The influenza virus also hits you much quicker than a cold

One difficult thing to work out is whether you are suffering from influenza or whether you just have the common cold. Because the symptoms of both these illnesses are pretty similar many people who have nothing more than a little and harmless cold overreact and think they have full blown influenza. Drugs like Tamiflu should only be used to remedy influenza and using it when you are suffering from the common cold is not a good thing. 

There are a number of specific differences in the symptoms of influenza and a cold which you should be aware of in order to properly diagnose yourself. For example you are very unlikely to suffer from a high temperature if you just have a cold. If you are feeling under the weather but your temperature stays the same the chances are you have a cold and in around 80 percent of influenza cases a high temperature is recorded. People who suffer from influenza tend to have headaches whereas people suffering from a cold rarely do.

Another important indicator is the type of cough that you have. If you produce a lot of mucus the chances are you just have a cold. A dry cough that does not produce mucus is normally associated with the influenza. In the same way people who have a cold tend to suffer from a blocked nose whereas this is much less likely with influenza.

The influenza virus also hits you much quicker than a cold. It normally only takes a maximum of six hours for you to go from feeling fine to feeling rough if you have influenza whereas a cold slowly creeps up on you over a few days.

Other symptoms to look at for are whether or not you have a sore throat and whether you are sneezing. If you have both of them you are likely to have a cold as opposed to influenza.