Flu Symptoms: How Do You Know You Have the Flu?

Everyone dreads it. Everyone gets it at least once. One of the biggest problems with the flu is that people rarely know they have it until they have spread it to others. Here are some tips you can use to help you differentiate between the flu and a regular cold or virus.

Flu symptoms include:

Fever: You have a fever when your body temperature goes over 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.5 degrees Celsius. A high-grade fever would be 104.0-107.6°F or 40-42°C. A fever gets dangerous when it reaches 107.6°F or 42°C resulting in hyperpyrexia.

Headache: Unlike a migraine or tension headache, a headache associated with flu will hurt in the entire head. Taking painkiller will mask the symptoms for a while, but even if you can make your head stop hurting, you have to consider the headache when trying to determine if you have the flu.

Tiredness: If you have the flu you will feel excessively tired... not just sleepy. If you feel like too tired to function normally, you may have the flu.

Cough: A cough is an action your body takes to clear phlegm buildup indicating bronchitis or a chest cold. A deep chest cough with other symptoms may indicate that you have the flu.

Sore throat: A sore throat is hard to ignore. Many people with sore throats also feel pain in their ears. If you have these symptoms along with others, you may have the flu.

Runny or Stuffy nose: Since most colds start with a runny and stuffy nose, many people ignore these symptoms when trying to determine if they have flu. If you have any of the other symptoms, please do not ignore your nose.

Body Aches: Body aches associated with flu feels like you slept on a bed of rocks. Many people assume they are just sore from a previous activity and miss adding this to their diagnosis.

Diarrhea and Vomiting (especially in children): These symptoms are hard to ignore. If your child has diarrhea and vomiting, call their doctor immediately.

You may have noticed a theme in these symptoms... having them simultaneously. While one of these symptoms will signal that, you are sick, having two, three or more of these symptoms signals that you have the flu. If you go to the doctor as soon as you begin experiencing these symptoms, they can test you for the flu. The test is only valid in the first 2 or 3 days of getting the flu.