Why hello! I apologize for my extended time away. There were so many things going on and then i had my vacation, that it was just impossible to set aside time to write, let alone think of anything to write. But, I have quite the topic now. While away on vacation, I was reading for school (which did not last for too long with the sun shining of course!) and read about fevers. What do you know, that night I got one. Isn't it weird how things work like that?
Anyways, fevers: your body temperature going higher than normal. Seems like a simple concept. I assumed that everyone understood why it was this happened to people, that was until I went to my Nutrition class yesterday. My professor was talking about fevers and how horrible they are and can change the structure of things in your body and how they need to be brought down immediately. Of course, if a person has a high fever for a period of I would say more than 3 days, then yes, it should be checked out and tamed. But a fever for a period of a day is something that should not be taken down.
Our bodies raise the temperature inside of us for a purpose. That purpose is to kill off the bad bacteria that is floating around inside. It's kind of like the bad bacteria is getting bigger and stronger so the body needs to take a stronger measure in order to kill it. So why would you want to stop this innate mechanism your body has for protecting itself? You wouldn't!
After my fever was gone, the next day my tonsils were severely enlarged and hurt really bad! Why is that? Allow me to explain - through the high fever, my body was able to kill off those bacterias it didn't want inside. Then, it made use of my lymphatic system to transport all of the bad bacteria it killed as to get it out of the body. The tonsils are an emergency "dump site" for the lymphatic system. When the body has those little buggers inside, it kills them then moves them into lymph nodes to dispose of. Once the dead bacteria is inside my tonsils, the nasty stuff gets out of me one of two ways - a) drips down my throat then i end up pooping it out, or b) i cough and get those lovely mucous chunks out which house some of that dead bacteria. That is why when you get a nice, lumpy, green mucous chunk in your mouth when you cough (which happened to me twice!) you don't want to swallow it! It's better to just spit it out. If you don't, it will end up still being disposed of, through your poop. But give your body the easy way out and just spit it in the toilet and flush it!
So all in all, trust me, i KNOW that fevers are no fun - especially the headaches that come along with them. But if you try and take down the fever (by taking pain killers or any other method you choose to use) you are making it more difficult on your body. If you let it run it's course, while keeping an eye on it, you are enabling the body to do what it needs to do in order to heal you. Remember the body is capable of healing itself. There, I felt like making it short and sweet.
5 comments:
yes, agreed. i have had a fever since about midnight Monday morning (about 36 hours. The day before, I was having an awful headache that felt like a fever, but when i checked it time and time again, i was actually under 98.6 degrees. I did take something that day because i didn't have a fever and just wanted some relief from the pain. Last night I could not sleep and was feeling awful so I took something just to allow me to sleep, which it did. Of course, the fever is back...so that is the deal. How long should I let it go before taking something - b/c you mentioned that it should not persists for more than a day....
Well, I had my fever a week ago and still am being leary of taking anything. Just in case there is a slight raise in temperature anywhere to kill off the last few. But if you have a persistent high temp, maybe above 100 or so past tomorrow evening, you might want to look into it. I even thought about going to the doctor to see what was wrong. (Not to let them treat me though) You also just have to listen to your body and get a feel for what is going on. Sleep a lot, drink water whenever awake and eat things like fruit. I did that and the fever was gone in 36 hours or less.
that is what i have been doing - sleep, water, fruit, sleep, water, fruit....i have actually been craving oranges like CRAZY - probably because of the vitamin c! the highest my fever has been was 100.3 so i am ok. right now it is about 98.9 - which is nothing, but it still feels AWFUL - just .3 over! that is weird. i was just confused when you said that a fever should not persist, but i get it now - you mean a really high one .
I thought that too, Dave, when Julie wrote about her professor. Did you write that wrong. Anywhoo, Carson had a 105 degree temp this weekend, which landed us in the hospital. Not fun!! He continued to have one floating around 102 for the next three days. Poor baby boy!! I don't like fevers...but if they help!
Alright, maybe I did not come off clearly. That was my professor from Rochester, not the Naturopathic Institute. I am still debating whether I think this professor knows what she is talking about or not, but we won't get into that. I don't disagree with her that prolonged fevers can be a bad thing, but she was saying that when a fever is detected it should immediately be taken down. I disagree with that because you are working against the body in something it was designed to do in order to battle with the bad guys. Does that make sense now?
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