We've heard all the myths related to the causes of fever in our childhood. Many of us even believed it to be true, however, as we grew older and became more reasonable, we learned that could not have been the truth. So why do we get fever? It all starts with our brain, the organ that makes our entire body work. There's a part of our brain known as the hypothalamus, which controls our body temperature in normal conditions, it maintains the body temperature at 98.6 degrees, fahrenheit or 37 degrees. Celsius, find it hard to understand. Well, let us simplify it for you. Imagine your body is a machine which operates properly at a particular temperature: this means it can neither be too hot nor too cold, there's a person sitting in the control room of that machine and he or she is maintaining the temperature of that machine. That is exactly what the hypothalamus does to your body. Your body is constantly working, even when you're resting your heart is pumping blood. Your blood is circulating throughout your body and your lungs are inhaling and exhaling air constantly. Your body is very busy maintaining a particular temperature during all this work, but at times the hypothalamus increases the temperature of the body. This is what we know in general terms as fever. Yes, that's why you get a fever. What, but, why would the good old hypothalamus do this to us? Hypothalamus usually does this to protect us from bacteria, thus, saving us from a major disease here are some examples when it increases body temperature cold, nothing invites more germs to the body than a cold. When we have a cold, our immune system lowers and makes our body vulnerable to diseases. A prolonged state of such a scenario may cause major infections, speaking of infections. It brings us to the second point gastroenteritis: this is one of the major infections of very important organs in our body, the stomach and the intestines.
Usually this issue is caused by bacterial toxins, but at times the infection might be viral. If the infection is left alone, it may lead to diarrhea.
Other infections: ever had an infection in your ear and that led to fever. Yes, the hypothalamus does that to us, and not even infections of the ear lung skin, throat, bladder and kidneys are left unchecked. In case of all these scenarios, a spike in body temperature is normal, as the hypothalamus is actually trying to neutralize the infection side effects of medication. Remember the time you overdosed yourself with painkiller, because you thought that the pain was too unbearable. After that, you got diagnosed with fever. This is because your body did not require the overdose of that prescribed drug and because of the overdose, your body may, grow, weak and vulnerable to infection caused by bacteria or any form of virus. So yes, hypothalamus to the rescue. One more time: blood clots. This one explains itself. Blood clots usually happen when you get injured to prevent spills however, they can also form when they're not needed and cause strokes or even heart, strokes. Yes, you guessed it hypothalamus. Our good old savior helps us out one more time with its ingenious temperature control technique. Moving on to the next point autoimmune diseases and hormone disorders- unlike the previous example here- is more of a last ditch.
This is the best I could do. Effort from the hypothalamus orion house or in this case are in body protector cannot do much if we have an autoimmune disease, such as lupus or inflammatory bowel disease. Similarly, it cannot do much when you have hormone disorders such as hyperthyroidism, so it does the best it can do, but hey it buys you enough time for those medicines to do their work. Just make sure you don't overdose yourself cancer. This brings us to our last point. Sometimes the infection stays and leads to cancer. You see this is what the hypothalamus was trying to avoid all this time. Even when you have cancer, it raises the temperature to kill the infection. However, this is yet another unsuccessful attempt from the hypothalamus, as it cannot cure cancer on its own finding all this a bit too complicated to understand here, let us simplify things for you.
Imagine you're on your way to work in public transport, you unknowingly contract a viral or bacterial infection. This infection has the ability to cause major diseases. This is when your white blood cells form a two-way defense. One group fights the infection with the body's own good bacteria and the other goes to the brain to inform it of the recent development the information is received and our protagonist hypothalamus goes to work. Bacteria and viruses need a suitable temperature to survive. They cannot handle too much cold and too much heat. Guess? Who else knows that yup you guessed it the hypothalamus. It increases the body temperature, while the immune system fights off the remnants of the infection, a victory against the invaders and the day is saved thanks to our hero, the hero we need, but not the one. We deserve the silent guardian, the watchful protector, our very own dark knight, see it's not so tough. After all, fever often weakens the immune system and makes us vulnerable to different sorts of diseases.
This is why we should not be completely dependent on our hero, we need to do our part too, for home remedies. One of the best options is always to sweat a lot and wipe the sweat with a towel. This regulates the body temperature does not allow the infection to settle down and helps the antibodies to do their work fight the infection. So yes, perspiration is good as long as you don't let the sweat settle down drink lots of water to keep boosting your body's metabolism. However, in case you have a very high fever, we would recommend you go to a doctor who knows a thing or two about how a human body actually works pending on the degree of fever. You will be prescribed to mild or strong medicated drugs. Usually, antibiotics will be prescribed for any form of bacterial infection or even strep throat in case of very high fever. Stronger medicines are often prescribed, however, these medicines may have their own side effects. Hence often a regulated dosage is prescribed. However, in the case of children and teenagers, aspirin is avoided as it is linked to a condition called rey syndrome.
Similarly, in the case of other forms of fever-related medication: it is often recommended that children and teenagers are given milder dosages. A lot of children might even have an allergic reaction to antibiotics. In such a scenario, antibiotics should be avoided so remember to tell your doctor before he or she prescribes medicine for your child. People with issues such as migraine, sinus or any form of breathing problems should be given milder doses of antibiotics to avoid any form of side effects.
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