Good home treatment of influenza
If the patient has a wet cough and is coughing a lot, you still should suppress it to prevent the cough from damaging the chest wall or lung structures. Too much coughing, even when bringing up phlegm, can cause damage and should be lessened.
Inhaling warm humidified air helps patients with infections of the nose, sinus, ears, throat, bronchial pathways, and lungs especially during winter when the air is dry.
Caffeinated tea and coffee and chocolate contain an herb with well known medicinal effects on the lungs. The herb help keep the breathing tubes open, increase heart rate and blood flow, and encourage urination.
The effect is to move more fluid through the lungs thinning the mucus and making it easier to cough up. The herb is also effective for relieving headache, lifting a depressed mood and for enhancing awareness.
Chest pain during flu is often due to the effect of coughing on the muscles, ribs, and cartilages that surround and support the lungs. An indication of this cause is when pressing on the chest wall, upper flanks, or upper abdomen brings out the pain.
Treatment is to suppress the cough as explained above, allowing these injured tissues to heal. Pain can be controlled using a full dose acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen every six hours.
Muscle spasm can play a role in this pain, and when it does, consider applying an icepack, heating pad, or hot water bottle to the chest wall. Chest pain can be excruciatingly painful and difficult to control.
Reasons and remedies for common flu patient signs and symptoms
| Symptom or Sign | Likely Assessment | Remedy |
| Headache | Due to fever or coughing; Also can be directly or indirectly due to the viral infection | Ibuprofen and/or acetaminophen; Lower temperature if fever present; Use icepack on neck |
| Fever | Due to the virus stimulating the bodies immune system to release chemicals that fight the infection | Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, push fluids, keep warm or cool, consider tepid water baths if > 102 F, OK if < 101 as this may help kill virus |
| Sore throat | Direct viral infection of the posterior throat tissue; Caused by inflammation of tissue breakdown in the area | Gargle with hot salt water; drink hot tea or hot water, ibuprofen and or acetaminophen |
| Cough | Viral infection and irritation of the tissue lining the breathing tubes and/or the lung tissue | Push the ORS fluids, drink hot tea for effect on breathing tubes, use a dextromethorphan (DM) containing cough syrup to suppress cough if needed |
| Facial pain | Sinus congestion or infection | Use salt and soda nasal solution frequently, hot packs or cold packs on face help, diphenhydramine 25-50mg four times daily as an antihistamine and ibuprofen and/or Tylenol for pain; Push fluids including tea |
| Runny nose | Virus infecting nose | Use salt and soda nasal solution frequently, diphenhydramine 25-50 mg four times daily to reduce runny nose |
Headache with influenza can come from several sources.
Coughing shakes the head back and forth and can strain the neck muscles causing headache. Chemicals released by the viral infected cells and the immune system can trigger headaches.
Bacterial sinusitis complicating flu causes facial pain and headache. Treat headaches using ibuprofen with or without acetaminophen.
If neck stiffness or soreness is present, apply an ice pack, heating pad, or hot water bottle to the back of the neck or head.
Treatment of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain
The first step in treatment for these four symptoms is to place the patient on a clear liquid diet using the ORS. It will not provoke vomiting or diarrhea as easily as other fluids or foods do, but it can still cause these reactions in severely affected people.
Nausea is responsive to meclizine 25 to 50 mg every 4 to 6 hours as needed for this symptom. Diarrhea and abdominal cramping can be treated with diphenhydramine 25 to 50mg every 4 to 6 hours and/or loperamide 2 to 4mg every 4 to 6 hours.
Since diphenhydramine and meclizine are both antihistamines, their side effects are additive. If you have already given the patient one of these drugs and want to try the other, wait four hours before doing so to allow the first drug to clear the system.
Patients with an intestinal presentation of flu often will experience abdominal cramping, gas, and diarrhea. In some patients, the diarrhea can be bloody.
Diarrhea often causes irritation around the anus. Treat this by gently cleaning the area using a moistened tissue, soft cloth, or baby wipe.
Apply a small amount of petroleum jelly or cocoa butter on and around the anus to protect and heal the tissue. Repeat this process after each loose stool.
Abdominal cramps respond to the anticholenergic effects of diphenhydramine 12.5 to 25 mg every four to six hours.
Diet and Exercise with Influenza
Since flu commonly takes away the appetite, most patients won't be hungry.
Eating is not as important as drinking fluids because the patient will be breaking down muscle and fat for energy. The clear liquid diet is best for patients sick with flu who are not particularly hungry, but it is mandatory for patients with diarrhea due to influenza.
If a flu patient wants to eat, feed them as long as they don't have diarrhea. In most cases, patients with diarrhea can tolerate a clear liquid diet without making matters worse.
The small intestine can absorb water, minerals, and sugars well even when infected.
If the patient has not been sick long or had a mild non-diarrheal presentation of the flu, you can start with step 2 of the clear liquid diet and quickly move up the steps as tolerated by the patient.
At any time during re-feeding, should the patient suffer abdominal problems, especially pain or diarrhea, drop back a step or two on the clear liquid diet. Rest in that step for a while before trying the next step again.
This strategy will work well for almost every patient.
The clear liquid diet
- Step 1: Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), water, fruit juice, Jell-O, Gatorade(R), Popsicles, PowerAde(R), ginger ale, cola, tea, and bouillon.
- Step 2: To step 1 add white toast (no butter or oils), white rice, cream of wheat, soda crackers, and potatoes without the skin.
- Step 3: To Step 2 add canned fruit and chicken noodle soup.
- Step 4: To Step 3 add a source of protein like canned meat, fish or egg.
- Step 5: To Step 4 add milk and other dairy products, vegetable oils, butter, raw fruits and vegetables and high-fiber whole grain products.
Once the patient is eating a normal diet without any stomach problems, it is important to increase the intake of high quality protein, especially eggs, meat, fish, or poultry.