Suppressing A Fever May Raise Deaths From Infections
Taking medication to reduce a fever can make you feel temporarily better, but could have harmful consequences. Fever-reducing drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin and acetaminophen (paracetamol) can promote the spread of infections like the flu or coronavirus to thousands more people.
According to lead researcher David Earn, a professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, “When they have the flu, people often take medication that reduces their fever. No one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might be at the cost of infecting others. People often take, or give their kids, fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school. They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: The ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced.”
A fever serves a useful purpose; the raised body temperature reduces the amount of virus in your body, because viruses find it more difficult to replicate at a hotter temperature. A lower viral load means you are less likely to spread the virus, and also should recover from the infection sooner, reducing the risk of complications such as pneumonia, or death.
Of course sometimes a high fever can be dangerous and should be lowered; particularly in children. The message in this article is that taking fever-suppressing drugs and then going to work raises the chance you’ll spread the infection to more people, and your illness will likely last longer. Ideally, you would stay at home in bed and give your body the rest it needs.
Dehydration can set in quickly when you have a cold or flu, so it’s extra important to keep drinking lots of water, tea, herbal tea or hot lemon drinks. If you are not eating large amounts of raw vegetables each day, you may benefit from taking a vitamin C supplement. Selenium is probably the most important nutrient that your immune system needs to fight viral infections. Selenium deficiency creates a weakening of the defence against infectious diseases, especially those caused by viruses. Selenium deficiency may lead to viral genome mutations from a benign (mild) virus to a highly virulent (dangerous) virus. An adequate supply of macro- and micro-nutrients is vital to support host immune defence and resistance against dangerous disease-causing microorganisms. The modern-day diet is often not sufficient to meet the increased demands for micronutrients in infectious diseases. Many areas of the world have selenium deficient soils.
Dietary supplements containing selenium of 100 to 200 μg/day have potential as safe and inexpensive additional therapy in viral infections. I refer to selenium as the viral birth control pill because it helps to suppress viral replication. People who are selenium deficient have a much harder time recovering from a virus. Cold Eze capsules contain herbs and nutrients that help your immune system recover more quickly from an infection, and reduce the symptoms of a cold or flu.
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