What can I do at home to recover from the flu?

Answer From Pritish K. Tosh, M.D.

Flu symptoms generally begin about one or two days after your exposure to the virus and may seem to hit you suddenly. Among healthy people, flu symptoms vary in severity. Signs and symptoms range from a sore throat and runny nose to fever, chills and muscle aches. Flu symptoms can generally be treated at home with supportive care.

Flu symptoms can make you feel awful. But if you're otherwise healthy, younger than age 65, and not pregnant, you can generally take care of yourself at home rather than going to your doctor. Try these remedies:

  • Take acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) to reduce fever and muscle aches. Don't give products containing aspirin to children or teens recovering from chickenpox or flu-like symptoms. This is because aspirin has been linked to Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, in such children.
  • Drink clear fluids, such as water, broth or sports drinks.
  • Rest as needed or change some of your activities, depending on your symptoms.

To avoid infecting other people, stay home from work, school and other public places for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the use of fever-reducing medications. Most people feel better within a week of becoming infected with the flu virus. However, coughing may last for another one or two weeks.

With

Pritish K. Tosh, M.D.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free, and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID-19, plus expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

Aug. 28, 2021 See more Expert Answers

See also

  1. Cough
  2. COVID-19 vs. flu: Similarities and differences
  3. Diarrhea
  4. Fatigue
  5. Flu masks
  6. Flu vaccine: Safe for people with egg allergy?
  7. H1N1 flu (swine flu)
  8. Headache
  9. Honey: An effective cough remedy?
  10. Nausea and vomiting
  11. He's the bravest kid I've ever seen
  12. What's the difference between H1N1 flu and influenza A?