What Is A Fever?

[EndAllDisease]

Probably the best theory I've heard as to what is happening to the body during a fever is that it's heating itself up as a method to eliminate bacteria as a kind of immunodefense. Somehow I feel there's probably a better answer. What do you think?

Also, when a person is sick, you'd think that their thyroid wouldn't be functioning too well, hence their sickness, so what would be the mechanism behind the increase in temperature commonly called fever if not a large release of thyroid?

 

[ecstatichamster]

one mechanism is to raise metabolism in order to increase cellular energy to fight the infection...?

 

[Dan W]

That's funny, I'd just had a conversation about these questions a few days ago. This article had some answers. It says the temperature increase "results in inhibition of bacterial growth, increased bactericidal activities of neutrophils and macrophages, stimulation of acute-phase protein synthesis, iron sequestration, anorexia, and somnolence."

And it sounds like the temperature increase is controlled by...something-something cytokines something-something prostaglandins.

 

[Giraffe]

I know people who almost never get fever when they are ill. Trying to find out why some don't get fever, I googled it and came across a forum of people diagnosed with Hashimoto's. All but one of the users who posted in a thread about fever (30 to 40) reported that they never get fever.

 

[Daimyo]

Since I started Peating/taking NDT my temp goes down when I am ill. More thyroid doesn't seem to increase it.

 

[Giraffe]

post 117926 Since I started Peating/taking NDT my temp goes down when I am ill. More thyroid doesn't seem to increase it.

What is your normal temperature now?

As for me, before Peating I sometimes got some kind of "fever": My temps were raised to 37.2 °C and I felt like crap. Now it's more or less my normal temperature.

 

[Peata]

"one of the purposes of fever is to lower tryptophan and iron in plasma." - haidut, Claritin for Lyme Disease

 

[Daimyo]

post 117928 What is your normal temperature now?

As for me, before Peating I sometimes got some kind of "fever": My temps were raised to 37.2 °C and I felt like crap. Now it's more or less my normal temperature.

My temp is very much dependent on the dose of NDT, methylen blue etc. But during the day it's about 37*C. Maybe I didn't express myself well - when I was ill, NDT of caffeine didn't raised my temp. When I'm OK, NDT and caffeine raise my temp nicely.

When I was a kid and I didn't feel well, my temp was rarely higher than 36.7*C. My hope of not going to school was often shattered. But then I'm not sure what my baseline was. I might have been hypothyroid since I was a newborn (I went on a low calorie diet just after birth).

 

[EndAllDisease]

post 117870 This article had some answers. It says the temperature increase "results in inhibition of bacterial growth, increased bactericidal activities of neutrophils and macrophages, stimulation of acute-phase protein synthesis, iron sequestration, anorexia, and somnolence."

Thanks for sharing!

post 117923 I googled it and came across a forum of people diagnosed with Hashimoto's. All but one of the users who posted in a thread about fever (30 to 40) reported that they never get fever.

So the majority of people on that forum with a less-than-well functioning thyroid do not get fever. This suggests that thyroid is involved in the raising of temperature. I wonder how, when the body is so overburdened that a person starts experiencing symptoms, it musters the extra release of thyroid needed to make the fever happen. Maybe a fever is more a function of what Haidut said...

post 117930 "one of the purposes of fever is to lower tryptophan and iron in plasma." - haidut, Claritin for Lyme Disease

When iron or tryptophan reach a certain threshhold, the body goes into fever mode simply to lower them and possibly other unfavorable conditions.