so today we're going to talk about these seven benefits to a fever now you might
think a fever is something bad like a disease or something but it's something
normal that your immune system creates as a defense mechanism against certain
infections so it's a very good thing that you don't want to get rid of right
away let's first talk about the benefits of a fever
number one it restricts the production of pathogens like bacteria and the
reproduction of viruses number two it will decrease the time of infection so
if you're going to take something to shut down that fever right away guess
what you're gonna have the infection longer number three it mobilizes your
white blood cell it recruits more soldiers to fight the enemy and before
it enhances phagocytosis so what does phagocytosis you have these immune cells
that have the ability to eat viruses and bacteria and parasites a fever will
enhance the ability of a phagocyte to do its job better number five a fever
decreases endotoxins and the toxins come from pathogens when a pathogen invades
your body and they die they release endotoxins and create all sorts of
negative effects guess what a fever can minimize that effect there were six a
fever will increase the growth of T cells T cells stand for the thymus cell
there are several of them and you have T cells that are killer T cells which are
comparable to your special forces you have other T cells that are like
commanders which guide and coordinate the entire war against pathogens and
then you have other T cells that regulate or moderate the amount of
collateral damage so they will kind of put the fire out get rid of inflammation
if it gets out of control well fever will actually increase the
growth of T cells number seven a fever decreases the mortality rate let's say
for example you're in affection and you let the fever run its
course versus taking something to turn off that fever guess what there's some
interesting studies that if you let the fever do its job you will have a
decrease in death rate what you want to do sometimes is enhance the fever get
into bed put the covers on and sweat it out take a hot bath all of that really
will help in stimulating some of these immune reactions now what's interesting
is there's no agreed-upon normal upper limit for someone's temperature some
people would say that 99 degrees Fahrenheit would be a normal temperature
or the upper limits or some others would say it's a hundred point nine degrees
Fahrenheit as the upper limit of normal temperature that would be thirty seven
point two degrees Celsius to thirty-eight point three degrees Celsius
the other question is what temperature should you let your body go to and I
know people are concerned that if it goes too high they're gonna brain damage
that actually is a myth you would have to really let your body get above 180
degrees to create brain damage in for a long period of time and that could occur
if you actually had a fever and you were in a very hot place but typically if you
let the temperature rise between 100 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.8 degrees
to 40 Celsius just realize it's a beneficial thing you're going to reduce
the duration of infection you're going to stimulate enhance the immune defenses
and by the way certain immune cells that specialized in killing viruses do it
through releasing things like interferon now when interferon is released to kill
off the virus you experience the feel like symptoms or muscle aches or even a
fever realize those usually are normal let your body go through its process and
don't try to get rid of the symptoms or off the bat because you could weaken the
immune system in its fighting capacity now if you haven't seen my video on how
to boost the immune system I put right here check it out