Bringing down the Fever?

I recently travelled with my family.  On the day before our flight back home, my youngest daughter had a fever of about 39.5°C (103.1°F).  She mostly wanted to sleep and cuddle.  I was up with her most of the night, making sure she was hydrated and kept track of her fever.  The only thing I used to make her comfortable was a homeopathic remedy – Febriplex, a homeopathic combination to support the immune system during a fever.

She had a fever the following day, around the same temperature for another 10 hours or so (which made it an easy flight because she mostly slept).  Then, just like that, the cold she was fighting seemed to cease and she was back to herself.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read the newspaper 3 days later – there was an article titled, “Hot under the collar” by Marilyn Linton.  It dealt with the benefits of letting a fever progress its normal course, without bringing it down with medications (Ibuprofen, acetaminophen such as Tylenol etc.).

I always recommend to my patients and especially parents of my pediatric patients to let a fever be, without bringing it down.  Most parents have a hard time seeing their child lying around with obvious discomfort.  Yet this is exactly what their bodies need to do to fight an infection.

So what are the benefits of a fever?

Stops and kills microbes – a fever can actually help to stop and even kill bacteria, viruses, etc. – around 39.5°C (103.1°F) there is a bacteriostatic effect (stops bacteria from growing and multiplying) and around 40.5°C (104.9°F) there is a bacteriolytic effect (destroys bacteria – best antibiotic effect).

Stimulates the thyroid – helps to increase the metabolism and helps to eliminate toxins at a faster rate.

Increases circulation – during a fever your heart beats faster and you breathe faster, which leads to an increase in blood flow through your organs – this helps to remove the toxins from the bacteria or virus and circulates white blood cells faster.

Increases liver activity – as above the increase in circulation to the liver increases elimination and thus increases the rate the liver makes antibodies to fight the infection.

Increases the amount of interferon – this white blood cell kills infected cells from bacteria, fungi, viruses and even cancer.

So when is the time to worry or interfere?  If a fever gets higher than 41.1°C  (106°F) then this is potentially dangerous because both healthy and infected cells begin to be destroyed (this has been used as a form of cancer therapy).  When a fever gets this high, I usually recommend to go in a tepid bath or use cold compresses and this is usually enough.

The fear of febrile seizures can be paralyzing if you have ever seen a child convulse with a one.  But it has been researched that this reaction (which can happen when a fever rises too fast) – has no long term effects and there is no correlation of these with epilepsy.  There are some great homeopathic remedies that help to reduce significantly febrile seizures.

A fever definitely creates discomfort. However I usually don’t take anything for it and I know many patients and parents who do the same.  So why not let our children deal with it the same way?  Children need to learn to ‘be sick’ and also learn what they need to do when they are sick – rest, sleep, eat little or nothing at all, and drink fluids.

So the next time that you or your child experience a fever, take the time to let it be and do its action.  Especially with children – their immune system will learn and always be able to respond the way it is meant to.  You will be pleased when the length of their infection is much shorter and they really do recover quite well.

Sleep disorders

Recently a patient reminded me to post something regarding sleep – especially the importance of getting enough of it.  This is one of the most common concerns that patients seem to have.  There are two main forms of sleep disorders that I would like to discuss here.

Sleep onset insomnia – which means that there is a difficulty falling asleep.  Sometimes one can lie in bed without being able to fall asleep anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.  This form of insomnia is often caused by having a difficult time ‘shutting the body or brain off’.  Patients who work-out late or have caffeine later in the afternoon or who have a hard time slowing their brain enough to rest, are the ones who experience this difficulty the most frequently.  What I usually recommend for this is 1st to slow down your nervous system response – take the time to breathe…deeply.  When you do this you help your nervous system switch-off the sympathetic (‘adrenaline driven’) response.  This also distracts your brain from immediate preoccupations since the focus is on the breath.  2nd is to use diet to increase foods that are rich in tryptophan (an amino acid that is used in the conversion to melatonin – the neurohormone that helps to regulate our sleep-wake cycle).  The foods that contain a high level of tryptophan include egg whites, spirulina, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, turkey and chicken.

The second form of a sleep disorder is disrupted sleep.  This means a person can have a relatively easy time falling asleep, but then wakes up one or several times throughout the night often experiencing the difficulty falling back asleep.  This is often due to an underlying condition.  It can be as simple as poor blood sugar regulation or more complex if it is from pain from another condition.  This is when I prescribe homeopathic, nutritional or herbal remedies most frequently – based on the patient’s history and sensitivity.

The most important point that I like to emphasize is that it is important to be aware of how restful your sleep is or is not – and if it isn’t then when and why are you waking up?

Good night!