Symptoms of the Common Cold: What a Cold Is and How to Know If You Have One

Common colds are the most common type of infectious illness suffered by humans the world over, with the average adult catching 2-3 colds per year. Originally thought to be an infirmity contracted from spending too much time outside in cold weather (where the name "cold" comes from), colds are actually viral infections produced by a group of viruses (primarilyrhinoviruses) that which are transmitted by contact with infected individuals or their bodily fluids. By recognizing the symptoms, you can determine whether you have a common cold and treat the illness effectively.

Symptoms

While the symptoms of a cold are as variable as the different viruses that cause them (over 200!), there are a few consistent manifestations that will almost always occur:

· Runny nose

· Nasal congestion

· Sore throat

· Post-nasal drip

· Cough

Other symptoms that are also common in colds but less so include:

· Fatigue

· Aching muscles and joints

· Head pain

· Loss of appetite

Many of these symptoms are also common manifestations of other diseases, primarily the flu. However, colds can often be distinguished from the flu in the form and severity of onset of symptoms. For instance, while cough and high fever are relatively common manifestations of the common cold, these symptoms when present together in adults are highly indicative of the flu. In addition, the symptoms of a cold usually start with a feeling of chills, headache, and sneezing, followed within a few days by post-nasal drip, congestion, headache, and low-grade fever. The symptoms generally peak within 2-4 days after onset, and tend to resolve within 7-10 days.

Types of colds

The common cold frequently expands into other areas of the head and respiratory tract. These colds are categorized based on where they occur:

· Head cold: The most common type of cold, characterized by a runny nose, congestion, post-nasal drip, cough, sneezing, sore throat, fatigue, and low-grade fever.

· Chest cold: The chest cold refers to an expansion of cold symptoms into the upper respiratory tract. This is characterized by worsening and persistent cough, laryngitis, pharyngitis, fever, and may even extend to bronchitis (lower respiratory infection). A chest cold can last as long as 25 days after infection.

· Sinus infection: A sinus infection, or sinusitis, is when the viral infection lodges in the paranasal sinuses and persists after the cold has passed. Sinus infections are characterized by pain and inflammation in the mouth, nose, cheeks, and behind the eyes and eyebrows. This can be accompanied by persistent congestion and post-nasal drip, sore throat, and moderate fever.

Common colds can usually be self-diagnosed and managed through home care. Most home remedies involve treatments to alleviate the common symptoms of the cold. Treatments include steam baths, hot teas and other beverages, and plenty of rest and fluids. However, prevention is always the best treatment. Avoid contact with sick individuals and keep frequently touched surfaces, such as tabletops and doorknobs, clean and disinfected at all times. If you think you have a cold, consider others and avoid going out during the infectious period.

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3 Tummy Fat Burning Exercises That Are Fun And Effective

One of the best ways to lose belly fat is with exercise. But just doing a few sit-ups each day will not get you the flat stomach you want. In fact, doing sit-ups or crunches are not the best stomach fat burning exercises because you can't tone fat. To get those nicely toned abdominal muscles showing, you first have to lose the fat that is laying on top of them..

The thing to remember with exercises to burn belly fat is to find one that you like and that you will want to keep doing on a regular basis. Don't worry if you think going to the gym is boring and not for you, here are 3 fun tummy fat burning exercises and that really work.

Get Dancing!

One of the best exercises to burn belly fat that is super-fun and comes naturally is dancing! Put your dancing shoes on, set your iPod to shuffle, and work it out. Belly dancing videos are a great way to burn that unwanted belly fat. An 180 pound (81 kilo) person will burn approximately 386 calories for every hour that they dance. If you are even heavier, you will burn even more calories than that.

Beware of crunches - they are great for toning up your belly, but you can't tone fat. Doing thousands of crunches a day won't burn half as much belly fat as something like belly dancing. Once you lose most of the fat in your belly, then you can start doing crunches to tone your muscles underneath.

Anyone For Tennis?

Another one of the great exercises to burn belly fat is playing tennis. Tennis serves as a great workout because it works your core body. The core of your body is your abs and lower back muscles. These muscles are the ones doing all of the work to hit the tennis ball hard and far. Your core doesn't just keep you balanced as you run from place to place on the court but it provides you with an extra boost of power in all of the strokes. You're constantly in motion on the court, and it's a great way how to lose belly fat workout while having fun.

Who's For A Swim?

Swimming for fitness requires a lot of energy and burns a lot of calories. This is because, when you swim, you need to move your whole body instead of just your legs or your arms. Swimming works your body and heart the same way any cardio workout, such as dancing or running would. Not only is swimming good for a cardio workout, swimming challenges the muscles all over your body and is great for increasing overall body strength. The water resistance you face while swimming forces your muscles to work harder - just like traditional forms of strength training which is one of the best ways how to lose belly fat because muscles burn more calories, even while they are at rest.

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Top Tips for Preventing Dry Skin This Winter

Nothing feels worse than dry, flaky and cracked skin. This is a common problem for a lot of people during the winter months when the temperatures are low and the air is dry, especially in Gauteng. In this article we will give you some dry skin care tips to protect your skin from the harsh winter elements.

Humidify your home

During the winter months, our skin suffers mainly because of the lack of moisture in the air. With windows and doors closed and heaters on full-blast, dry air is inevitable. Prevent your skin from drying out by using a humidifier to add moisture to the air. If you don't have a humidifier, an alternative is placing bowls of water close to your heaters.

Keep that pout moisturised

While your lips need TLC all year round; they need lots of extra-special loving during the winter months when the dry, cold air can really cause them to dry out and even crack. If you're not already a fan of lip balm and lip ice, now is a good time to stock up on some and apply it as often as you can.

Make hand lotion your BFF

Our hands are probably the parts of our body that suffer the most in winter and especially after frequent washing they lose moisture very quickly. Make sure you keep hand lotion all over the place; in your bathroom, in your kitchen, on your desk at work, next to your bed and treat those hands every chance you get. Don't forget to keep some hand lotion in your handbag.

Easy itchy scalp fix

Even our scalps suffer in winter, leading to itching and flaking. A head massage doesn't only feel great; it also works wonders for that dryness. You can do this after washing your hair by applying conditioner especially formulated for dry hair. Massage into your scalp with your fingertips while in the bath or shower. This will loosen dry flakes and soothe and moisturise your scalp in the process.

The miracle of Petroleum Jelly

Petroleum jelly is a miracle cure when it comes to dry skin. Here's a great trick for fixing those cracked hands and feet, although it is quite uncomfortable and a little unconventional. Before you go to bed, apply Petroleum jelly liberally and put on gloves and socks. The skin of your hands and feet will feel amazing the next morning. For extra intensive treatment, wrap your hands and feet in cling-wrap before putting on the gloves and socks. You can do this once a week, or once every two weeks.

Winter poses a variety of skin care challenges for most of us but with these tips and a little extra pampering you'll get through winter with soft, smooth skin and without having to worry about Jack Frost ruining your day.

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Staying Slender on Comfort Foods This Winter

It's a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit aside and nothing sounds more soothing that snuggling up to a nice cup of hot, whole milk chocolate or wrapping my frigid fingers around a bowl of brothy chicken and dumpling soup. The problem is that after three months of cozying up with such comforts foods, I could remove my three layers of clothing to find and extra layer of fat nesting on my waistline.

No worries though, I've developed some clever ways to keep slim this winter while still getting my fair indulgence of comfort foods.

Go for Low-Fat, Low-Calorie Soups
Cambell's Soup and Progresso both offer yummy low calorie soups that will keep your waistline tamed and your mouth happy this winter. If you are worried about variety, Progresso has you covered. Right now they have 40 soups with 100 calories or less. Cambell's Soup will have you full for a month with its 35 different choices of Select Harvest soups under 50 stomach warming calories each.

Drink Hot Teas Instead of Hot Chocolate
I love Swiss Miss hot coco, but one cup of it is going to cost me about 250 calories the way I make it. That adds up over the course of a week. Plus, all of that sugar is not awesome for the skin. Now I've opted to bring green tea into my selection of warm beverages. Plus, green tea flavors have grown dramatically over the years. Now you can find green teas that hardly taste like green tea. I'll admit, I did not really enjoy green tea when I first tried it. It was too bitter and tasted like algae. But now, you can find berry, vanilla, orange, mint and even cinnamon flavored green tea at your local grocers. This delicious treat will warm your body and give you a little energy boost.

Stay Warm
Another way to resist that temptation to over eat comfort foods is to keep yourself warm. That doesn't mean you have to turn your heater on overdrive. Instead, wear layers of clothing and remove them and add more as your body temperature dictates.

If that doesn't do the trick, take a short walk down the hall or around your office. Simply moving the body will get your temperature up and remove the urge for quick relief with comfort food.

Keep making those healthy choices all winter long and you could actually be ready for swim suit season without even trying.

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Eating Healthy the Right Way to Lose Weight

Today, many people are trying to learn what healthy eating is all about and eating the wrong food can do some damage to your body. However, losing weight is not about starving one's self; still, to lose weight the right way we should eat healthy as well as commit ourselves to do regular exercises. So what are the type of foods we should eat to lose fat and stay healthy?

Beans

Beans are often inexpensive and yet they carry a whole lot of proteins in them. They help to make your body feel full by acting as an appetite suppressant. In addition, beans are high in fiber making them a great source for fast weight loss.

Dark chocolate

This might come as a surprise to some people but eating dark chocolate can help you to lose weight. When you absorb chocolate into your body, the chocolate works to cut and prevent the rise of insulin, which sometimes might cause a problem to your body. Dark chocolate contains enough healthy fats in it, thus, making it the right agent to stop bad insulin that flows to your blood stream.

Soup

Having a bowl of soup daily is a great way to lose weight and stay healthy. This is because soup helps your body to feel full and after drinking a bowl in the day, you will not experience any craving for food. Drinking soup regularly will definitely help you to cut back on eating the wrong things such as sweets, junk foods, and sodas.

Eggs and sausage

Eating eggs and sausage for breakfast is a great way to start your day because both these foods are rich in protein. Both of these foods help you to avoid eating snacks in the day because they act as appetite suppressants.

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Apple

While drinking fruit juice is good for you, eating an apple daily is even better. This is because an apple has more fiber in it than juices do, which makes it healthier for your body.

Nuts

Almonds, peanuts, wall nuts, and pecans are all healthy snacks to eat during the day if you want to lose weight fast. Eating these foods will help you to eat less because your body will feel full throughout the day.

Veggies

Veggies are a promising diet that will help you get rid of fat fast. Eating the right amounts of veggies per day will help to decrease any hunger crave you usually experience in your body. Most types of vegetables contain iron that helps to boost your energy level.

Fruits

Fruits are a natural source for weight loss. Eating fruits will help you to resist any food cravings you might have before and after meals.

Salsa

Salsa is a low calorie food source, which is just right to help you shed the pounds quickly. This nutritious and tasty dish is made with vegetable, or fruit and in most cases, some people add both to give salsa its rich taste. The vegetable and fruit in salsa makes it an excellent dish to help you get rid of body fat.

Though eating healthy the right way to lose weight can sometimes prove to be a challenge to you after you start your weight loss program, practicing to eat the right foods can be very beneficial to you. Once you start eating right, your body will take on a slimmer look, making you become more attractive as well as feel healthier.

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The Best Moisturizers For Dry Skin Do Not Contain Mineral Oil

How do you know if you are using the best moisturizers for dry skin? Many companies claim to have the best product available, but what makes a product effective? Actually, the ingredients make the product. Unfortunately, most of the products on the market these days contain ingredients that can be harmful to our skin.

They fill their face moisturizers with filler ingredients such as mineral oil. Mineral oil will leave your skin feeling soft and supple. However, it will clog your pores. This can lead to acne breakouts or skin inflammation. This is obviously something you do not want to get from a skin care product.

Most of the large cosmetic companies will spend a fortune on advertising. However, they do not put enough into research and development. You have probably seen a commercial with a celebrity promoting some new face moisturizers. Of course, she probably has beautiful skin too. However, do you really think she uses that product? Chances are she does not use it.

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The best moisturizers for dry skin use natural ingredients. Some of the natural ingredients used are plant based oils such as grape seed oil, avocado oil and macadamia oil. Another very effective natural ingredient is active Manuka honey, which comes from New Zealand.

It is so important to read the label and find out what is in your facial moisturizers. So many ingredients used can be harmful to your skin. In fact, you may have heard that some preservatives or parabens used in skin care products are potentially cancer-causing agents. You do not need preservatives in a moisturizer. The only reason parabens are added is to give the product a longer shelf life, which means it sits on the store shelf until someone buys it.

The best moisturizers for dry skin do not contain any of the harmful ingredients I have mentioned. They contain specific natural ingredients that have been tested on human volunteers and are proven to moisturize your skin without any negative side effects. In fact, they work even better than the chemical laden creams found in most stores.

The best moisturizers for dry skin are usually not found in stores. They are made and sold by small niche skin care companies who do not spend much on advertising. They spend their money on research and development in order to make the best products possible.

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Best Fitness Equipment For Fast Weight Loss - 3 Options That Burn Calories FAST!

Looking for the best fitness equipment to lose weight fast? It's that time of year again - the time when winter jackets come off and you can't hide those holiday pounds so easily any more.

But you don't have to be frightened by the looming prospect of bathing suit season. You still have time to work off those pounds - with the right equipment.

The market has changed quite a bit over the years with new options and faster calorie-burning machines.

This article will lay out 3 of your best options when it comes to choosing the best exercise machines for flab-busting. Here we go:

#1 The Incline Trainer

An incline trainer is like a treadmill - but it gives you super-high inclines (up to 40%). According to manufacturers, you can burn up to 5 times the calories on one of these babies as on a flat-incline treadmill.

So if you normally burn about 150 calories, multiply that by 5 to give you 750 calories! Wow.

Now obviously walking on such a high incline does take getting used to. And you may want to start just building in high incline intervals until your fitness level improves. But it's still a huge improvement over a treadmill!

Why do these machines burn calories so fast? Because they force you to use more of the large muscles in your legs - and large muscles burn mega-calories.

There are different kinds of incline trainers - some look like treadmills with one belt and others, like the Treadclimber, use two smaller treadmill belts that rise to meet your feet.

The upside is that these machines incinerate calories - so you'll lose weight super fast and see results ultra-quick. The downside is that these machines can be on the expensive side starting around $1700 and up.

But they have been around for a few years now and have a pretty good track record. Plus the new models have added even more entertainment options to help you workout longer.

#2 The Ski Machine

The famous Nordictrack skier has gone through some changes over the past few years - but overall it's pretty similar to what it started out as: a simple cross-country skiing simulator.

If you've ever tried one of these machines you'll know how fast you start to sweat once you begin working out. And it gives you pretty fast results - mainly because it incorporates both the large muscles in your legs AND your upper body arms into the workout.

It also forces your legs to go through a full range of motion which again burns more calories than, say, a short-stride elliptical trainer where you don't have to stretch out as much.

The upside to the ski machine, besides fast weight loss, is that it's affordable - they currently run around $699. Plus it's quiet since there's no motor.

The downside is that, unlike other fitness equipment, the console is bare bones and there's really nothing in terms of entertainment options.

So it may be a good idea to set your skiier up in front of a TV in your home to fight the ever-present threat of exercise boredom.

#3 Variable Motion Elliptical Trainer

There are several different versions of this - and each brand tends to call their models something different.

But basically the main idea is this: it's an elliptical trainer that changes your stride and elliptical path (thus the "variable" part). Sometimes you change the motion by pushing down harder on the pedals - and sometimes you change the motion from the console by pressing a button.

But basically this variable motion (and as a consequence variable stride) burns more calories than a standard elliptical.

Why? Because you're not doing the same motion over and over again (where your body can quickly adapt and burn less calories). You're constantly challenging your body - which burns more calories, especially over the long term.

The upside is that this kind of machine gives you a lot of workout variety. There are several downsides however that you should know.

There is such a range of different models that you really have to do your research to find a crosstrainer that is well made and will hold up well over the long term.

Plus these machines do tend to be expensive (the good ones start around $2500+). So again, it depends on what you're looking for.

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