Xiang Hongding (Director and Chief Physician of Diabetes Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital) In the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the causes and symptoms of colds in the elderly are different, and the characteristics are also different. Need to analyze the specific situation. The characteristics of cold in the elderly Cold is a common exogenous disease, which is characterized by stuffy nose, sneezing, runny nose, headache, fever, fear of cold and other symptoms. Colds are caused by viruses or bacteria. When a patient sneezes or coughs, the virus or bacteria will spread into the air with the discharged secretions, so it is highly contagious. Old people's colds are different from those of young people. If they are ill, if they are not treated properly, it will often lead to some complications, and even life-threatening in serious cases. Cold in the elderly has the following characteristics: high incidence. With the increase of age, the elderly's ability to keep out the cold and their physical resistance decrease, and their adaptability to the external environment decreases. If they encounter sudden changes in the weather, they are prone to cold symptoms. Symptoms are not obvious. Some elderly people often show nasal congestion, slight headache, physical weakness and other discomfort. At the beginning of a cold, the symptoms are not obvious. Therefore, it is often ignored by people, delaying the best treatment opportunity and causing the disease to deteriorate. It is easy to cause complications. The disease resistance of various organs and tissues of the elderly is relatively weakened, and it is easy to be affected by external harsh environment and other factors to produce various complications. For example, elderly people with poor cardiopulmonary function often have heart failure, angina pectoris or respiratory failure due to colds, and even life-threatening in severe cases. It is not easy to recover. The immunity of the elderly is low, and their resistance to various pathogens is weakened. It is difficult to remove all pathogens in the body in a short time, so the course of disease is long and it is difficult to recover. Treatment is limited. Because the elderly have many complications and poor heart, lung and kidney functions, there are often many restrictions in treating colds, such as not being able to transfuse too much and too fast, and choosing cold medicine can not damage liver and kidney functions. Xiang Hongding (Director and Chief Physician of Diabetes Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital) In the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the causes and symptoms of colds in the elderly are different, and the characteristics are also different. Need to analyze the specific situation. The characteristics of cold in the elderly Cold is a common exogenous disease, which is characterized by stuffy nose, sneezing, runny nose, headache, fever, fear of cold and other symptoms. Colds are caused by viruses or bacteria. When a patient sneezes or coughs, the virus or bacteria will spread into the air with the discharged secretions, so it is highly contagious. Old people's colds are different from those of young people. If they are ill, if they are not treated properly, it will often lead to some complications, and even life-threatening in serious cases. Cold in the elderly has the following characteristics: high incidence. With the increase of age, the elderly's ability to keep out the cold and their physical resistance decrease, and their adaptability to the external environment decreases. If they encounter sudden changes in the weather, they are prone to cold symptoms. Symptoms are not obvious. Some elderly people often show nasal congestion, slight headache, physical weakness and other discomfort. At the beginning of a cold, the symptoms are not obvious. Therefore, it is often ignored by people, delaying the best treatment opportunity and causing the disease to deteriorate. It is easy to cause complications. The disease resistance of various organs and tissues of the elderly is relatively weakened, and it is easy to be affected by external harsh environment and other factors to produce various complications. For example, elderly people with poor cardiopulmonary function often have heart failure, angina pectoris or respiratory failure due to colds, and even life-threatening in severe cases. It is not easy to recover. The immunity of the elderly is low, and their resistance to various pathogens is weakened. It is difficult to remove all pathogens in the body in a short time, so the course of disease is long and it is difficult to recover. Treatment is limited. Because the elderly have many complications and poor heart, lung and kidney functions, there are often many restrictions in treating colds, such as not being able to transfuse too much and too fast, and choosing cold medicine can not damage liver and kidney functions. How should the elderly prevent colds in four seasons and in spring? Pay attention to the weather changes. In early spring, although the climate is getting warmer, the phenomenon of "late spring cold" often appears. Therefore, the elderly must not be careless, pay attention to climate change and pay attention to cold protection. Don't take off your clothes and hat too early. If the weather suddenly turns cold, you should put on more clothes to keep warm. Stay away from the flu virus. Avoid direct contact or face-to-face conversation with cold patients, and try to stay away from public places during the flu. Small coup to prevent summer colds is not greedy. Old people should not enjoy the cool in cold places for a long time, not to mention taking a cold bath in order to cool off. Pay attention to food hygiene. Eat a light diet and eat less cold and greasy food. In addition, be careful not to eat unclean food such as corruption and deterioration. Use fans and air conditioners scientifically. You can't blow the fan immediately after sweating. You should dry your sweat with a dry towel first, then turn on the fan. The fan should be turned on slightly, and the wind direction should be changed to straight blowing. When turning on the air conditioner, be careful not to let the indoor temperature be too low and turn on the air conditioner for too long. Before leaving the air-conditioned room, you should rub your shoulders and limbs to make the blood circulation on the body surface active, so as to reduce the occurrence of colds. Seek medical attention at the right time. Old people's summer colds often show fever, overweight, eating less, vomiting and diarrhea. Once the cold does not improve or other symptoms appear, you should seek medical attention immediately to avoid various complications. Tips for preventing colds in autumn. Drink more water. In winter, the climate is dry and the human body is prone to water shortage. Drinking boiled water can not only replenish enough water to the body, but also play the role of detoxification and diuresis. Strengthen self-monitoring. Autumn weather turns from hot to cold, and the temperature difference between morning and evening is large, which is the high incidence period of gastroenteritis, respiratory infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases and other diseases. Therefore, in addition to preventing colds, the elderly should also pay attention to monitoring and controlling their own existing diseases. Small coup to prevent colds in winter. Exercise regularly. Doing gymnastics, practicing Baduanjin and playing Tai Ji Chuan indoors or outdoors is beneficial to strengthening physical fitness and preventing colds. Drink ginger and jujube soup often. Decoct 5 slices of ginger and jujube 10 into ginger jujube soup, and take 1 time every night, which can enhance the cold resistance of human body and reduce the occurrence of diseases such as colds. Peppermint oil or citrus is often placed beside the bed. Put 1 vial of peppermint oil on the pillow, so that the cork leaks slightly and the peppermint gas is slowly emitted, which has a good effect on headache and nasal congestion; Citrus is warm and has a strong smell, which can get rid of viruses. Warm reminder: elderly people with weak constitution are afraid of cold without wind. They often catch a cold when they cut their clothes a little, and often have symptoms such as weakness and drowsiness. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that this symptom is invincible and needs to strengthen their disease resistance. 3 slices of ginger and 3 stems of scallion can be decocted. The recipe is simple: 10 dried red dates and 50g onion are used as raw materials of onion and red date soup. Seasoning and salt are appropriate. Practice: Wash the dried red dates, soak them in cold water and remove the core; Wash onion, peel and cut into sections for later use. Put the pot on fire, pour in proper amount of water, add dried red dates and cook for 20 minutes, then add onions and cook for 10 minutes, and season with salt. This article is taken from "Why don't you take a nap for too long? 100 Health Guidance for Young Professionals/Xiang Hongding (Director and Chief Physician of Diabetes Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital)/Interesting.