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
When someone has a cold which they can easily recover from, a doctor might prescribe medications that purely help with the symptoms and let your body handle the rest on its own. Everyone’s already explained overcompensation but whether or not you should suppress a certain symptom also depends on the bigger picture.
For example, there are two types of cough: wet (with sputum) and dry (without). In a patient who is producing sputum, the purpose of coughing is to move the mucus up and out of your lungs to prevent buildup. Giving a cough suppressant to this person would cause all the mucus to build up and fill your lungs and airways, which could trap pathogens and lead to infection. Therefore, you can give them mucolytics to break down the mucus, but you SHOULDN’T give them cough suppressants, you should only give those to patients with a dry cough. This is why cough suppressant bottles are sometimes labeled with “dry cough”.
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