If getting fever is the body’s natural response to an infection, why do so many treatments attempt to reduce body temperature?
In: Biology
It has to do with the point that certain proteins denature. First, when a protein denatures *it does not function anymore* and is 100% useless.
The point of your body producing a fever is to *cause* the virus or bacteria’s proteins to denature, and a lot of the time they will do so without denaturing your own human proteins. This stops the virus or bacteria, or at a minimum slows it down enough so that your immune system can catch up.
HOWEVER, your body has the ability to cause a fever so high that your own proteins denature and no longer function—this is why a fever can kill you. Many treatments attempt to reduce fever temperature so that your proteins can be at 100% while fighting the infection.
Ultimately, for low-grade fevers (lower than 100.5°F) you don’t *need* to take a fever reducer *and it is more beneficial for you if you don’t* because that temperature poses no risk to your own proteins. Most people will take a fever reducer because it sucks to feel like shit
Edit: Thank you for the silver!! Thank god that 4 years of being a cell bio major before changing is paying off somehow lmao
An increased body temperature, mild discomfort aside, can prevent some enzymes from working as intended. If the fever continues to climb, cellular damage can occur, particularly in the brain.
That being said, now that science has evolved, the average human body temperature is decreasing. I know my baseline temperature is around 97.9 degrees Fahrenheit as opposed to the “normal” 98.6.
Your body is evolved for caveman times. If we were still living in caveman times, every day you spend sick is a day that you can’t go out and get food. A fever is intended to help get rid of the virus as quickly as possible. Even if it does some damage to the rest of your body, that’s better than going an extra day without food.
Today, being bedridden for a few days is no problem at all. There’s no reason to damage your body just for an extra day of work.
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