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

Your body is fighting the infection in other ways. Taking medicine doesn’t suppress your immune system, which is doing the real heavy lifting in fighting the infection. The symptoms of an illness typically are unpleasant and aren’t strictly necessary to experience in order to get better.