I was glad to see this common sense article on Mercola’s site today. This is one of the most misunderstood – and overtreated – symptoms, especially in children. This is to our harm not gain.
So many parents reach immediately for the bottle of sugared, dyed, flavored symptom suppressor the minute they notice their children have a slight fever. Some even overreact more than that, and rush their children to the Dr. at the first sign of fever. The course may continue to go further downhill from there to unnecessary, harmful antibiotics. Somehow the lie that fever is bad and must be stopped at all costs immediately has been proliferated widely. This is not a good course of action.
Here’s a bit from the Mercola article – read the rest of the article to learn the benefits of fever and know what TO do when you have one.
A great number of people have completely misunderstood fever, and believe that fever can be dangerous in and of itself – especially when the fever occurs in a child.
It’s important to realize that fever is your body’s backup defense mechanism when your primary ones – mainly your immune system — fail. Your first line of defense is your macrophages, which gobble up any invading microbes.
As long as your immune system is strong, you may not even realize you’ve been exposed to a troublesome bug.
If you are still under the impression that having a fever or 100 or 101 degrees Fahrenheit is an indication of a dangerous situation, relax! It’s not!
Many infectious agents do not survive in elevated temperatures so your body increases the temperature in an effort to eradicate the infection. It is a healthy response.
Unfortunately, most parents end up giving their child potentially toxic doses of fever-reducing medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen when, in reality, their child’s temperature is ideal for accomplishing healing. Worse yet, there are parents who administer aspirin at the first sign of fever, which actually poses a far greater health risk than any fever could, as aspirin may cause Reye’s Disease, which can be lethal.
