If symptoms of a cold are just the body fighting the cold, what is the real harm of being sick?
In: Biology
If your immune system doesn’t fight off the viruses/bacteria fast enough, they will multiply and overwhelm your body. If this occurs, your body will go into an all out attack mode (symptoms include a VERY high fever), which will destroy your healthy cells too. It’s essentially a last resort move by your body to get rid of invaders. Not to mention, many viruses attack your cells directly by lysing them after replication.
Every cell in our body operates at an equilibrium, with temperature being a factor. If enough cells are damaged > tissues become damaged > organs damaged/impaired > entire body systems damaged/impaired > death.
Vaccines exist to help prevent your body from being overwhelmed as the point is to make sure you have antibodies circulating/ready to fight off these invaders BEFORE you ever contract that illness. Your body always responds quicker to illnesses it contracts a second time, bc there are antibodies ready from the first time.
Regarding common colds today, there isn’t much of a harm anymore given that you are in good health. It’s a different story though for those who are immunosuppressed, young children/infants or the elderly. Their immune systems are not as robust and something as common as a cold can become life threatening for the reasons I mentioned above.
Latest Answers