Why do we take medicine to suppress symptoms like coughing, fever, etc. when those are our bodies way of fighting infection?

Question

I’m sick rn and I’ve taken medication to reduce my fever. But isn’t a fever your body trying to cook out the infection? Ofc it could cook me as well, but if my fever goes away then won’t that just aid the germs?

In: Biology

Answer 1

There are cases when it’s helpful, like when coughing prevents good sleep or there’s a persistant cough after the cold is over that continually irritates the throat. Or when the fever is too high. But it’s mostly overused.

Sometimes it’s simply because an economic condition means someone feels they can’t afford to miss work, so they’ll suppress symptoms enough to seem relatively normal. Of course, that wouldn’t stop being contagious.