Your body on the flu

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You know there's nothing worse than coming down with the flu - but what exactly makes you feel so awful?

Well, a few things actually.

Day 1 of the flu

Every time a sick person coughs, they expel around 2000 virus-laden droplets. If you inhaled any, or touched a door handle coated with them and rubbed your nose or eyes, they’ve floated through your nostrils and are burrowing into your airway’s cells.

Unlike colds, which attack the nose and throat, flu viruses can travel into the lungs. Your immune system goes on the offensive immediately. It begins churning out antibody and T cell soldiers that latch onto and destroy the virus. Had you been vaccinated against this particular strain, you’d have antibodies stockpiled (bet you wish you got that jab!).

Days 2-3 of the flu

Swollen with rapidly multiplying flu, the infected cells begin bursting like water balloons, spewing virus everywhere. Not good. You’re now contagious. Hence, you should always sneeze or cough into a tissue.

Day 4 of the flu

Your immune system can’t keep up with the furious flu spread. Symptoms hit you like a Lauryn Eagle uppercut. You can go from feeling like you’ve been on a latte bender at lunchtime to being bedridden by 5pm, plagued with fever, chills, headache and tender muscles. (Ibuprofen can help ease the aches.)

It’s not the virus that makes you feel el-crapo – the misery stems from inflammation, the result of an immune system in emergency mode. All your body’s energy is being used to exterminate the flu; you can hardly muster the energy to crawl to the bathroom. To keep dead cell debris from clogging up your lungs, you develop a dry cough. Your throat starts to ache, which can trigger a release of mucus. A saline nasal spray might help.

Days 5-7

All that can really help you now, antibodies and T cells, are locking onto their targets. You’re stuck in bed and beginning to wonder if you’re going to go the way of Gwyneth Paltrow in Contagion. If you started taking antiviral meds right away, you might recover a bit faster; otherwise, stick with lots of water and rest. If you’re really unlucky, throat bacteria have descended into your lungs to feed on dead cell remnants, putting you at risk for pneumonia. Great.

Day 8+ of the flu

Assuming you’ve escaped pneumonia, your immune system finally stamps out the flu virus. Your inflammation slowly subsides, as do your symptoms. You may still be contagious for a day or two and it may take another week to feel normal again.

Moving on from influenza

Wash. Your. Hands. It’s the single best way you can fend off a new flu virus. Scrub your mitts with soap under running water for at least 45 seconds after shaking hands with people or touching communal stuff like bathroom stalls.