A particularly nasty winter lurgy is doing the rounds at the moment and Brits are saying it feels like they've caught covid all over again.
People often come down with something unpleasant over the winter period but this year it feels particularly bad.
Plenty go through a bit of a rough patch during the cold weather and the best you can often do is keep warm and hope it doesn't coincide with the festive period to spoil all your best laid plans.
Advert
Suffering from the sickness for as much as several weeks at a time, many are taking covid tests and discovering they're negative for that pandemic-causing virus, leaving them stuck wondering what exactly they've caught.
When it comes to an illness which feels as nasty as this the good news people are getting is that it's not covid, as their tests are coming back negative.
However, the bad news is that for many people catching it this winter it feels very similar to being infected with the horrific virus.
Advert
So many are suffering from the bug right now and it's leaving them stuck looking for solutions while trying to figure out just what this winter illness is.
Turning to social media, plenty have shared their symptoms and offered their sympathies for other Brits stuck in the same boat this season.
One person wrote that they'd been 'totally floored' by a series of illnesses this winter, saying they 'haven't been without some sort of bug for weeks'.
Another said they were on the third day of the 'strange winter bug' and the worst part for them was a migraine which had developed, leaving them 'in agony and miserable'.
Advert
Someone else saying they'd caught the 'winter lurgy' shared a gif captioned 'everything hurts and I'm dying', while people said their symptoms included 'aching legs, cough, sore throat, headache'.
People who've had it said what they suffered through was 'if not actually flu then close to it', while others were worried about symptoms including one person who said 'my heart rate has reached 170bpm doing nothing'.
With so many people coming down with the dreaded lurgy this winter it may feel like it's inevitable that you're going to catch it at some point, though it's not guaranteed and you won't have to live like a hermit to avoid it.
Advert
Dr Nadja Auerbach of health company Thriva said some people with pre-existing medical conditions were much more at risk of coming down with something during the festive period.
She also said that 'lifestyle can have a big effect on your immunity' for those hoping to avoid getting sick this Christmas.
She recommended that people who wanted to give themselves the best chance of avoiding getting sick should keep the stress levels as low as possible and get plenty of sleep, while in more serious cases breaking out the mask and handwashing for being out in public could really help too.
Joe Harker