I’m sitting here feeling rather miserable as I’m recovering from a case of gastro or something similar. Nausea, a case of ‘the runs’, headache, and a mild fever. I decided not to relieve the fever last night, and thankfully it was gone by morning. I wondered to myself, ‘if I had taken medication to relieve the fever, would I still be sick?’
Our mothers (or at least mine did) taught us from a young age to treat fevers as soon as they appear. But hang on ma, we get fevers for a reason, so are fevers actually supposed to work?
The body automatically heats up in response to illness, infection or inflammation. If you get a cut on your hand and it gets infected, your hand might start to get pretty red and very warm. If you catch the flu, the virus goes throughout your whole body and you react to that, getting a fever as it tries to fight it. Both are prime examples of fever.
Normal body temperature ranges from 36.5 degrees Celsius to 37.5 degrees C. When your immune system kicks in, you may get a fever ranging from 38 degrees up to 40 degrees. However anything above 40 is deemed medically unsafe and needs immediate treatment; temperatures this high can actually damage your cells and internal organs.
Despite this, the fever’s whole purpose is for the benefit of the immune system (imagine lymphocyte cells as the cranky dad telling the rest of the cells to lay off the thermostat for awhile).
(Ever wondered why you feel so cold when your body is so hot? This ain’t some cheesy pick up line, there is a biological reason for this (also available in Medium))
When the immune system activates, a part of your brain (called the hypothalamus) secretes hormones that causes the body to increase in temperature. The fever then helps slow the progress of the bugs causing the infection, and can even kill them. Plenty of research has been done towards this in the last century and it’s also now known that higher body temperatures allow the immune cells to function faster and remove the infection sooner.
In short the fever actually works because:
1) bacteria and viruses tend to enjoy being in our bodies at our normal temperature range (~37 degrees C), so by increasing the temperature we’re hindering the progress of the infection.
And 2) our own immune cells (aka white cells, T cells, lymphocytes, etc which fight the infection) work quicker and faster at higher temperatures.
Research has found this to be true in both cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals. So somewhere in our ancestors this advantage developed and we’ve had it ever since. Looks like a fever isn’t all bad, although uncomfortable, but leaving it unchecked could give you more problems than benefits (eg if it’s too high).
You know, maybe this explains why we experience flu season in the colder months rather than in the heat of Summer 🤔
[So it seems fevers can be pretty useful. However for legalities sake I need to caveat this article by saying I’m not your GP, so if you are sick and have a fever, please consider your personal circumstance and treat appropriately by seeking medical attention.]
Originally published at http://haveyoueverwondered123.wordpress.com on July 16, 2022.
