Even healthy people get sick sometimes, have accidents and make mistakes. Starting off healthy helps them recover and heal faster. Healthy people are often strengthened by the episode. Healthy habits help prevent illnesses, accidents and mistakes but don’t eliminate them. A strong, healthy person will have strong symptoms. “Symptoms” are our body’s way of reacting to a problem. The reaction is usually an effort to heal. A strong person will be able to mount a strong effort to heal. This is good! An example of this is a fever.
Fever is one of the ways our bodies fight infections. Our body thermostat is turned up from the normal oral temperature of around 98.6ºF to a higher temperature. The optimal temperature range to fight serious infections is between 102ºF and 103ºF. Higher temperatures for brief periods of time can be safe but should be monitored closely in consultation with a medical professional. Fevers between 104ºF and 107ºF can cause serious dehydration and above 107ºF are very dangerous.
The biggest problems during high fevers are usually from the person becoming dehydration and from eating food. The digestive system shuts down at temperatures above 99.5ºF. So eating during a fever will add to the toxic load of the body and weaken efforts to fight any infection. Properly managed, friendly fevers are helpful and part of the healing process. This means drink lots of water and herbal teas (no caffeine, no refined sugars) and fast (no food) during a fever.
Friendly fevers fight infections by stimulating our fighter white blood cells to go to work, makes it harder for bacteria to grow, suppresses our appetite and hopefully make us get help, go to bed and rest! We feel chilled when a fever is developing as our body thermostat is being turned up. We shiver and want more blankets to warm up. When our body wins the fight over the infection and the fever is no longer needed, the fever breaks. Our body thermostat is turned back to normal. We then feel very hot and sweat to cool down to our normal body temperature.
Please remember that friendly fevers are helpful and part of the healing process. It is a strong, healthy person that can mount an optimal, friendly fever during a serious illness.
For further information, please contact Dr. Wendy Van Dilla at (505)986-1370.
