During a fever our immune system is using the high temps to purge the virus/bacteria/inflection but the temps dont get above 47c/115f. But purifying dirty water to drink requires reaching boiling 100c/212f to insure its safe? What’s the difference if fevers work at half the heat?
In: Biology
Your immune system isn’t purging the infection with *just* heat. Increasing the temperature of the body tends to give things like bacteria a harder time replicating and the body’s immune system a better chance to catch up in the fight against them, but the temperature alone isn’t stopping them. Your body actually doesn’t like the increased temperature of the fever either which is why it generally feels bad to have one and can even lead to organ damage. It is just worse for the invaders.
In the case of boiling contaminated water the temperature actually is killing the organisms within it. The high temperatures will cause proteins to denature, changing their shape and breaking apart so they cannot function. There are not white blood cells or antibodies like in a human immune system, just heat killing everything. Obviously using this in your body isn’t possible because you would die.
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