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
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