You got a lot of answers but mostly because lowering the fever makes you feel better and people over pop pills
Because your body can (and sometimes does) overshoot the mark and kill things it isn’t intending to kill with heat. It also uses up your stored energy meaning you must eat more and more often.
Better to make your body stop overheating itself, and trap heat with coverings. If you get too hot, it can be modulated by reducing or adding cover. And external heat like a water bottle can bring temps up quickly, and keep you at raised temps safely.
There is also the discomfort from a fever as well. Too much discomfort will lead people to make possibly bad decisions. Pain management is always something to keep in mind.
Also, at a high enough level (104 F), the proteins in your brain start to denature, which leads to death.
This is not true. While a 104 fever likely indicates a severe illness or infection the body can safely have a fever in the 104 to 106 range. It’s around 108 that brain damage becomes a concern and that is usually also due to environmental factors like a kid being left in a hot car.
To my knowledge, proteins can start to denature at 104F, depending on the protein and other factors like pH. Around 106F, proteins in the brain will start to denature, regardless of other factors.
Yup. Your body is hardcore. Too hardcore for itself, even.
reminds me of that shame meme
Me: body why are we so hot Immune system: bacteria can’t live in this heat for prolonged period Me: But neither can we loads gun_shame.jpeg
Because GET BACK TO WORK /s
Own your shit. /s is for cowards.
Ok!
We evolved to have that response in a world in which hospitals didn’t exist and in which we faced predation by other animals, and ‘curl into a ball feeling like shit for a couple days’ was the most viable way for the body to handle even the most mundane of infections (all the other ideas didn’t make the cut and here we are). But now, 21st century, we’re like ‘oh it’s just the cold’ and actively attempt to mitigate it.
A slew of other things are still stuck in 20,000BC as well, like our bodies not being able to deal with copious amounts of sugar, or thinking we might have difficulties securing our next meal. Cut too many calories trying to lose some fat and your body legit thinks you’re dying and starts breaking down all sorts of soft tissue that isn’t fat. Or vasoconstriction when we’re out shoveling snow with a warm house 15ft away, all sorts of shit
As soon as I start to feel like I might be getting sick, I immediately take as hot a bath as I can stand for about an hour then immediately cool off with cold water. Seems to do the trick quite well the majority of the time. My partner will go through the full illness while I can mostly nip it in the bud.
That’s what a sauna is about !
A 20min session (10min/1min pause/10min) and jumping in cold water will give you a dizziness state, lay down and enjoy !
You will feel refreshed, new-born, all negativity drown away, no-invasive thoughts of your subconscious… Just a climax-feeling of peacefulness ! (Until you’re back to you 10-17 routine…)
Sauna sessions are awsome !
Isn’t going from a sauna to cold water and back bad for the heart? I worked with a French-Finnish guy for a while who told me half his family are on heart medication because of it.
I heard everything and it’s contrary. But that’s more of a how many times/week you do it thing IMO.
I’m not a doctor or any specialist but rather on the safe side of things. It’s the dose that makes the difference. If you drink 5 liters of water in less than 1 min, it will probably kill you… But that doesn’t stop me drinking water every day.
And yes I can imagine all Nordic people doing it like 5 time a week? Is probably way to much… It also depends on other factors (genetics?).
Just my 2cent, don’t take it for granted.
Oh I totally agree. Saunas are awesome. I just don’t have one in my house.
Heck. I do that twice a week just because it feels great.
Also perfect for my back pain. Everything relaxes after an hour in a hot bath.
I even put in dimmable multi colour light in my bathroom and some nice background music.
Sadly the LED strip broke quite soon…I have an old laptop palying videos. usually anime.
Ah yeah, did that during business trips.
There are also some laptop remote control apps in the store
Not sure what is hip and secure currently, years ago I used unified remote, which worked quite well.Or did you find a better solution and use a real remote with USB receiver?
Indeed you should if you are not too hot. For diseases that can be cured otherwise do that first (antibiotics for batterial infections), there are still not good medicines for virus infection, so better let your body fight the infection and decrease your temperature only if too high
We don’t like to be hot
It’s not necessarily a good idea to do that though, particularly if you are able to endure the fever
As long as the heat isn’t life-threatening, you shouldn’t reduce the fever. It will increase recovery time
This too. And if you must use an antipyretic, supplement with external insulation or heat.
You don’t usually need to lower the fever. We do it for comfort, mostly. Being feverish feels bad. One of my kids can tolerate a fever so I don’t usually give her fever reducing medication. The other one gets so miserable that she won’t stop screaming, so I give her the medication.
Paracetamol also isn’t particularly good at reducing fever, even though it is often used with that intent. Ibuprofen is generally more effective
I always thought while both serve both functions, paracetamol was more on the antipiretic side (i.e. lowers body temperature) while ibuprofen was more of an analgetic (pain reliever).
Also, you can take both at once although then you shouldn’t take them as long. And always take the minimum effective dose (or preferably none if you can manage), but that applies to OTC non-prescribed medicine, not just to these two.
Wikipedia says it’s the opposite, with paracetamol being less well studied for antipyretic effects, but what studies there are showing little effectiveness
Oh. Thanks, then I had it the wrong way. I still remeber it from school and going to the doctor as a kid. Must’ve swapped them.
The scientific consensus may also have just changed since then, I’m not sure how recent most of the studies are
Paraphrasing my doctor: infections have evolved to the point the fever isn’t effectively contributing to fighting the infection, but we never evolved to stop making the fever. Since it doesn’t do us any good, we might as well be as comfortable as possible while our immune system does it’s part.
Is there anything out there supporting this claim? I watched the video of the (probably) biologist above, explaining exactly the contrary
Because it doesn’t feel nice.
But if you’re lowering every fever, you’re doing it wrong.
