1 disprene in one glass hot water juice of half lemon can be added

Cure number 6: Try getting a big bowl of hot, steaming water then cover your head with a towel to keep the steam in. Just relax and breathe in the steam to help soothe a sore throat.

Cure number 7 : Put about 6 teaspoons of runny honey into a mug, and add the juice of half a lemon. Then mix whilst adding about the same volume again of hot water. Drink it slowly in small sips – you will feel the honey ’sticking’ to the sore bits of your throat. Honey is a natural antibiotic (it is the only foodstuff known to man, that does not go off with age – it has been found in Egyptian tombs – still fit to eat !) and the lemon juice helps with vitamin C.

Cure number 8 : Gargle with a soluble aspirin then spit it out. Note that not everyone can take aspirin, for example people with stomach complaints or people who take warfarin medication.

Cure number 9: Hot Slippery Elm tea (coats the throat, instantly soothing) with lots of fresh squeezed organic lemon juice (antiseptic) and raw local honey (antibiotic).

Cure number 10:  What I’ve done in the past is suck on a lemon or a lime with a little bit of salt, it sounds gross and its an acquired taste, but it definitely makes my throat more tolerable

Please contribute, add your comments and give me your recipes.