Self-care for the flu

Answer Section

By Mayo Clinic Staff

You can drink fluids, rest and take pain medicine sold without a prescription to recover from the flu at home.

Flu symptoms often begin 1 to 4 days after you come in contact with the virus that causes influenza. The symptoms may seem to hit you suddenly. They can include a sore throat, runny nose, fever, chills and muscle aches.

Flu symptoms can make you feel awful. But if you're otherwise healthy, not pregnant and younger than 65, you can generally take care of yourself at home rather than seeing a healthcare professional.

Try these remedies:

• Drink plenty of liquids. Choose water, juice and warm soups to help keep enough fluid in your body.
• Rest. Get more sleep to help your immune system fight infection. You may need to change your activity level depending on your symptoms.
• Consider pain relievers. Use acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) for fever, headache or achiness linked to influenza. Children and teens recovering from flu-like symptoms should never take aspirin because of the risk of Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal condition.

Stay home until you feel better and are fever-free for a full 24 hours without taking medicine for fever during that time. If you start to feel worse or your fever returns, stay apart from others until your symptoms improve and you are fever-free without medicine for 24 hours. Doing this lowers your chance of infecting others.