Can you catch a cold during pregnancy?

Written by Li Jian Wu
Pulmonology
Updated on November 16, 2024
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Pregnancy is a normal physiological state for women to nurture a fetus. During pregnancy, factors such as a decrease in immunity, catching a cold, or malnutrition can lead to viral infections, causing symptoms of a cold. Whether a pregnant woman catches a cold mainly depends on her physical constitution, that is, her immune and resistance capacities. Pregnant women with a cold should avoid the indiscriminate and excessive use of medications, especially antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and hormonal products. It is important to drink plenty of water, rest adequately, and if medication is necessary, it should be chosen under the guidance of a doctor. (Medication should be used under the guidance of a doctor.)

Other Voices

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
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Itchy throat and coughing, is it a wind-heat cold or a wind-cold cold?

When patients present with symptoms such as itchy throat and cough in a clinical setting, it is generally difficult to distinguish between a wind-heat cold and a wind-cold cold based solely on these symptoms. Distinguishing between wind-heat and wind-cold colds requires combining other clinical symptoms to accurately differentiate. Typically, patients with wind-heat colds are more common during the hot summers. These patients experience varying degrees of nasal congestion, runny nose, and sneezing, along with fever, chills, sore throat, and often cough up yellow sputum. On the other hand, wind-cold colds tend to occur more often in winter. These patients exhibit varying degrees of itchy throat and cough, nasal congestion, and also experience different degrees of fever, but generally do not have chills. Therefore, it is generally difficult to specifically distinguish the type of cold based on the solitary symptoms of itchy throat and cough in a clinical setting.

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Written by Hu Bai Yu
Pulmonology
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How to treat cold and cough with food therapy?

Colds and coughs can be treated through dietary therapy. For instance, you can stew pears with rock sugar or stew pears with Fritillaria and add some honey, both of which can help alleviate coughs. Additionally, if it's just a dry cough without phlegm, you can take an uncooked egg before going to bed at night, place it in a bowl, sprinkle a large spoonful of sugar on top without stirring, and steam it in a pot until cooked. Eating it hot, along with the soup and egg, can help relieve dry coughs. Also, it should be noted that using scallion whites and white radishes, boiled into a soup to drink like tea two to three times a day, can also be beneficial in alleviating coughs.

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Stages of Cold Symptoms

The symptoms of a cold generally fall into three stages. Initially, the symptoms of a cold may be mild or even absent, such as slight sneezing, runny nose, or nasal congestion. In such cases, it is advised to drink plenty of water, promote excretion, and improve immunity, as the early symptoms are often mild or not obvious and hence overlooked. Later, the symptoms of a cold get more severe. During the mid-stage of a cold, symptoms may worsen, including cough, phlegm, sore or swollen throat, or itchy and dry throat. Body temperature may also rise slightly. At this stage, it is recommended to actively follow a doctor's advice and take appropriate anti-inflammatory and anti-infection medication, along with fever-reducing and cough-relieving drugs to alleviate the symptoms. In the later stages of a cold, symptoms may improve, for example, the phlegm may turn yellow and the headaches and fever may subside. Under these conditions, it is sufficient to continue taking medication under a doctor’s guidance for treatment.

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Written by Xu Qing Tian
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Is a cold with green nasal discharge serious?

Having a cold accompanied by green purulent nasal discharge is a common and frequent symptom in otolaryngology. The cause of these symptoms is primarily fungal sinusitis caused by a fungal infection in the patient. When these symptoms occur, it is important to first complete a paranasal sinus CT, electronic nasopharyngoscope, complete blood count, and nasal secretion culture to identify the pathogen causing the patient's illness and make a clear diagnosis. Additionally, timely use of antiviral drugs and medications that clear the throat and open the nasal passages should be administered for symptomatic treatment. For patients with sinus ostium blockage and fungal sinusitis, functional endoscopic sinus surgery is also needed to open the sinus ostium, restore normal drainage between the sinus and the nasal cavity, and thus achieve a cure for the patient's condition.

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Distinguishing between implantation cold and common cold

The common implantation cold is usually caused by the decrease in immunity triggered by the implantation of the fertilized egg, leading to symptoms of a cold. If a woman's immunity is normal, the frequency of catching a cold during this period is very low. The colds we often talk about can be divided into the common cold and the flu, which should be correctly recognized as having different symptoms. The common cold mainly manifests as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, tearing, and dry mouth, while the flu primarily shows as muscle soreness in the limbs, fatigue, etc.