Does taking fever reducing medicine reduce your body’s fight against the infection?
October 11th, 2009 Posted by: admin
If you take Advil or Nyquil or any other flu/cold medicine or fever reducer does this hurt the body’s attempt to kill the virus or bacteria causing the fever?
As I understand it a fever is the body’s way of heating up and trying to kill the virus/infection. Wouldn’t a fever reducer hinder the body’s natural fight?
By: waltyeagan87
Tags: Bacteria, Fever Reducer, Flu
October 12th, 2009 at 21:44
Exactly!!! However if your temperature gets too high then you want to start reducing it just to avoid gettting a temperature that is going to hurt you anyway.. (proteins, which is what your body and especially brain is made out of.. denature at a certain temperature)
The basic rule for this is that if your temp is just 99 or 100 or possibly 101 then don’t feel obligated to get the temp down
howver if you are in pain and you want to relieve the pain with acetaminophen or ibuprofen, those are also fever reducers
You just have to choose which tradeoffs you want
October 13th, 2009 at 17:53
your immune system fights the infection…it is not the increased in temperature that fights bacteria or virus… increased temperature is a result of increased in metabolism..
October 15th, 2009 at 16:50
The body is trying to reset the temperature to kill bacteria and viruses. It is a symptom, not something that needs to be cured.” Acetaminophen will bring the temperature down, but that is not always necessary.
Cold baths also used to be used. Kemper discourages that now. “Let the fever work.”
Walls agrees. “Fever is an ally,” he says. “People used to believe it destroyed brain cells, but it doesn’t. What about convulsions in children with high fevers? “If this is going to occur,” Walls says, “it will be at the first fever spike. You won’t have time to bring the fever down to prevent it.”