10. Get Some Rest
Mono is known for its powerful fatigue. It can feel like all the energy has been sapped from your body when you are sick with mono. One of the best things you can do for yourself then is to get some rest.
How Does It Help?
While it might not feel like it, your body is working overtime when you are sick. Your immune system is putting in the extra effort to get you back on your feet, which takes a lot of your natural resources. Getting bed rest and relaxing can therefore help you recover faster, as you aren’t depleting any extra resources.
Another thing you can do to improve your recovery is to stay hydrated…
9. Replace Lost Fluids
When the body is hard at work, it requires more fluids than usual. This fact is just as true for hitting the gym as it is for fighting off mono. You can thereby help your recovery by staying hydrated.
How Does It Help?
Water, fruit juices, and soups are all great choices to keep up your strength while recovering from mono. Specifically, hydration helps to keep up blood pressure, prevent headaches, and limit the fatigue that comes with mono. These fluids can do more than help you stay hydrated, though; they can also provide necessary nutrients.
Just make sure you’re reaching for appropriate food and drink to help your body recover…
8. Eating Right
Mono is notorious for a nasty sore throat. This symptom makes it hard to get nutritious, healthy foods. However, making sure you still eat healthy can go a long way to making your recovery more bearable.
How Does It Help?
Ice cream certainly will help your sore throat, but it won’t give you much nutrition. When you come down with a case of mono, try to mix it up with soup, broth, and other sore throat-friendly foods. Tea with honey is another great choice to get some more nutritional value while also relieving a sore throat.
This last remedy can help two-fold in managing your mono…
7. Treat Your Sore Throat
A sore throat is one of mono’s most unpleasant symptoms. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to treat a sore throat.
How Does It Help?
Sore throats disrupt sleep, make it harder to take medications, and also make it harder to eat and drink: all things that are necessary for a speedy recovery. As such, managing a sore throat can help you recover quickly and more comfortably. Try a lozenge, tea with honey, or a cool beverage to take the edge off of your sore throat.
If the pain gets too intense, an over-the-counter painkiller could help…
6. Use Over-the-Counter Painkillers
Much like a severe fever, mono comes with all kinds of aches and pains. In order to make sure your recovery goes smoothly, you should make sure that your pain levels are tolerable.
How Does It Help?
Aspirin, cold medicine, and other over-the-counter (OTC) pain medicines can help make mono more manageable. By reducing your pain, you’ll be able to rest more completely and more easily eat and drink; both of these activities are key to a speedy recovery.
Your recovery period from mono might be longer than you think, though, which means the following is important…
5. Plan to Take it Easy for a While
Mono can cause inflammation of the spleen. Even if your case of mono subsides in a few days, this inflammation can continue for weeks, which means your risk of mono complications can continue during this period. Since a ruptured spleen is a serious medical condition, you need to do what you can to avoid this event.
How Does It Help?
Many medical providers will recommend taking it easy for up to a month after your mono subsides. This means no sports, strenuous activity, or working out. While this waiting period may seem unnecessarily long, it’s vital for keeping you healthy. This period gives your spleen time to heal and lowers your chance of a rupture, after all.
Treating mono can also mean making some temporary lifestyle changes…
4. Be Ready for Some Lifestyle Changes
Mono can temporarily consume your life. When you’re recovering from mono, you should plan to make some temporary changes to your social life as well as your work and school plans.
How Does It Help?
While recovering from mono, you should be ready to take some time off of work, postpone any tests at school, and put your social life on hold. Your body needs that energy to fight off the virus. In other words, making these changes reserves your resources solely for fighting mono, which can help you recover quickly.
If you’re a busy body, taking it easy for weeks or even months can be a nightmare. Luckily, there are some activities you can do that still let you rest…
3. Try Activities That Let You Rest
You don’t have to go stir crazy when you have mono. There are plenty of activities that you can do that still let you get some rest. These activities include watching movies, virtually hanging out with friends, or playing games online.
How Does It Help?
Even though you are putting your recovery first, you can still make this time enjoyable. These acitivies can take your mind off of your bout mono and give you something pleasant to focus on.
Sometimes, mono can lead to complications. Therefore, you should be ready to treat any secondary infections to avoid these issues…
2. Treat Secondary Infections
Mono oftentimes comes with secondary infections, or infections that are not caused by the same virus that causes mono. Essentially, mono weakens your immune system enough to let these other infections set up shop.
How Does It Help?
Treating a secondary infection helps your body to fight off the primary infection. In other words, treating the secondary infection will let your body handle your primary case of mono much easier. After all, having one infection is easier for the immune system to handle. These secondary infections are usually treated with prescription medications.
Mono is an incurable virus, which means the best treatment is to prevent getting it in the first place…
1. Avoid Spreading Mono
Mono earned its nickname “The Kissing Cough” because it’s spread primarily through mouth-to-mouth contact. However, secondary contact is also a major concern for spreading this taxing virus. Sharing toothbrushes, drinking glasses, and even sneezing can all spread mono to the people around you. Taking steps to reduce exposure for yourself and others is therefore the best treatment of all.
How Does It Help?
Since there is no way to cure mono, the best way to manage it is to never get it in the first place. While not kissing someone who is visibly sick is a solid start, mono can be spread in a few surprising ways. Sneezing or even sharing a fork with a contagious person could spread mono. If you have mono, do your best to cover coughs and sneezes and avoid any activities that might spread this virus, like sharing drinks.
Mono can really tax the body’s ability to fight off infection, but with enough bedrest and fluids, most people recover on their own.
What To Do Next
If you suspect you’ve come down with mono, head to your doctor for more help. While most people recover on their own just fine, your doctor can check for complications like spleen damage. Once that’s done, all you need to do is hunker down and try to relax as you stay hydrated and treat your symptoms.
