Every year a question most people struggle with at some point is, ‘Do I have a cold or is it allergies?’. For most people, it’s not a terribly difficult question to answer. People who cope with allergies are familiar with the symptoms and can usually tell the difference between the two. But what if you’ve never been diagnosed with allergies before? I’m fall into this category, and recently had the same allergies vs. cold debate in my head.

Personally, I don’t often get sick. Generally once a year or less I’ll have the flu, but I’ve not had the joy of a head cold in quite some time… until last week. I woke up with a sore throat, and while I know for a fact that I was NOT sleeping on a sand dune that night, my throat was telling me otherwise. Congestion was hot on the heels of the sore throat, and later in the day I was a walking sneeze factory. These are three common symptoms for both allergies and the common cold, so how do you tell the difference between the two? Let’s compare the symptoms of a common cold vs. allergies.

Let’s start with the sore throat first. We’ve all had a sore throat, and the really the only way to describe this is, it hurts! Not slam-your-hand-in-the-car-door hurt, but you know what I mean. With allergies, your throat won’t hurt so much as it may itch.

_One really wonderful thing I got to look forward to was a night of log roll sleeping. This is where I go to sleep on my right side and shortly after not being able to breathe through that side of my nose, I roll over to the left side and the same thing happens. You know EXACTLY what I’m talking about. This was, as it always is, due to congestion. Tissues, toilet paper, even paper towels weren’t safe from being filled with nose-goo. It was a never ending faucet of congestion. Congestion and runny nose are common symptoms of both allergies and colds, so how does this help? Ask yourself this. Did whatever symptoms you are experiencing show up together or was their arrival staggered? Symptoms almost all showing up at once is more likely to be allergies while staggered symptoms is often indicative of a cold.

_Nearly every morning I go through a small fit of sneezing. I’m guessing dust mites, but I do not know for sure. As someone who is classically trained in the art of ‘do as I say, not as I do,’ I feel completely right in recommending that if you experience this, make an appointment with your local board certified allergist. Over the first few days of my symptoms, my morning sneezing went on as usual, but randomly throughout the day, I would sneeze, 7, 8, 9, up to 10 times in a row. Sneezing isn’t exclusive to colds or allergies. People with either will exhibit this symptom.

_So that solves it! Cold it was. (Hooray?) It started with one symptom, and like an evil cake recipe kept adding more layers of moist misery – congestion then sneezing. While my situation was solved, there are a few other things to keep in mind. Colds start, then get worse, and ultimately clear up, even with no intervention. Allergies are much more likely to remain consistent as long as exposure remains. So if the ragweed pollen count is high for weeks on end, you’re likely to see no improvement in your condition without treatment. An allergy symptom won’t just ‘run its course’. Lastly, the symptoms I had aren’t the only ones you’ll see. Itchy or watery eyes – allergies. Sinus Pressure – Allergies or a cold. Fever – cold (more often the flu). Coughing – a cold and more rarely, allergies.

_So if it’s a cold, how do you get over it? The age old methods of chicken noodle soup, a mega-carton of tissues, and a Costco-sized tub of decongestant helps. Much like a fair barker, do nothing and eventually it will go away.

With allergies, the story is different. Unless you’re willing to wait weeks or months, they won’t just go away. From avoidance to treating the symptoms, there are a variety of things you can do to speed symptoms away and some that can prevent them from occurring (or at least lessen them). Medication is the easiest. Antihistamines, decongestants and other over-the-counter remedies will help, but many carry side effects. More long term solutions are allergy shots and treatments. Over the course of months or years these can help desensitize your system, causing it to react less to harmless allergens.

Avoidance is another way to help yourself, but avoidance requires a little more effort. Avoidance means making your home more hospitable for you and less so for allergens. Cleaning, using a HEPA air purifier, and things a simple as taking your shoes off at the door and regularly replacing your HVAC filter are all good places to start when it comes to avoidance and environmental control. Remedies to help symptoms can be as simple as rinsing your sinuses.

Ever since I was introduced to sinus rinsing, I’ve been a big fan. I do not have allergies, but I do get the occasional stuffy nose, and as a runner, I will feel ‘gunky’ afterwards from time to time. Rinsing takes about as long as it does to brush your teeth and generally keeps your nasal passages feeling better and you breathing easier for hours.

Generally, maintaining an indoor environment that’s more hospitable to you is something that can help year round, particularly since most people will deal with allergies multiple times throughout the year. For more tips on controlling your indoor environment, visit… just about any page on our site!

Author: K. Gilmore