Peggy Lee sang: Never know how much I love you – Never know how much I care . . .
Fever in the mornin’ – Fever all through the night . . . Fever till you sizzle – What a lovely way to burn – What a lovely way to burn.
Peggy sang about fever from “kissing and holding tight,” and I am taking the liberty of taking this passion for fever out of that context into health.
How much I love you . . . fever
I love fever and I care about fever because it is a profound healing reaction of the body. It can make the difference between throwing off an illness relatively rapidly, and lingering with it. In 1918, it often made the difference between surviving the Flu pandemic and dying, often within a day. More about that later.
Sure, it is miserable when you “sizzle with fever mornin’ and night,” but from a health point of view it is “a lovely way to burn.” Being miserable with fever encourages you to stay in bed and rest, which allows the body to use its energy for healing.
Fever ramps up the immune system in many ways. It allows the increase in production of interferon, an important antiviral substance made by the body. Fever also fortifies the immune system by increasing white blood cell activity to clear infections.
By the way, as I explain elsewhere, viruses are our allies in clearing out, resulting in greater health when the body has been allowed to do so naturally, including with fever.
How do I know if I have a fever?
When the body is mounting a fever, it sets the body thermostat higher, so you may feel cold and have chills at normal body temperatures as it climbs.
As the body warms up, you can lose your appetite, have problems concentrating, and feel lethargic, achey, sensitive to pain, and sleepy.
As a fever reaches its high point, you may sweat to naturally cool off. Then the cycle of chills then feverish sweating may repeat.
You can also take your temperature orally.
How high a fever?
Naturopaths say that the stronger vital force, the more easily it will mount a fever. The body’s immune system often creates a low grade fever to mobilize against viruses and raises the temperature higher for bacterial infections. However, a strong reaction can quickly throw off any infection, so do not be afraid of a high fever.
- low grade, from 100.5–102.1°F or 38.1–39°C
- moderate, from 102.2–104.0°F or 39.1–40°C
- high, from 104.1–106.0°F to or 40.1-41.1°C
As long as a fever has not been suppressed with medication, it most likely will not reach unsafe levels. In addition, if a person does not eat when there is no appetite, a fever will not climb too high.
Most often, dangerously high fevers are not caused by an infection. They may be the result of dehydration, heat stroke, abuse of certain drugs, alcohol withdrawal or brain damage.
Don’t stop a fever
Despite online advice to bring down a fever if you have uncomfortable symptoms, I don’t believe discomfort is a reason to bring down a fever. As previously mentioned, feeling lousy during a fever keeps you resting in bed, which you need. By allowing the fever to optimize the immune system, the body can move through the illness relatively quickly. Bringing down a fever prolongs the illness, resulting in even more misery.
Beware of common over-the-counter medicines which you may have in your medicine cabinet which can bring down fever. They subvert the body’s natural processes, even if they give you relief from the misery of having a fever. They include:
- NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, naproxen, ketoprofen, and nimesulide
- Aspirin, and related salicylates such as choline salicylate, magnesium salicylate, and sodium salicylate
- Paracetamol (acetaminophen)
NOTE: Many common cold and flu medicines have these medications as components. Read the label and avoid them! They stop your immune system from doing its job.
History of devastating effects of stopping a fever with aspirin
Let’s look at the history of aspirin and its devastating effect in the 1918 flu pandemic.
In 1899, the German company Bayer began marketing its “miracle drug” aspirin. Many people used it to relieve pain and reduce fever.
In 1917, Bayer’s patent ran out, allowing other pharmaceutical companies to make it cheaply, making large quantities available. That lead to its promotion by medical organizations, medical journals, and various military and governmental agencies at a time, often at high does for illnesses we now know is contraindicated for without knowing all the consequences of its use.
For example, JAMA recommended dosages are more than TWICE the daily dosage considered safe today, up to 1,000 mg every three hours. Even the Surgeon General of the US Navy recommended aspirin for the treatment of influenza, and the military bought huge quantities in 1917 – 1918.
What was unusual about the 1918 influenza epidemic was known to kill so many young people between the ages of 18 and 40. This is exactly the common age of military personnel. What killed them was a kind of pneumonia with blood in the lungs, which aspirin is known to cause, and is very rare in young people with the flu.
It was contraindicated to give aspirin to babies and children, according to pediatric textbooks. That age group had relatively fewer deaths.
It appears that a lot of the deaths from the 1918 flu wad due to aspirin, and not the flu virus. There is even more evidence in medical literature.
History Speaks
Dr. Dewey, MD collected stories of what worked and did not in the 1918 flu pandemic. It was published in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1920. These were doctors in the trenches, and their stories tell a lot.
Aspirin and the other coal tar products are condemned as causing great numbers of unnecessary deaths. The omnipresent aspirin is the most pernicious drug of all. It beguiles by its quick action of relief of pain, a relief which is but meretricious. In several cases aspirin weakened the heart, depressed the vital forces, increased the mortality in mild cases and made convalescence slower. In all cases it masks the symptoms and renders immeasurably more difficult the selection of the curative remedy. Apparently aspirin bears no curative relation to any disease and it ought to be prohibited. -Guy Beckly Stearns, MD, New York
One physician in a Pittsburgh hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing many cases. “Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to a homeopathic pharmacy, and get homeopathic remedies.” The Doctor replied: “But that is homeopathy.” “I know it, but the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case.” -W. F. Edmundson, MD, Pittsburgh.
I did not lose a single case of influenza; my death rate in the pneumonias was 2.1%. The salycilates, including aspirin and quinine, were almost the sole standbys of the old school and it was a common thing to hear them speaking of losing 60% of their pneumonias. -Dudley A. Williams, MD, Providence, Rhode Island.
Support a Fever
Instead of stopping a fever, I advocate for supporting the body by facilitating the fever in any or all of these ways:
- Stay hydrated, best with clear hot beverages
- Drinking hot tea, especially with warming herbs such as ginger
- Taking a hot bath
- Bundling up with blankets in bed
- Warming sock home remedy
- Use homeopathic remedies For the First Signs
Loving Fever
Can you see that a fever is a “lovely way to burn” if you want to move through illness and come out healthier?
Can you avoid the temptation to take a cold or flu over-the-counter medication or NSAIDs which reduce fevers?
How have you supported a fever and how has it resolved the flu or viral illness? Please comment below.
