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Proper flu treatment
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
At a time when people are suffering from flu, the number of people sent to hospitals increases more than 5 times. The largest risk groups are the elderly, who easily get sick with flu and who are the hardest to cure, since their immune system is significantly weakened. How to properly treat the flu and what is the flu treatment to get sick as rarely as possible?
Read also: Treatment of colds
If you don't treat the flu correctly?
In the first days of the flu, a person must stay in bed and drink plenty of warm liquid to relieve intoxication. Otherwise (due to intoxication, which occurs due to harmful decomposition of viral proteins) the entire body becomes weakened, all human systems function poorly. And then a fatal outcome may occur due to blood flow to the brain, complications with the lungs, heart failure and problems with blood vessels.
Among the list of fatal complications that flu can cause are Reine's syndrome, encephalitis and meningitis (infectious diseases of the brain). Sinusitis, rhinitis, otitis, bronchitis, bacterial infections - all of this is also on the list of complications due to flu. In addition to the fact that the organs and systems of the body are weakened, this condition is also accompanied by a bacterial infection, which can be hemophilic, pneumococcal and staphylococcal in nature.
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What is recommended to do when you have the flu?
Treatment of flu should begin with isolation. First of all, you need to go to a separate room away from everyone, especially children, so as not to infect them with a viral infection. Adults can protect themselves from a sick person with a cotton-gauze bandage, which you can make yourself or buy at a pharmacy. It is necessary to change the bandage every three hours, because from a means of protection it will become a source of infection if you keep it on longer. Harmful viruses and bacteria, accumulating on the bandage, will infect a person if you wear the bandage for more than three hours.
Vitamins to support immunity
To cope with the flu faster (this is also good as a preventative measure), you need to take ascorbic acid and a vitamin complex, this will enable the immune system to work more powerfully.
Vitamin C (which is written about rather contradictorily, whether it helps with flu or not) is found in abundance in lemons, rowan berries, cranberries, sauerkraut, grapefruits, oranges. It can be taken for general tone of the body and to help the immune system.
Natural phytoncides
It is very good if a person with flu eats enough garlic – up to 3 cloves per day. More is not necessary, because garlic not only kills bacteria and flu viruses, but can irritate the gastrointestinal tract, especially if it is weakened or affected by a chronic disease.
But the oral cavity can be thoroughly cleaned of bacteria with garlic. Onions can have the same effect.
Washing and rinsing
A person who has the flu should not rely only on the strength of his body and chemicals from the pharmacy. Since the treatment of the flu should be combined with elementary methods of personal hygiene, which will help to cope with the disease faster. It is enough to wash the nasal passages at least 2 times a day (they accumulate a lot of pathogenic bacteria and mucus). To make the effect stronger, you can use soap for this purpose.
In addition to soap, in order not to irritate the nasal mucosa, it is very good to combine onion infusion with honey and drip it into the nose with a pipette. Juice is squeezed out of 3 tablespoons of chopped onion, you can use gauze, then this juice is mixed with half a teaspoon of honey, add half a teaspoon of water, leave for half an hour. And here it is, a bactericidal and drying remedy for flu for the nasal sinuses is ready.
Read also: Nasal lavage at home
How to gargle properly when you have the flu?
If your throat is very stuffy and your mucous membrane is dry, you can gargle every hour throughout the day. To do this, dilute a solution of potassium permanganate or furacilin or make a chamomile infusion, or simply dilute salt or soda with water. And gargle deeply, spitting out the water instead of swallowing. Gargling is great for killing pathogenic bacteria and refreshing your mouth.
At the same time, you can drink rosehip infusion, raspberry tea (not store-bought, but with real raspberry jam, since raspberries are a natural antibiotic). Tea with honey on the side is very good (boiling water kills the beneficial substances in honey if it is dissolved there) and tea with lemon. Such teas are especially good for a dehydrated body, if a person suffers from flu with a high temperature.
Warm foot baths with mustard (5-10 min.) are very helpful, after which the feet are rubbed with some kind of warming ointment.
Foot baths
If a person does not have a high temperature, flu treatment can be combined with foot baths. Dry mustard can be diluted in them - this not only helps to cope with a cold, but also lowers blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Headaches quickly go away when using such baths.
After the bath, it is good to put on warm knitted socks. You can also put mustard plasters in them to warm your feet and leave them there overnight. Only there should be a layer of fabric between the mustard plaster and the foot, otherwise the mustard will burn the skin. This layer can be a second sock, but not a knitted one, but a natural one, made of linen.
Flu medications
In case of flu, medications should be prescribed only by a doctor, because, firstly, it is important not to confuse a viral infection with a bacterial one ( antibiotics do not work against viruses ) and secondly, it is important to use specific medications for each disease. Usually, for flu, such medications as panadol, coldrex, paracetamol are taken to reduce fever. To make breathing easier, vasoconstrictors (drops or sprays) are purchased.
To help clear phlegm when coughing, take mucaltin, medicines with licorice root, tinctures of medicinal herbs, for example, with eucalyptus or marshmallow, bought at a pharmacy.
Treatment of flu should be aimed at alleviating the condition during coughing, so it is necessary to take chest collection, broncholitin, pertussin, bromhexine. And to eliminate or alleviate allergic reactions to viruses and bacteria, take antihistamines, for example, suprastin or tavegil.
All these drugs work better when taken with interferon or aflubin, which support the immune system well. A person recovers faster - according to reviews, much faster.
Treating the flu is not difficult, but it does require time, effort, and certain skills. Therefore, if you have questions about how and what to treat the flu, it is better to consult your doctor than to make decisions yourself.