Do you have COVID-19? Here's how to treat mild cases at home

Gina DiPietro 0:06
The vast majority of people with COVID-19 develop mild to moderate symptoms and they will be able to recover at home. Welcome to Novant Health healthy headlines I'm Gina dipietro. Despite the significant number of deaths and hospitalizations caused by COVID-19 most people with the virus do well recovering at home. In this episode Dr. Kuran Shukla, a Novant Health family physician talks to Cliff Martens about steps you can take to fight through mild cases. Thank you for listening.

Cliff Mehrtens 0:39
Which pain relievers Should I take if I have a mild case? Sure. So, again, with COVID-19 infection, most cases are mild. And certainly people can experience mild to moderate symptoms and spend several days at home to recover and during that time have body aches, muscle pains, fevers. The most important thing to remember is that most over the counter, common medications we take to manage COVID-19 does not treat or cure the virus, but it manages symptoms. And so in general for body aches and muscle pains,

Dr. Karan Shukla 1:27
instead of monofin or Tylenol, naproxen, or Aleve, ibuprofen,

which is sold under the name of Advil or Motrin can help lower fevers can help manage muscle aches and body pains and make the course of the illness a little bit more tolerable. The first thing is to remember that you want to make sure you're following dosing guidelines on the backs of the labels read exactly what the dose of the medication is that you are taking, and that you don't have any health industry health history that should prevent you from using these medications. Early on during the COVID pandemic, there was some question as to whether anti inflammatories like naproxen or Motrin, or Aleve, or ibuprofen, we're potentially going to make the process of the COVID infection worse, but subsequent follow up testing or studies have really not demonstrated that. And so whether it's Tylenol or ibuprofen or Motrin, or Aleve, either of these medications can serve to reduce fevers and to manage symptoms of pain.

Cliff Mehrtens 2:51
But respiratory symptoms the things we would normally reach for during the year cold medicines I have a runny nose or I'm clogged up or things are, you know, I'm really having those sort of issues. How well and effective are those?

Dr. Karan Shukla 3:05
Sure, a lot of the over the counter cough medications generally are helpful but are not as helpful as we would like to think of managing symptoms of cough. In general, I recommend my patients who are recovering at home, use a vapor rubs to help relieve coughs to make sure that they have an Air Humidifier and use steam inhalation to decrease nasal congestion. Certainly, honey can be used in ways to help soothe sore throats, in manage cough symptoms as well. You want to be aware that lower respiratory tract symptoms in COVID illnesses need to be monitored carefully. Because the lower respiratory tract symptoms like chest tightness or chest congestion, chesty, cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath may indicate that you're dealing with more than just an upper respiratory tract illness, but also potentially lower respiratory tract illness, which could be considered a pneumonia.

Cliff Mehrtens 4:22
Let's talk about hybrid hydration excuse me, it's it's important throughout your life, but in this case, am I hydrating more if I'm trying to treat those symptoms? If so, what do you know liquids are more beneficial than others? What should I concentrate on?

Dr. Karan Shukla 4:36
Sure. Staying hydrated during the recovery from any illness is very important. And during periods of illness, our body loses more water or more fluid loss through fevers or coughing, breathing rapidly. Certainly nausea or vomiting or diarrhea can add to those fluid losses. With COVID specifically, loss of taste or loss of smell may interfere with someone's appetite or desire to eat or drink. So staying hydrated is very critical at maintaining our body's metabolic processes at keeping our secretions or respiratory secretions loose, and when we are dehydrated, our secretions become thicker, which makes it difficult to clear and can lead to increased risk of pneumonia. So in general, a few tips would be to generally have clear liquids readily available to sip clear liquids or electrolyte containing rehydration solutions. Frequently, if you aren't able to tolerate drinking large quantities in or during that illness, you want to certainly make sure that you are having adequate urine output and that you're urinating every three to four hours. And generally that urine is clear and not very dark and concentrated. Though those could all be signs that you're dehydrated. By the time you're thirsty, or have a desire to drink, you're already past the point of being dehydrated when it comes to an illness.

Cliff Mehrtens 6:28
Let's talk about isolating someone in multiperson house develops COVID-19 what are the key steps to isolating them in one portion of the house and limiting contact with them.

Dr. Karan Shukla 6:39
So at the earliest signs of illness, you really want to start avoiding contact with people within your own home. And a lot of the times especially with COVID 19, I've seen that the symptoms can be very mild and very subtle. And people often mistake them for allergies or sinus infections or other upper respiratory tract infections, very subtle symptoms. So at the real onset of any symptoms you might be attributing to upper respiratory process, you want to generally avoid sitting with people in your home to eat or congregate. In other areas of the home where you would generally hang out. You would want to identify a particular bathroom if you have the ability to do so where you can use that other people who may not be having any symptoms can can use other bathrooms to avoid cross contamination. I would strongly encourage everyone in the home to wear masks at that point. Because you do not know who has the infection and who is in the process of developing symptoms. I think it would be important as well to clean all commonly touched surfaces, hard back chairs, table tops, remote controls, commonly touched doorknobs, to make sure all of these commonly touched surfaces are not potential vectors for transmission.

Cliff Mehrtens 8:17
I know COVID-19 isn't a one size fits all sort of disease but virus but in general, someone with mild conditions about how long are they going to feel bad and before they start to turn a corner just in general before they that it runs its course.

Dr. Karan Shukla 8:33
In general, a person with mild upper respiratory tract illness would be expected to have few days of symptoms that evolve during the course of their illness. They may start with stopped up nose or inability to smell maybe a little bit of irritated throat. They may go on to develop fevers, or chills or just not feel well. Typically the process of upper respiratory tract illness or a mild case of COVID-19 plays out over the course of a week to 10 days, after which the individual may start feeling better and have more energy and see resolution to their symptoms.

Cliff Mehrtens 9:17
What are some of the warning signs? That tells me I'm no longer mild? I really need to seek emergency immediate care.

Dr. Karan Shukla 9:25
Sure, it's very important that at the onset of someone's symptoms that they you know, take into account the date at which the symptoms started. The date at which they were potentially exposed may help to really monitor and log your symptoms or write them down as as descriptive as possible so that you can observe how the symptoms evolve. And certainly if you start out with upper respiratory tract symptom...