Fever can be said to be a very common symptom, from the elderly to the newborn baby may have a fever phenomenon. Everyone must have experienced fever a few times or many, many times in their lifetime. Have you ever wondered why people have a fever when they are sick? Others say that it is good to have a fever often, and it is not easy to get seriously ill. Is this really the case?
Fever, as the name suggests, is a body temperature above the normal range value. Pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, chlamydia, mycoplasma or parasites may cause fever when they invade the body. In addition, there are many non-infectious diseases that can also cause fever, such as trauma, head disease, post-surgery, cancer fever, drug fever, rheumatic immune diseases, etc.
Mammals including humans are thermostatic animals, the brain has a thermoregulation center, through the thermoregulation center, the human body's thermogenic and heat dissipation is in a basic equilibrium state, so that the body temperature is maintained at 36 ° C -37 ° C.
For infectious fever, when the body is infected by pathogens, these pathogens release pyrogens, then the immune cells in the body will respond quickly and reach the site of infection, and the first cells to arrive are generally immune cells called macrophages and neutrophils. In order to eliminate pathogens more quickly, those immune cells that arrive first release a large number of active substances, which are called inflammatory factors. There are several key inflammatory factors that can cause fever, such as interleukin 6 and interleukin 1. The pyrogens released by pathogens, combined with inflammatory factors released by immune cells, tell the brain that it needs to raise its body temperature to fight invasion. As a result, the thermoregulatory area of the brain will increase the "body temperature regulation point". For example, if it is raised from the normal 37 ° C to 39 ° C, then the body will increase the body temperature by increasing metabolism and less heat dissipation.
It can be seen that fever is a stress response of the human body, a defensive response, which is evolutionaryly the body's adaptive behavior and has a protective effect on the body. Fever can promote both the transfer of immune cells to the site of infection and the maturation of immune cells, so that there will be more immune cells in the infected area, thus eliminating the pathogen.
Does fever have to be reduced?
Children have a fever, parents will be very worried about whether the fever will burn out the brain, even if it is a low-grade fever below 38 degrees, parents will be anxious to ask for a fever. In fact, when there is a low-grade fever, there is no need to be too nervous, physical cooling can be, there is no need to rush to take medicine to cool down. Once the infection is controlled and the condition improves, the body temperature will naturally drop. However, persistent high fever is very dangerous, children may have high fever convulsions, high fever in the elderly will increase heartbeat and metabolism, there may be cerebral edema, organ failure and water, electrolyte disorders. Therefore, when the fever is high, it is necessary to reduce the fever in time, and the most important thing is to find the cause of the disease and treat the cause.
If you or your family have a low-grade fever for a long time, it is likely that the body has a disease, you must seek medical treatment in time, do not "high temperature standby", and do not use "soil method" to reduce fever. As for the view that frequent fever is a good thing and it is not easy to get seriously ill, there is no scientific basis for such a view.