Watch out for 5 common winter season diseases & Tips to prevent them

Winter is coming around the corner, it is so exciting to welcome white snow, smoke warm meals. However, cold winter is also a good time for winter season diseases. A sudden drop in temperature could cause some health issues such as arthritis, and heart ailments, etc. Therefore, let’s read the article “Watch out for 5 common winter season diseases & Tips to prevent them” carefully to overcome harsh winter safely.

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Watch out 5 common winter season diseases & Tips to prevent them

Common winter season diseases & Tips to prevent them

In winter, the temperature dropping quickly and suddenly along with biting winds makes people tremble with cold and easily get sick. Below are common winter season diseases that you need to know to watch out for.

1. Common Cold

As its name, the common cold is a common winter illness whenever the winter is coming. It is considered as a part of the season changing. Although it is not dangerous to human health, it also brings many troubles to ill people as well as influencing their lungs.

The common cold is a self-limited contagious disease and many different types of viruses can cause it. That’s also the reason why this disease is medically referred to as a viral upper respiratory tract infection. 

Symptoms of a common cold include:

• A sore throat

• Chest congestion

• Headache

• Sneezing

• Runny nose

• Low-grade fever

• Cough 

 The symptoms of the illness in adults and children are alike, and it is expected to subside in 7-10 days and luckily, it does not cause any serious medical intervention.

Note: 

Up to 80% of cold is caused by a rhinovirus. Besides, there are many other viruses such as adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and parainfluenza virus. However, the cold is often misunderstood with the terrible virus - Coronavirus. 

Look at the picture below to distinguish them.

Different symptoms between the common cold and the Coronavirus

Moreover, cold viruses develop constantly, people can not build a resistance system at all. In fact, children in preschool and elementary school can have six to 12 colds per year while adolescents and adults typically have two to four colds per year. Therefore, you should try to prevent them.

How to prevent the common cold: 

• Take a good rest

• Eat well-cooked warm food, not eat or drink cold food

• Wash your hand carefully before eating or preparing foods

• Avoid touching your face because cold viruses can move from your hands to your face and spread disease.

2. Flu

Another common winter season disease is the Flu. Of course, it is still not a serious health ailment but you should not ignore and prevent it. 

The virus with the name “influenza” causes this disease and infects the nose, throat, and lungs. A special thing about the flu is that you can spread the flu to each other before you know you are sick. In general, symptoms develop from 1 to 5 even 7 days before becoming sick. For young children and people with weak immune systems, they are able to infect others for a longer time. 

Symptoms of influenza can include:

• Get high fever suddenly

• Headache, muscle aches, and joint pain

• Cough (usually dry)

• Chills

• Sore throat

• Nasal congestion and runny nose

• Fatigue

• Stomach symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea may occur but are more common in children than adults.

Most people recover from the flu after 7-14 days while weaker others especially the elderly can need more time to recover when flu symptoms go away.  

Note:

The symptoms of the Flu also have some similarities with that of Covid-19 as well as the common cold. Therefore, hope the picture below helps you recognize the right disease. 

The picture shows the different frequency of symptoms of three common winter diseases

How to Prevent:

• Avoid close contact. Because the flu is a contagious respiratory illness and people with the flu can spread it to others up to 6 feet away, healthy and sick people need to be aware of standing away from others to protect themselves.

• Cover your mouth with your hands when you cough or sneeze to prevent the spread of the flu

• Clean your hand: using soap and water to clean your hand as well as follow the 10 steps to wash your hands. Furthermore, you can prepare an alcohol-based hand rub in provision. 

• Do exercise every day to strengthen your immunity systems

3. Strep Throat

Biting winds in winter make us have some problems with our throat while a sore throat is more popular. This common winter season disease is not too threatening but it is annoying and intolerable. When sore throat develops and turns into strep throat, it will be worse.

A strep throat is a severe situation of sore throat. Sick people have got a heavier sore throat and fever due to a bacterial infection. This disease can happen to everyone, especially children. 

Signs and symptoms of strep throat can include:

• Throat pain that usually comes on quickly

• Painful swallowing

• Red and swollen tonsils, sometimes with white patches or streaks of pus

• Tiny red spots on the area at the back of the roof of the mouth (soft or hard palate)

• Swollen, tender lymph nodes in your neck

• Fever

• Headache

• Rash

• Nausea or vomiting, especially in younger children

• Body aches

A strep throat is a severe situation of sore throat. Sick people have got a heavier sore throat and fever due to a bacterial infection

How to Prevent:

• Call for a doctor right away if you feel your sick situation worse, symptoms last longer time as usual.

• Take a good rest to have a healthy status to overcome the disease 

• Drink warm water or ginger tea to make the throat comfortable

• Wash your hands: Like other common winter season diseases, washing hands is always one of the best cold weather safety tips to prevent infectious sickness. You should wash your hands for at least 20 seconds and scrub all parts of the hand. 

• Avoid sharing personal items: Sharing food, drinks or eating utensils can spread strep throat bacteria, therefore, you should avoid doing that.

4. Bronchitis

Check the weather online and see a very low temperature is a good time for bronchitis development. This illness becomes too common for children or toddlers below the age of 2 years. This Bronchitis is caused by RSV or the respiratory syncytial virus. 

Signs and symptoms of Bronchitis may include:

• Cough

• Appear mucus (sputum), with the color of white, yellowish-gray, or green. Besides, rarely, it may be streaked with blood

• Fatigue

• Shortness of breath

• Slight fever and chills

• Chest discomfort

Check the weather online and see a very low temperature is a good time for bronchitis development

How to Prevent:

• Get enough rest and sleep more. During the sick time, people will feel tired, they should take a rest.

• Stay hydrated: drink enough water especially warm water helps sick people feel comfortable and not too tired.

• Avoid or limit to access cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke can increase the risk of chronic bronchitis.

• Take a vaccine: Many cases of acute bronchitis result from influenza, a virus. Therefore, getting a yearly flu vaccine is a good way to protect you from the flu. 

• Wash your hands. To reduce your risk of catching a viral infection, wash your hands frequently and enough 10 steps, as well as you can create a habit of using alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

5. Pneumonia

Pneumonia is another common winter season disease. This lung infection is caused by bacteria. The status of Pneumonia can be mild or severe. If it is mild, you can treat it at home and recover after a couple of days. In contrast, when it becomes more serious, the best way is to find a doctor. 

For people with weaker immune systems or health problems such as asthma, heart issues, or even cancer, are prone to suffer from pneumonia easily. Unfortunately, it is difficult to detect pneumonia symptoms in the initial stages. However, there are some signs you can predict nearly correct. 

Pneumonia is another common winter diseases

The signs and symptoms of pneumonia may include:

• Cough, which may go with greenish, yellow, or even bloody mucus

• Fever, sweating and shaking chills

• Shortness of breath

• Rapid, shallow breathing

• Sharp or stabbing chest pain that gets worse when you breathe deeply or cough

• Loss of appetite, low energy, and fatigue

• Nausea and vomiting, especially in small children

• Confusion, especially in older people

How to Prevent:

• Take the flu vaccine annually. People can prevent bacterial pneumonia as well as reduce the risk of pneumonia through the yearly flu shot.

• Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. for at least 20 seconds.

• Do not smoke. Cigarette damages your lungs and makes it harder for your body to defend itself from germs and disease. If you smoke, talk to your family doctor about quitting as soon as possible.

• Make a healthy lifestyle with good habits such as do exercise daily, eat a rich nutrient diet full of fruits and vegetables, get plenty of sleep. 

• Avoid access close to sick people. Being around people who are sick increases your risk of catching what they have.

Cold weather safety tips

Besides the above tips to prevent some common winter season diseases, you also need to keep these cold weather safety tips below in your pocket to overcome the harsh winter health and safety. 

Check the weather online: Convenient weather apps installed on your phone will help you update weather information hourly. With the help of that app, you can answer the question of how to dress for cold weather, which cold weather outfits should be worn, and then avoid wearing too hot or too cold and getting sick.

Wear layers of clothes. In winter, you should wear proper cold-weather outfits, wearing many layers of clothes is better than wearing a thick one. Moreover, winter warm thermal shirts should be made from cotton and linen which absorb extra humidity. Also, wool can retain extra heat. As a result, you are better to wear wool clothes with a layer of cotton clothes under them.

How about workout clothes in winter? The advice is similar. You can find more in the previous article “ Important weather tips for workouts in summer/ winter”. 

Drink hot beverage. In winter, the low temperature, winds blow intensively, warm or hot beverages will make you feel better. You can drink a cup of hot coffee/ tea/ milk. But if you drink alcohol, that will not be a good idea. Drinking alcohol leads to the dilated blood vessels with a very cold environment, you can get a stroke easily. It is so dangerous even life-threatening. Therefore, let’s drink hot water instead of wine. 

Stay dry. You should try to stay dry as much as possible as mentioned in the article “Cold weather tips to stay safe during the winter”. Wet or damp clothing not only makes you uncomfortable but also can drop your body temperature quickly. From that, the winter season diseases also develop and make you ill. 

In harsh winter with heavy snow, your pet will have a lot of difficulties to overcome. With “14 cold weather safety tips that pet owners should know”, you can apply to protect your pets now. Let’s get it.

In harsh winter with heavy snow, your pet will have a lot of difficulties to overcome

Conclusion

“Watch out 5 common winter season diseases & Tips to prevent them” article mentioned you the respiratory diseases which happen in winter frequently as well as some tips to prevent them. Hope you get it and overcome the tough winter safely and healthily.