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So unless you get a flu test - which costs thousands of dollars if the test is not government subsidised - you won't really know which type of flu you are suffering from, or even whether you are really suffering from the flu and not just having a cold or suffering from other illnesses with flu-like symptoms.
In general, avian, swine and regular flu symptoms include:
Click here to read about the yin and yang of these flu symptoms.
Flu versus flu-like symptoms
When you consider this list of symptoms, you will see that it is not much different from the symptoms of the cold, or upper respiratory tract infection, or even pneumonia, which is a serious lung infection that often follows the flu.
Moreover, you may or may not experience any or all of these symptoms when you have the flu. Also, some people have only mild symptoms while others have severe symptoms. So how would you - or your doctor - know if you really have the flu?
One common guideline tells us that when the symptoms are more severe, it is more likely to be the flu whereas cymptoms of the cold tend to be milder. But, as mentioned, some people develop the flu but do not experience very severe symptoms.
On a side note, so-called stomach flu symptoms are just as vague and general. They include diarrhea, fever, headache, dehydration and vomiting. But these are no different from the symptoms of regular food poisoning.
Once, my friend ate some seafood and developed these symptoms shortly after. He obviously had food poisoning. He tolerated and suffered the systems through the night and felt better the next morning, but still went to see the doctor anyway. And the doctor diagnosed: stomach flu. Really?
Diagnosing the flu
The flu cannot be diagnosed simply on the basis of flu symptoms, or flu-like symptoms. Having these symptoms can mean anything. The only accurate diagnosis is to do a flu test and see if you have any flu viruses in your body - and which virus you have - is it H1N1 (swine flu), H5N1 (bird flu) or one of the many other flu viruses around.
Does it matter? Is it important to know the name or the code number of the flu virus that you have?
In medical science, it matters because they have - they need - different drugs to treat different viruses. And when a new virus like the current swine flu / Mexican flu / H1N1 virus appears, then the whole world panics and imposes all sorts of measures like screening of people at border checkpoints (using infrared cameras to detect people with fever), or putting people in quarantine if they are suspected of carrying the new flu virus.
But these measures are not very effective because, as mentioned earlier, not everyone who has the flu will have flu symptoms. Or, they might develop flu-like symptoms only a few days after contacting the virus.
Treating the person vs destroying the virus
In other healthcare systems such as traditional chinese medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic and homeopathy, it does not matter what is the name of the flu virus you have, or even whether you really have the flu. Because all these other healthcare systems treat the person, not the disease.
This is the more sensible approach because ultimately, it is the person who mattters, not the virus.
Have you ever noticed that different people tend to have different symptoms whenever they fall sick? In my case, I usually have a runny nose followed by a cough (if the sickness worsens). And yes, I feel fatigue. But I seldom have high fever, chills or body aches. Some friends I know usually have fever when they fall ill, but seldom a runny nose. And so on.
Different people tend to develop different flu symptoms - or flu-like symptoms, since they may not actually have the flu. These symptoms point to the person's inherent weaknesses. And what the person needs is to strengthen these weak areas rather than take powerful drugs that ultimately weaken the person further.
By treating the person rather than seeking to destroy the specific virus, the approach of non-medical healthcare systems is also more effective - as shown by the very high success rate of osteopathy and chiropractic during the 1918 Spanish flu.
This approach means that the same Chinese herbs that treated people with the flu a thousand years ago, or the same osteopathic / chiropractic techniques that treated Spanish flu patients in 1918, can still treat people with the flu today. Because people have not changed, at least not to the same extent that viruses have mutated.