Fevers and Other Acute Symptoms: A Cleansing Process

Modern medical advice now says to bring a fever down with an anti-pyretic/fever reducing medication, and to uncover a cold and shivering fevered child in order to reduce their temperature.

In stark contrast, Hippocrates said “Give me a fever, and I can cure any disease.”

“A fever caused by infection actually helps the body destroy its microbial invader. It also stimulates an inflammatory response, which sends all kinds of substances to the area of infection to protect the area, prevent the spread of the invader, and start the healing process.” – Yale Medical Group, Yale School of Medicine

“Fever is a systematic response to infection. It is generally agreed that moderate elevation of body temperature improves the body’s disease fighting ability.” – Human Anatomy & Physiology (Maneb, E Human Anatomy and Physiology, Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company, P. 179).

“Interferon is a protein that your body makes naturally. The human body produces more of it when you have an illness such as the flu. When a virus attacks, your immune system rushes to defend you by producing interferon to protect your cells. One of the reasons that you feel bad when you have the flu, is that higher levels of interferon cause you to have certain symptoms, including fever and chills. This is evidence that your body is working to get rid of the virus." – Science Daily (2017)

In the early days of Facebook censorship, I made a post on the benefits of allowing a fever to run its course. A naysayer took a screen shot of my post, added it to a group, and asked someone to call child protective services on me. While nobody did, I was saddened to think that perhaps the majority of parents do not have a basic understanding of this principle and have been misled. Fever is our friend, not our foe. Fever is not the illness. Fever is the body treating itself with heat.

Modern medicine only knows how to suppress symptoms. The end goal of allopathic treatment, sadly, is to get the person “back on his feet” as quickly as possible to treat the symptom rather than the root cause of the symptom. 

For every symptom, there is some suppressive treatment. For fever, headache, pain, sore throat, cough, wheezing, runny nose, congestion, the “solution” is always a Band-Aid ‘solution” or medicine; acetaminophen, NSAIDS, steroids, antibiotics, other OTC’s, inhalers, decongestants, or surgery.

What happens when we treat a child with these things? Immediate symptoms are often temporarily suppressed, but in the suppression, we also short-circuit the detoxification the body is working to accomplish during an acute illness, and symptoms tend to return and become even more exacerbated over time, making the illness last much longer, and sometimes even causing it to morph into a chronic condition.

Our body is continually eliminating toxins through regular means of exhalation, defecation, urination and sweat. When an acute illness with the symptoms of fever, mucus, gastrointestinal upset, cough and congestion appears, the body is at work to eliminate the toxic overload that has become too heavy a burden to eliminate through those regular means. The cellular debris that needs to be carried out of the system causes a backup, and this is where fever, vomiting and mucus come in. Fever, vomiting, and mucus are our body’s way of signaling us to rest and stop eating, and if we are smart, we will listen. Of course, we want everyone to get back to work and school as quickly as possible. But, suppressing the symptoms, and overloading the system with more medications and antibiotics can handicap the immune system so it cannot finish what it started.

We don’t need a cure, we need healing. The body is designed to heal, and healing takes place over time. 

“Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There.”

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist wrote “The Do-Nothing Approach,” and it is one of my favorite articles on the subject. She shares the old (and new again) wisdom her physician father used to give. In an acute situation, do nothing to intervene with symptom suppression, and allow the body to heal itself. Of course, provide hydration and sufficient mineral/electrolytes, because the body quickly uses these up during an illness.

Pediatricians Lawrence Palevsky and Thomas Cowan, MD, in their practices and teaching both emphasize the fact that following an extended length of acute illness, parents will often witness a rapid growth spurt in their children. It is as if their bodies are taking out the garbage to make room for healthy new cell growth. It is best not to inhibit this process. Attempting to “get your child back to normal” as quickly as possible often backfires into a cascade of additional symptoms and extends the length of time they are ill, rather than shortening the process and allowing the body to do what it was designed to do.

Your Two Immune Systems

Seven to ten days is a reasonable amount of time for an illness to run its course in the first stage of the initial cell-mediated immune response. For about 6-8 weeks after this, the adaptive/humoral immune system works to identify and file the identity of the invading intruder and put up a guard to help defend the body in the future, to prevent your child from becoming sick over and over again from the same pathogen.

What Is Fever For? Down and Dirty Science

During fever, an infective agent (virus or bacteria) is engulfed by a macrophage (immune cells that are guardians and informants to the immune system, acting as protective patrolling guards). When the macrophage detects and identifies the pathogen, it takes some material from the offending intruder to sound the alarm to other cells in the immune system and they gather to fight the infection. The body mounts a fever for this very purpose, and to lower a fever is often to prevent your own immune “soldiers” from accomplishing the goal of eliminating the pathogen. 

The body recognizes its normal temperature to be too low, so it generates more heat by shivering, and conserves heat by constricting the blood vessels. This limits blood flow to the skin, and shuts down the sweating mechanism, which causes chills.

When this happens, the immune system also releases chemicals to provoke sleep to preserve energy for fighting the pathogen. Chemicals are released to break down muscle tissue and free amino acids in the muscle to flow to suppress the appetite.

Sleep is the most healing thing your child can do while ill. Sleep helps preserve the body’s energy resources to fight the infecting pathogen.

Serious conditions such as meningitis can cause a fever. But even in this case, the treatment should be directed toward the meningitis, not the fever.

Reducing a fever with medication often simply postpones recovery and increases the probability of a secondary infection. Quelling symptoms in this way can also keep hidden the clues that would allow you to know whether more examination is needed.

Fever-reducing medicines are big business. Companies spend over $50 million a year in advertising these drugs, and compassionate parents fall for the ploy if they don’t know any better. There is data to show that it may reduce fever, but not that it helps fight illness.

Paul Offit is one doctor I disagree with on many things. However, his advice on fevers is excellent. He has written a book called Overkill, When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far. In a podcast about the book, he goes so far as to suggest that “…many standard practices in modern medicine, for example treating a fever when you’re sick, are at best unhelpful and at worst actually dangerous. Enduring a fever is of course a miserable experience, but it helps our immune system fight off deadly bacterial and viral infections. Blocking this important immune response with antipyretics (aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen) may lead to 40,000 additional flu-related deaths every year.”

Interesting History

Before the discovery of antibiotics, syphilis patients would often be deliberately infected with malaria, in order to mount a fever to kill off the infection! This is not something I would recommend. But it does show the value of heat and fever in treating infection. Some cancers have been treated by infecting the patient with a virus such as chicken pox. In such cases, the immune system is activated, and is awakened to fight the cancer, and not only the viral infection.

Starve a Fever?

We often want to make our children “just eat something” when they are sick, because when they aren’t eating, we feel uncomfortable. But this is actually the time to let them do as their bodies are telling them to do! While hydration and electrolyte balance are absolutely critical during this time, forcing a person with a fever to eat can actually make matters worse. The digestive system is shut down at temperatures above 99.5 degrees. At this point, eating food strains the immune system; the body cannot digest and eliminate food properly so its toxic load increases. As the fever rises, the white blood cells’ production, motility, and effectiveness at killing pathogens also increase. Antibody production is increased up to 20 times. As the fever turns up the body’s defenses, it provides a very inhospitable environment for the offending pathogen. At around 104 degrees, most bacteria and viruses die. 102-103 degrees is a perfect infection fighting temperature. 104-106 degrees requires vigilant attention for signs of dehydration. This is where a mother’s gentle persuasion to take sips of a hydrating and healthy drinks that don’t require a lot of digestion comes in (warm drinks are best, bone broth, teas, and non-sugary electrolyte replacements). Most harm from a high fever is a result of dehydration and not from the fever. Keep your children hydrated. Coconut water is a one option. You can also make a delicious drink for them with fresh either apple cider vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon juice, honey, and a few sprinkles of a high mineral salt such as pink Himalayan, or gray Celtic Sea salt in warm water (though honey is not recommended for children under 12 months of age). When you’ve made it, have some yourself! Your body needs extra support and care as you care for them.

Managing a Fever

Comfort care measures while healing can include

• Warm baths – making sure to keep them warm when getting out.

• Encourage fluids – Warm teas, broths, and soups.

• Stop eating solids if they aren’t desired - Listen to the body! The body doesn’t lie.

The interventions used, such as homeopathy, essential oils, herbs, massage, etc. should be ones that aid the body in the processes of elimination and working alongside the immune system in completing the process, rather than symptom suppression.

We want quick results and quick recovery. We want to treat discomfort, and we can do so, but safely. We must be patient while the immune system works to heal the body. Pay more attention to the demeanor of your child than to the number on the thermometer.

Febrile Seizures

Although scary to witness, these seizures tend to occur early in the process, rather than when a fever has already been mounted. Some children tend to be prone to them. Administering fever-reducing medications does not stave off their recurrence. Most frequently, febrile seizures are a result of an imbalance of electrolytes in the body from loss through vomiting, diarrhea, and increased perspiration. So, assuring that your child stays hydrated can help reduce their likelihood.

If your child is experiencing a febrile seizure,

• Place them on a soft, flat surface, turned on their side.

• Make sure there are no hard or sharp objects near them.

• Time their seizure length.

• Loosen any tight clothing.

• Stay close and speak calmly and comfortingly to them.

• Don’t restrain them or put anything in their mouth.

• (Mayo Clinic suggests calling for emergency medical attention if your child has repeated seizures that last more than 5 minutes, and they are not improving.)   

Modern Disconnect

One of the saddest things I have seen occur in the age of modern parenting is the withholding of comfort and contact when a child is sick. The fear of becoming sick that has been so magnified by the media and has caused such a distancing from instinct that some parents isolate and withhold contact from their sick children. Holding your child close, preferably even skin to skin, may be one of your most important functions as a parent when it comes to helping your child get well (even if difficult to measure the impact and improvement from this measure). We are electro-magnetic beings, and the loving human touch, especially from a mother can have a tremendous impact on the health of a child. 

Breastfeeding Infants – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

If you are breastfeeding your baby, it is scientifically measurable with this type of contact that the mother’s body communicates with the baby’s when the baby has an illness. The mother’s body produces customized antibodies and microbes which are given to the nursing child through breastmilk. Good bacteria are multiplied to increase the health of the microbiome, and this can only help speed up healing. Give it time.

The Power of Love - Bioenergetic Fields, and Healing

What is “contagion”? We have never in history witnessed and recorded the passing of germs from one human to another. But we have accepted the idea that a sick person is “contagious.” The simple presence of “germs” is not enough to make someone sick. We often fear contagion, yet we are constantly surrounded and covered by trillions of (what we call) “germs.” The environment of the terrain of the human body has more to do with why one person gets sick and another doesn’t when “exposed” to a sick person.

Are menstruating women “contagious”? Or is it bioenergetic or hormone signaling that causes women to “catch” their periods when they spend time in close proximity with each other? Could this same principle apply to illnesses?

Mothers, around each of us is a bioenergetic field. We are electromagnetic creatures, and we are constantly signaling back and forth to one another. Our crude scientific instruments of measure are simply too weak and unable to detect this. We are more fearfully and wonderfully made than we can possibly imagine, and the power of human touch is far greater than we know! Touch your children. Put your hands on their forehead, their cheek, their arm, their stomach. Is it really the essential oils you have massaged onto your sick children that aid in their healing? Or is it your loving touch in doing so? Your calm comfort and presence are powerful gifts that only you can give. No matter how tired you are, sink into the sweetness of your privileged role in bringing healing to your child. Picture the internal processes of the cells working to eliminate the debris that is no longer needed and making room for healthy new cells. Visualize renewal. As the lights are turned down, and your child is quieted into rest, there can be some discomfort of this cleansing process, but allow quiet love to flow through your hands and heart to them as they heal. You are ordained as the keeper of their health, and you have what it takes to love them through this.