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

I have two kids who react differently to fevers. One is extremely miserable when the fever reaches 102, and the other one is acting almost normal, maybe a little tired, at 104.5. So obviously, I will give the first one medicine to reduce his fever as soon as he hits 102 F, but for the second one, I let him ride the fever the first day without medication and usually he recovers much faster.