In 1917, doctors proposed an outlandish treatment for syphilis,
The incurable bacterial contamination that had ravaged Europe for centuries. Infect patients affected by the later stages of syphilis with the parasite that causes malaria, the lethal but curable mosquito-borne sickness. Hope that malarial fevers clear the syphilis. Administer quinine to scale down the malaria. If all went according to plot, their patient would be left alive and freed from each sickness. This killed some 15% of patients, but for folks that survived, it appeared to work. It surely became the usual remedy for syphilis till penicillin became extensively used decades later.
And its driving force changed into fever. There are numerous mysteries around fever, but what we do realize is that all mammals,
Some birds, or even a few invertebrate and plant species, feel the fever’s warm temperature. It has continued for over six hundred million years of evolution. But it has enormous value. For each 1 degree Celsius of temperature increase in the human body, there’s a 12. A 5 percent growth in energy is required, the equivalent of approximately 20 minutes of strolling for some. So, why and how does your body produce a fever?
Your core temperature is maintained through thermoregulation,
A set of methods that normally preserve you at around 37 degrees Celsius. These mechanisms are managed with the aid of the brain’s hypothalamus.,
Which detects minute temperature shifts and sends signals throughout the body accordingly. If you’re too hot, the hypothalamus produces signals that activate your sweat glands or make your blood vessels dilate, moving blood closer to the skin’s surface,all of which releases heat and cools you off. And if you’re too cold, your blood vessels will constrict and you may start to shiver, which generates heat. Your body will disrupt its usual temperature equilibrium to induce a fever, which sets in above 38 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, it has mechanisms in place to prevent it from exceeding 41 degrees Celsius, when organ damage could occur.
Immune cells that are fighting an infection can induce a fever
by triggering a biochemical cascade that ultimately instructs
your hypothalamus to increase your baseline temperature.
Your body then gets to work to meet its new “set point” using the mechanisms it would to generate heat when cold.
Until it reaches this new temperature, you’ll feel comparatively cool,which is why you might experience chills. But why does your body do this? While the jury's still out on how higher temperatures directly affect pathogens, it seems that fever's main effect is in rapidly inducing a whole-body immune response.
Upon exposure to raised internal temperatures, some of your cells release heat shock proteins, or HSPs, a family of molecules produced in response to stressful conditions.
These proteins aid lymphocytes, one of several kinds of white blood cells that fight pathogens, to travel more rapidly to infection sites. HSPs do this by enhancing the “stickiness” of lymphocytes, enabling them to adhere to and squeeze through blood vessel walls so they can reach the areas where infection is raging. In the case of viral infections, HSPs help tell nearby cells to dampen their protein production, which limits their ability to replicate.
This stunts the virus’s spread because they depend on their host’s replicative machinery to reproduce. It also protects surrounding cells from damage since some viruses spread by rupturing their host cells, which can lead to large-scale destruction, the build-up of detritus, and potentially even organ damage.The ability of HSPs to protect host cells and enhance immune activity can limit the pathogen’s path of destruction inside of the body.
But for all we know about fever’s role in immune activation,
some clinical trials have shown that fever suppressor drugs don’t worsen symptoms or recovery rates. This is why there’s no definitive rule on whether to suppress a fever or let it ride.
Doctors decide on a case-by-case basis.The fever’s duration and intensity, as well as their patient’s immune status,comfort level, and age will all play a role in their choice of treatments. And if they do let a fever ride, they’ll likely prescribe rest and plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration while the body wages its heated battle.
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