Do I have a cold or is it allergies?

Many illnesses/conditions have similar symptoms.  As a result, it is often difficult to determine what is going on, and often leads to confusion as to the proper course of action. 

For example, the common cold and allergies may both produce a cough, fatigue, watery eyes, sore throat, and a runny/stuffy nose.  In order to help with the “self-diagnosis”, I found this chart on WebMD which I think you will find useful should you find yourself experiencing the previous symptoms.

 

Characteristic	Cold	Allergy
Duration	3-14 days	Days to months -- as long as you are exposed to the allergen
Time of Year	Most often in the winter, but possible at any time	Any time of the year – although the appearance of some allergens are seasonal
Onset of symptoms	Symptoms take a few days to appear after infection with the virus.	Symptoms can begin immediately after exposure to the allergen
Symptom	Cold	Allergy
Cough	Often	Sometimes
Aches	Sometimes	Never
Fatigue	Sometimes	Sometimes
Fever	Rarely	Never
Itchy, watery eyes	Rarely	Often
Sore throat	Often	Sometimes
Runny or stuffy nose	Often; usually yellow mucus	Often; usually clear mucus
Although there are some differences, cold and allergy symptoms overlap quite a bit. The most important difference is that colds don't last longer than 14 days. If you still have symptoms after two weeks, these may be allergy symptoms.

Comments

[Tracy]

Also - people always think they have the "flu" through self-diagnosis. The flu is not as common as people think and most of the time it is just a cold virus.