fighting the flu?
Ok to my understanding, there are optimal temperatures at which viruses/bacteria can function. As the their environment reaches their optimal temerature for survival they spread quicker than when its too cold or too hot (correct me if im wrong). If this were true wouldnt it be not only better, but safer to keep your temperature lower rather than higher. Instead of covering yourself in hundreds of blankets when you’re sick stay uncovered and keep the viral army at a minimum so that your body can fight it off rather than “sweat it out” as so many people say. By “sweating it out” you could risk a very high temperature causing organ failure/ death. i think that would be rare but possible from what ive learned.
Please lemme know what you think about this. Its alwasy worked for me. Ive never been sick for more than a day. Could just be coincidence tho.
I doubt you’ll die from 4 blankets. However, if its too cold, I think your body would concentrate on keeping your body warm and your antibodies would be weakened
Yes and no…
Once the germ is active in the body, the fever is the result of the body fighting the invader. Keeping a house cool will only make the body’s job harder!!!
If a fever gets too high, the organ failure is real but your body is less likely to get there than it is to shiver. Shivering takes energy and your body doesn’t have it to spare when fighting a virus or bacteria.
We feel cold when we have a fever because of the change in our red and white blood cells and the war they fight for us…bundling up may not help much either but it makes us more comfortable and does allow the internally generated heat to work more efficiently.
Actually, that’s what fever is all about – raising the body’s temperature higher than what is optimal for a particular “bug.” Most microorganisms aren’t killed by low temps – they just go dormant, or don’t reproduce very fast. On the other hand, high temps (even too high by a couple of degrees), can kill organisms fairly quickly, so our bodies have adapted to raise our temperature when they encounter problems. The trick, as you point out, is the balancing act – how to kill the “bug” without killing the human. Thankfully, we’re tougher than most microorganisms when it comes to temperature, or we wouldn’t have lasted as long as we have.