Allergies vs. cold

What are the points of divergence?

Once a person gets befallen by running nose, cough and nasal congestion all at once, it becomes pretty hard to clearly distinguish and differentiate which of the two, a cold or an allergic reaction to a specific substance, is at work. One of the reasons for this is that they both have the immune system reactions as their focal agreement point. In addition to this, and this may sound quite strange and perhaps even difficult to comprehend to many people, even health care professionals and experts do tend to be baffled by the specific set of symptoms, which makes it a bit more difficult for them to make a clear distinction at the spot and by way of a first 'guess'.

In order to be able to make a clear cut distinction between the two, it is essential to get well acquainted with those most prominent characteristics of a cold on the one hand, and an allergy or allergic reaction on the other.The cold

Cold, or as it is also quite frequently referred to - a common cold, is induced by harmful bacteria and/or ill behaved viruses. Given the fact that they represent a threat to our body, the moment they find their way inside, our immune system starts treating them as a serious threat and thus attacks them straight away. In case a cold is brought about due to ill doings of a virus, it is contagious in nature, meaning that the moment the person in question either sneezes, coughs or even shakes hands with somebody else, the cold can move on to the next person in a matter of minutes. In order to recognize a cold, one has to be well acquainted with those most common manifestations that clearly point to its presence. Those include such as the following:

A sore throatSneezingCoughRunning noseStuffy noseBody aches/painsMild feverChest discomfortThe allergy

In case a person in question is befallen by a cold out of a blue each year at the same time, then this clearly points out to an allergy. And to be even more precise, the type of allergy in question is known as the seasonal allergy. It is brought about due to a response to the specific allergen (e.g. mold, pollen etc.) that comes from our immune system. Everything turns into pandemonium once our body mistakenly marks them as germs and attacks them, thus inducing allergies. Most frequently occurring symptoms include the likes of itchy eyes, running, as well as a stuffy nose. Fever is excluded from the allergy-symptoms list, but certain persons might come down with a sore throat or excessive fatigue.