We’re often drawn toward trying to get rid of fever when it arises. What needs to be understood is how very critical fever is. Without being able to spike a fever, our bodies are vulnerable to damage from any pathogen which attacks the body. In reality, if you can prevent the body of the ability to create fever, you can literally destroy the immune system.
History is something which needs to be studied and known if we are to grow in any area of wisdom. Altering the truth in history dooms us to repeat it.
Febrile range temperatures promote neutrophil recruitment to the lungs and other sites of infection. These neutrophils are your body’s major defenders. Without them we’re in deep trouble.
Influenza states are accompanied with fever, initiating your body’s defense mechanisms. If we defeat these mechanisms, we give whatever pathogen involved greater damaging action. This was witnessed in the 1918-19 Spanish flu epidemic. This and other pandemics have over the years take lives of those who ignore the rules of nature.
Besides what seems to be a simple issue of neutrophil numbers being increased, there are other chemical responses which are set into motion with infection. Thermal stress elevates what’s seen as a respiratory burst that increases the bacteriolytic activity of the neutrophils. Natural killer cells become activated and the role of your white cell surveillance continues.
That which I’ve discussed is only a minimal piece of the complexity of white cell activity in response to fever. This is why interfering with healthy fever is dangerous. Viral and bacterial survival is inhibited in febrile stated and fever above 104 degrees suppresses viral replication and increases bacterial cell death. Lowering fevers actually increases the transmission of disease.
I remember talking with Dr Henry Heimlich years ago as he told me how he was treating and curing advanced cases of AIDS by infecting his patients with malaria. The high fevers destroyed the HIV virus and then he was able to treat these patients for the non fatal malaria.
During the Spanish Flu in 1917, the world population was 1.9 Billion. 500 million became infected with the Spanish Flu with an estimated 50-100 million deaths, (2.7-5.4% of the world population). The case fatality rate was 10 to 20%, and in some cases higher. In Cook County Hospital in Illinois, the fatality rate for all admissions was a staggering 39.8%.
The high mortality rates were attributed to a cytokine storm overwhelming the host. A febrile state (fever) inhibits cytokine production to protect the organism. Bayer’s aspirin, the new wonder drug had a patent which expired in 1917, so it was widely available at the beginning of the pandemic. People used doses high enough to stop the fever, but destroyed the natural defense mechanisms of the body. Salicylate toxicity begins at 150 gm/kg and becomes life threatening beyond 400 mg/kg.
With widespread acetaminophen use, are we repeating a Spanish Flu-aspirin mortality phenomenon? Ibuprofen can yield the same response as it contains the same phenol ring as aspirin.
Durning the 1918-1919 pandemic, The Lindlahr Hospital in Chicago treated 1,200 cases as outpatient and 300 severe enough to be hospitalized, inpatient. They had not one single case fatality. Dr. Lindlahr, trained by the famous Dr Sebastian Kneipp in Germany (1824-1897), used hydrotherapy on these patients to control the fever and improve circulation. This same wet towel therapy I’ve used many times to cure pneumonia in patients from babies to the elderly, with excellent success.
Besides Dr. Lindlahr, 290 Naturopathic physicians during the 1918-1919 pandemic using similar methods of management reported 14,841 cases with only 18 deaths. That’s a mortality rate of only .12%. The case reports indicated that the fatalities were those who had already been treated with aspirin. The case fatality rate for conventional medical methods in New York City during the pandemic was 6.4%
The principle rules for treating viral disease involves getting adequate rest, caloric restriction, staying hydrated, getting fresh air, and naturopathic physiotherapy, primarily hydrotherapy. When we cripple the immune system, artificially lowering fever, we open the door to disaster.
Usually with the flu, the body aches. Unfortunately far too many reach for NSAID’s to reduce the aches and the fever. Hydrotherapy works, and it’s inexpensive. “Sometimes success depends not just on what the doctor does, it’s what he doesn’t do.” Hippocrates 400 BC
History is something which needs to be studied and known if we are to grow in any area of wisdom. Altering the truth in history dooms us to repeat it.
Febrile range temperatures promote neutrophil recruitment to the lungs and other sites of infection. These neutrophils are your body’s major defenders. Without them we’re in deep trouble.
Influenza states are accompanied with fever, initiating your body’s defense mechanisms. If we defeat these mechanisms, we give whatever pathogen involved greater damaging action. This was witnessed in the 1918-19 Spanish flu epidemic. This and other pandemics have over the years take lives of those who ignore the rules of nature.
Besides what seems to be a simple issue of neutrophil numbers being increased, there are other chemical responses which are set into motion with infection. Thermal stress elevates what’s seen as a respiratory burst that increases the bacteriolytic activity of the neutrophils. Natural killer cells become activated and the role of your white cell surveillance continues.
That which I’ve discussed is only a minimal piece of the complexity of white cell activity in response to fever. This is why interfering with healthy fever is dangerous. Viral and bacterial survival is inhibited in febrile stated and fever above 104 degrees suppresses viral replication and increases bacterial cell death. Lowering fevers actually increases the transmission of disease.
I remember talking with Dr Henry Heimlich years ago as he told me how he was treating and curing advanced cases of AIDS by infecting his patients with malaria. The high fevers destroyed the HIV virus and then he was able to treat these patients for the non fatal malaria.
During the Spanish Flu in 1917, the world population was 1.9 Billion. 500 million became infected with the Spanish Flu with an estimated 50-100 million deaths, (2.7-5.4% of the world population). The case fatality rate was 10 to 20%, and in some cases higher. In Cook County Hospital in Illinois, the fatality rate for all admissions was a staggering 39.8%.
The high mortality rates were attributed to a cytokine storm overwhelming the host. A febrile state (fever) inhibits cytokine production to protect the organism. Bayer’s aspirin, the new wonder drug had a patent which expired in 1917, so it was widely available at the beginning of the pandemic. People used doses high enough to stop the fever, but destroyed the natural defense mechanisms of the body. Salicylate toxicity begins at 150 gm/kg and becomes life threatening beyond 400 mg/kg.
With widespread acetaminophen use, are we repeating a Spanish Flu-aspirin mortality phenomenon? Ibuprofen can yield the same response as it contains the same phenol ring as aspirin.
Durning the 1918-1919 pandemic, The Lindlahr Hospital in Chicago treated 1,200 cases as outpatient and 300 severe enough to be hospitalized, inpatient. They had not one single case fatality. Dr. Lindlahr, trained by the famous Dr Sebastian Kneipp in Germany (1824-1897), used hydrotherapy on these patients to control the fever and improve circulation. This same wet towel therapy I’ve used many times to cure pneumonia in patients from babies to the elderly, with excellent success.
Besides Dr. Lindlahr, 290 Naturopathic physicians during the 1918-1919 pandemic using similar methods of management reported 14,841 cases with only 18 deaths. That’s a mortality rate of only .12%. The case reports indicated that the fatalities were those who had already been treated with aspirin. The case fatality rate for conventional medical methods in New York City during the pandemic was 6.4%
The principle rules for treating viral disease involves getting adequate rest, caloric restriction, staying hydrated, getting fresh air, and naturopathic physiotherapy, primarily hydrotherapy. When we cripple the immune system, artificially lowering fever, we open the door to disaster.
Usually with the flu, the body aches. Unfortunately far too many reach for NSAID’s to reduce the aches and the fever. Hydrotherapy works, and it’s inexpensive. “Sometimes success depends not just on what the doctor does, it’s what he doesn’t do.” Hippocrates 400 BC
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