Kenophobia (Fear of Empty Spaces): Causes, Symptoms & Treatments
There's A Reason You Get Body Aches When You're Sick
© My Ocean Production/Shutterstock woman with body ache About 26 to 50 million flu cases occurred between October 2022 and April 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There's no doubt that catching the flu can be disruptive to your daily life. After all, symptoms such as coughing and congestioncan make performing routine activities difficult, even the most mundane of them. Furthermore, canceling plans or missing out on events due to illness can be disappointing and isolating.
Unfortunately, body aches are another frustrating aspect of being sick. They can make you feel powerless and vulnerable, especially if symptoms are severe or long-lasting. This loss of control can be particularly challenging if you're used to being independent and self-sufficient. While the severity and frequency of body aches can vary from person to person, they are a common experience for many people. But what exactly causes these aches and pains when you're sick? Well, it turns out your body is doing pretty impressive work behind the scenes.
Why Do I Get Body Aches When I'm Ill?
© Chay_Tee/Shutterstock woman feeling ill When you get sick, your immune system goes into overdrive to fight off the infection. In fact, part of this response involves releasing antibodies, which is a natural response to infection or injury and is intended to help your body eliminate the virus, according to Loma Linda University Health. However, this response by the immune is what causes body aches in the first place.
At this point, your body also produces more white blood cells, which are a key part of our immune system — they help produce cytokines. Cytokines are small proteins produced in response to various stimuli, including infections, injuries, and inflammation, per the Cleveland Clinic. They play a crucial role in the body's immune response to infection and coordinate the communication and activity of different cells in the immune system. However, the increased cytokine production triggers an inflammatory response and causes muscle and joint pain, which eventually leads to those dreaded body aches.
How To Manage Body Aches During An Illness
© Ground Picture/Shutterstock woman drinking hrbal tea It always helps first treating the underlying cause of your body aches. If the flu causes it, it's important not to push yourself too hard or overexert yourself. Ensure you're getting enough sleep and taking it easy during the day. Drinking plenty of fluids is also helpful. After all, your body loses a lot of fluids from vomiting or diarrhea. Consider sipping warm fluids, like herbal tea or broth, to help with the overall flu. Applying hot therapy can be effective in reducing body aches and may help relieve muscle tension, according to the experts at UCLA Health.Lastly, it might also be a good idea to take over-the-counter, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen. This can help reduce fever and alleviate body aches. However, be sure to follow dosage instructions carefully and check with your doctor if you have any questions or concerns.
Read this next: Myths About The Flu You Need To Stop Believing
No, You Don't Need To 'Balance' Your Hormones If You Have Period Flu
Do you ever feel like crap when your period starts, or perhaps in the week or so before your period? Social media has dubbed this the "period flu," and places like TikTok are full of tips about why it happens and how to deal with it. Unfortunately, a lot of those posts are full of misinformation, so let's straighten out the truth.
Period flu is no relation to stomach flu or the actual flu"Flu" is a nickname originally applied to influenza—the sickness we get from the influence (get it?) of the stars. Influenza was only identified as being caused by a virus in the 1930's, but before and after that a lot of similar illnesses have been compared to the flu.
Flu-like symptoms, as they're called, typically include fever, chills, headaches, body aches, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
These symptoms are common in influenza, but plenty of other conditions will include some or all of these. Common colds, COVID, food poisoning ("stomach flu"), strep throat, all kinds of miscellaneous childhood illnesses, and many sexually transmitted illnesses are among them.
That's because these symptoms are signs that your body is dealing with shit. Your immune system is working on something, whatever that something might be. It may be fighting off a bacterial or viral illness, or even cleaning up damaged tissues after an injury. Got some ink recently? You might experience "tattoo flu" as your body heals.
Flu-like symptoms can also crop up thanks to the cascade of hormones that brings on your period. For example, prostaglandins help to open the cervix and empty the uterus, but they also have a similar effect on your intestines—leading to the notorious period diarrhea and its associated gas, pain, and nausea.
Do you need to "balance your hormones" to avoid period flu?I don't have any beef with TikTokers who let you know that period flu exists and give tips for weathering it. But what drives me up the wall are the ones who tell you about it like they're letting you in on a secret Big Doctor doesn't want you to know. Then they pitch their "hormone balancing" services.
"Balancing" is not a technical term in endocrinology, and some medical professionals dislike that phrase. We have tons of different hormones in our bodies, regulating different processes, all doing important jobs. The hormones that maintain our menstrual cycle fluctuate wildly over the course of the month, and that's a good thing. Certain hormones are supposed to spike at certain times to make ovulation happen, to grow the uterine lining, and to reset everything at the end of the month.
So, be suspicious of anybody who tells you that your hormones need to be "balanced" or that common conditions like mild period flu or PMS are a sign that you need to buy what they're selling. When I searched for "period flu" on TikTok yesterday, five of the first eight videos were by people selling books, supplements, lab testing kits (so you can find out your hormones are unbalanced and then they can sell you more things), and one-to-one coaching. Clicking into these folks' linktrees, I also found sales pitches for weight loss products and parasite detoxes. (Convincing people that they have parasites is a whole 'nother TikTok grift.)
The M. D. Anderson Center has a pretty straightforward view of hormone imbalances: If you have a hormone-related health concern that is serious enough it's affecting your life and causing you to seek treatment, you should go to a fucking doctor. (My choice of words, not theirs.) On the other hand, if you're just experiencing common, mild symptoms, you don't need fancy hormone coaching or products to deal with them.
How can you deal with period flu?First of all, pay attention to your symptoms and note whether they recur at the same time in your menstrual cycle. If one month your "period flu" seems to be more severe than normal or it includes symptoms you don't usually get, there's a good chance you have a different medical issue going on. Don't suffer; get checked out.
Because period flu isn't an illness of its own, just a collection of symptoms that can occur in the normal course of your cycle, you don't need to track down some kind of root cause and treat it with supplements or a weird diet. It's OK to address each symptom on its own. For example, WebMD points out that anti-diarrheal medication can help if you have issues with period diarrhea. Taking ibuprofen (or another NSAID medication) can help prevent cramps, especially if you're able to watch the calendar and begin taking it just before your period starts.
If you're looking for legitimate medical information online about period flu, you'll find a lot of it by searching for "premenstrual syndrome." That phrase has fallen out of favor in pop culture, ruined by too many men's jokes about women being emotional. But "period flu" is equivalent to the "physical symptoms of PMS" discussed in sources like this page from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Besides treating the symptoms and generally taking care of yourself, there are a few lesser-appreciated lifestyle changes that can help improve period flu symptoms, especially if you do these things all the time, not just when you're on your period:
So if you have period flu, you aren't alone—and you don't need to embark on a hormone-healing journey with whoever sounds the most convincing on social media. Check with your ob/gyn or your regular doctor if you have symptoms that are concerning, or if you'd like to consider a contraceptive method that might relieve your cycle-related struggles. But if you just have mild symptoms, consider making some small adjustments to your exercise, diet, and sleep habits. And consider resetting your TikTok algorithm and sticking to silly dance videos this time around.
Most Common Flu Symptoms: What To Look For
According to Newman and the CDC, common flu symptoms include:
Not everyone who catches the flu experiences all of these symptoms. Instead, it's common to have one symptom or a combination of several symptoms, says Newman. For example, not everyone with flu will experience fever, and gastrointestinal symptoms are more common in children, she says.
According to Dr. Ulm, individuals diagnosed with the flu should seek medical attention in the event of:
Parents caring for children with the flu should also be on the lookout for signs of dehydration (especially poor feeding and fewer wet diapers than normal in an infant) and indications of poor oxygenation like cyanosis (in which the skin, nail beds, lips and area around the mouth take on a bluish or gray discoloration), explains Dr. Ulm.
Differences Between the Flu, Common Cold and COVID-19Although the flu, common cold and COVID-19 are all contagious respiratory illnesses, they are caused by different viruses, explains Newman. "The flu is caused by the Influenza virus, COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, and the common cold can be caused by a number of circulating viruses like rhinoviruses, seasonal coronaviruses and parainfluenza," she says.
Symptoms of these three viruses are often similar, so taking a test is necessary to differentiate between them, says Newman. Getting a diagnosis from your doctor is also recommended.
Common cold symptoms are usually milder than the flu or COVID-19 and don't start as intensely/abruptly, says Newman. Common colds are also less likely to lead to serious complications like pneumonia, sepsis, hospitalization or death, she says.
The flu often presents with cold-like symptoms, but also tends to manifest more often with fevers, severe headaches and muscle aches, a more pronounced cough and much more marked and long-lasting fatigue and weakness, explains Dr. Ulm.
When it comes to COVID-19, it shares flu symptoms like fever, muscle aches, pronounced fatigue, weakness and diarrhea (especially in kids), says Dr. Ulm. Runny noses are also becoming more common with newer COVID-19 variants, particularly subvariants of the Omicron strain.
"COVID-19 often presents with lasting anosmia or dysgeusia—loss of smell or altered taste," says Dr. Ulm, symptoms that are rare with the common cold or flu.
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