The Case for Letting Fevers Run Their Course

[Quixote1818]

Fever isn’t an illness. It’s the body’s attempt to fight illness. So when we treat fever with antipyretics, like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen, we only handcuff an important part of our immune response. Although it might seem counterintuitive, several studies have now shown that antipyretics increase the severity of infections. The time has come to get over our fear of fever.

Much has been learned about the importance of fever from studies in animals, which can be divided into two groups: ectotherms and endotherms.

Ectotherms regulate their body temperature using the environment. For example, when lizards want to raise their temperature, they climb to the top of a rock and sun themselves. When they want to lower it, they crawl under the rock.

Mammals, on the other hand, are endotherms. To increase our body temperature, our immune system releases chemicals called cytokines (like interleukin-1, interleukin-2, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor, and others) that travel to a part of the brain called the hypothalamus and reset the body temperature to a higher level. To achieve a higher temperature we shiver, crawl under the covers, wear warm clothing, and shunt blood flow away from our arms and legs and toward our core.

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/let-it-burn-why-you-should-let-fevers-run-their-course

[The Blue Flower]

1. Purely anecdotal, but...

I have found soaking in a hot bath helps ease a fever. I thought perhaps the heat from outside my body makes it less necessary for my body to generate heat from within.