🦋 Fever, Antipyretics and Traditional Medicine

Fever is when our body is in the state of having an elevated temperature  above normal. 

The normal temperature varies but is around 36.7 C. Generally temperatures above 37.5C or 38C is considered as having fever.

Fever in itself is not bad and is not an illness. It is both a symptom of an infection  or disease  and helps our bodies to fight the infection.

However excessively high fever can cause febrile convulsions (fits) and brain damage. In very serious  cases, the brain damage can be permanent.

It is advisable to seek medical attention  if the temperature  is above 39C or if fever does not go away after 5 days. This may be a sign of something  serious.

Drugs used to reduce fever are called antipyretics.  Drugs that reduce fever often also reduce pain. Painkillers are called analgesics.

So some drugs are both antipyretic and analgesic

Some NSAID's are antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory (reduce inflammation)

Antipyretics commonly in use fall into the category of NSAID or acetaminophen. 

In the 1950's corticosteroids were also used but these have acquired  a bad reputation because of the misuse of them.

So non steroidal drugs (drugs that do not contain steriods) gained favour.

The most common antipyretics in the US are usually ibuprofen and aspirin, which are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) used primarily as anti-inflammatories and analgesics (pain relievers), but which also have antipyretic properties;

Aspirin is sometimes classified  as a salicylate because it contains a derivative of salicylic acid (salicin which is also found in the traditional remedy of willow bark)

Some of the traditional remedy for fever work because they contain salicylic acid and salicylates.

The most common acetaminophen  is  paracetamol (acetaminophen), an analgesic without anti-inflammatory properties.[2]

The advantage that paracetamol  has over ibuprofen  and aspirin is that paracetamol is that it is less likely  to cause gastric bleeding and kidney complications.

The disadvantage of paracetamol  is that its effect wear out faster and it has to be taken at 4 to 6 hourly intervals.

There is some debate over the appropriate use of such medications, since fever is part of the body's immune response to infection.[3][4]  Fever helps to fight infection.

A study published by the Royal Society claims that fever suppression causes at least 1% more influenza deaths in the United States, or 700 extra deaths per year.[5]

Question:

Do you agree that low grade fever should be left untreated? (Perhaps take cooling drinks only - see Traditional medicine below)

Traditional medicine 

As mentioned earlier, Traditional  remedies  that use herbs or parts of plant work because the contain substance  found in modern medicine such as salicylic  acid and  salicylates.

There is one aspect of traditional medicine that I want to bring up:

The belief of heaviness and coolness. Certain food is considered as heaty and certain food as cooling.

Eating too much  heaty food or lack of sleep can cause our body to become heaty and cause sore throat/cough/fever.

Boiling herbs that cools is supposed to drink is supposed to relieve heatiness.

Periodically taking such cooling drinks will prevent heatiness.

Do you believe in this heaty & cooling types of belief?