FEVER – Your friend?

Fever is helpful!

Patients look at me weird when I tell them fever is normal, healthy, and welcome.  When I ask them not to take any Tylenol or Motrin and not use cool baths to lower their fever they think I am nuts.  It goes against everything they’ve been taught by parents, teachers, school nurses, and media.   But before you pick up a stone and yell “Blasphemy!  Stone him!”  Let me say fever really is an effective weapon your body uses to fight infection.  Fever is an indicator that either a bacteria or virus has entered and trying to do damage to body cells.  So the  hypothalamus (gland at base of your brain) turns up the thermostat knowing that most bacteria and viruses can’t stand as high temperatures as the body cells can.  Truly a fever of 102 degrees is very helpful in killing millions of the invading organisms.  Die suckers die!  The immune system actually works better in higher body temperature.  Most normally healthy children and adults can tolerate temps up to 103 and 104 respectively for a short time (1-3 days).  It takes a lot of energy for the body to raise its core temperature so eating and drinking extra are essential.  So even the phrase from Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, “Feed a cold, starve a fever” is wrong.  Now use common sense here.  If you have fever and can’t stand the body aches then take Motrin that works better on achiness.  If the fever is too high and you’ll know mainly by the  lethargy ( just lying there exhausted not able to eat or drink) then give Tylenol for the fever.  But if you can eat and drink okay then allow the fever to continue unabated.  You’ll actually get better faster with a fever than continuing to try to tamp it down.