An exhaustive account of how the flu destroys your body

Unlike most common colds, strains of the influenza virus can cause symptoms all throughout the body. And when you’ve got them, they can be pretty alarming. Knowledge is power, so here’s what goes on in your body when you come down with the flu.

The influenza virus primarily attacks your respiratory tract: your nose, throat, and the tubes that lead to your lungs. So symptoms like a runny nose, a phlegmy cough, and a sore throat all make a lot of sense. But the flu is so much more than that. Though other organs in the body are not the primary target, the virus still has an effect on them. Your muscles ache, your head hurts, and your appetite goes down, among other things. Ironically, almost all of these symptoms have less to do with the virus itself than with your immune response to them. Unfortunately, the very defense mechanisms you have in place to get rid of the flu are the reason you feel so miserable as you recover.

The virus usually enters through your mouth, typically by way of your hands—most people touch their faces a lot throughout the day. But it takes a few days for symptoms to set in. Once inside you, the virus makes a beeline for your respiratory system and binds to the cells that line those areas. The virus then hijacks those cells’ natural mechanisms for replicating and uses them to create even more flu viruses in your body. While this process might cause some harm to your respiratory tract, it’s nothing major, and nothing like the symptoms that typically accompany a bad or even mild case of the flu.

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