Fever & Your Child… Let It Work!
Fever is one of the body’s most powerful infection fighting weapons. In his book, How to Raise A Healthy Child…In Spite of Your Doctor, Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn, MD writes “If your child contracts an infection, the fever that accompanies it is a blessing, not a curse… fever tells you that the repair mechanisms of the body have gone into high gear. It is something to rejoice over, not to fear… (10) Perhaps equally important, studies show that artificially lowering a fever with drugs such as acetaminophen (Tylenol TM) or aspirin (antipyretics) keeps sick people sick longer. In one particular study doctors gave half a group of patients with the flu, aspirin while the other half were permitted to have a fever. The group taking aspirin to lower their fever stayed sick 3 ½ days longer then the group allowed to naturally maintain it. The paper concluded: “Antipyretics prolong illness in patients with Influenza… The duration of illness was significantly prolonged.” (11) This I hope would be cause for parents to reconsider the common prescription for illness which is to suppress and or remove all signs that the body is working to restore health. One cannot however stop at thinking that reducing fever simply prolongs illness. In another study researchers reported: “There is no convincing evidence that naturally occurring fevers are harmful. In contrast, animal studies have shown that fever helps animals to survive an infection whereas antipyresis (lowering fever) increases mortality…there is considerable…evidence that…human immunological defenses function better at febrile temperatures than at normal ones.” (12) In other words, artificially interfering with your body’s natural immunity in fact opens it up to being overwhelmed to such a degree as to risk death. The body is so intelligent it understands that foreign bacteria cannot live above a certain temperature; to interfere with that process is to make the body weaker and the bacteria stronger.
Dr. Mendelsohn, MD adds that “The human body has a remarkable capacity to heal itself – a capacity that in most cases surpasses anything that medical science can do – and it doesn’t produce unwanted side effects. ”Common sense is the most useful tool in dealing with illness. Your doctor is less likely to employ it than you are, and certainly no more able, because that’s not what they taught him in medical school.” Natural immunity is a blessing that once understood can be nourished by supporting the one system that controls and coordinates it… your nervous system. Have your child checked by a “chiropractor” and never again look to a bottle for answers.