(Secretos de salud) Have you been influenced by modern allopathic medicine’s obsession with lowering fever? Ever since the turn of the 20th century, using drugs to lower fever has been standard operating procedure for most allopathic medical practitioners. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning was a common medical humor quip throughout the 1950’s.
Aspirin type medications may be needed for pain reduction, but when it comes to influenza of any type, taking an over the counter drug to reduce fever is not the way to go. This is because fever is one of the body’s main defenses against invading viruses. Suppressing fevers can increase rapid viral replication.
What Fever Is Actually About
Fever is the immune system’s response against harmful bacteria, in addition to sending T-Cells to produce antibodies. Fevers are also part of the clean up process for toxic bacterial waste products.
When it comes to viruses, former NASA scientist and researcher Marshall Smith explains in his article The Tamiflu Myth, “The body causes a fever above 101 degrees which stops the telomeres on the ends of the virus from allowing any viral replication.” (Telomeres are chromosome caps to keep chromosome threads from randomly sticking together.)
Viruses are not living microorganisms that rummage about internally looking for food to scavenge, as bacteria do. A virus does not have a nucleus that divides to create more microbes, as bacteria do. The body’s thalamus/thyroid reaction raises the body temperature slightly, and that stops viruses from replicating. This is the way it was meant to work.
Great, but what’s the difference between bacterial cell division and viral replication, and why can’t the T-Cells get all those viruses anyway?
Marshall Smith explains the virus replication process: “When a virus enters one of your cells, it escapes from within its own old protein surface coating and it stretches out into a long string. Viral DNA then collects millions of free amino acids floating in your salty cell fluid to make a mirror image copy of the four types of amino acids in the viral chain. This reversed mirror image chain is called Retro-deoxy-ribo Nucleic Acid or shortened to RNA.”
“The RNA molecule is special and continues to make another mirror image of itself which is, por supuesto, an exact copy of the original viral DNA. This unique method of making a mirror image of a mirror image to make an exact copy of the original viral DNA is the only method a virus can use to make copies. This is called replication.”
Smith continues, “The RNA molecule string will then continue to make many, many copies . . . This starves your cell of all the amino acids and in a matter of minutes, destroys it. The original virus and its many replicate copies are now free to invade your other body cells. . . . the thousands of new viral DNA copies then steal pieces of the protein bag coating from your damaged and dying cell, and then covers the viral DNA with stolen cell wall material. . . . the virus then hides from your immune system, since the virus now looks like just one of your own friendly cells and not a dangerous foreign virus.”
Por lo tanto, since viruses can be so sneaky and replicate so rapidly, the T-Cell antibody actions so successful with bacteria invasions may prove to be futile against viruses.
It’s the rise in body temperature that halts viral replication by inhibiting the DNA strand telomeres from capturing the free amino acids needed to replicate.
Any attempt to reduce fever during a viral influenza attack may accelerate the virus’s rapid replication and produce viral pneumonia or worse. Leave the fever alone to stop the viral replication process is Marshall Smith’s message. sin embargo, a fever over 104 degrees F or 40 grados C. can be dangerous and should be monitored closely.
Fever Phobia in Pediatrics
The frantic effort to reduce fever with children under six years of age is alarming. Not only parents, but many doctors fall into this fever phobia phenomena. There is a Meningitis concern, so if there are convulsions from the child’s rise in temperature, that concern could be checked to exclude Meningitis as the source of convulsions. sin embargo, the occurrence of Meningitis is actually extremely rare.
Only 5 a 10% of children under six get febrile convulsions, which usually last for a few minutes. The commonly misdirected concern is that a high fever in a young child can create brain damage. The actual situation is that vaccinations and other illnesses are the real causes of brain damage, not the fever itself.
The fever phobia has led parents and maybe some doctors to alternate Tylenol with Advil or Ibuprofen in a desperate effort to reduce fevers. This effort has occasionally resulted in more serious damage, sometimes death. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against these desperate measures to reduce fever. They advise sticking with one medication, using conservative doses carefully.
A Blast From the Past – Feed a Cold; Starve a Fever
Remember that one? Well there is truth in it. Lena Sanchez, a retired RN now holistic healer and author of Antibiotic Alternatives to Preventing Mega Bacteria, confirms this from her 30 years of experience. Most patients, especially mothers of young patients, would panic over fevers and insist something be done to lower the temperature.
Doctors often foolishly succumbed to their pleas. Lena Sanchez’s stance is that fever is part of the immune system’s clean up from bacteria waste products or an attempt to halt viral replication. Either way, fever needs to be there and not minimized by drugs. It is extremely rare that a fever will exceed 106 degrees Fahrenheit or 41 degrees Celsius.
But while it may be okay for a person with a common cold and very little (under 101 F or 38 C) or no fever to eat or be fed, a solid fever does need to be starved, especially if viral influenza is being experienced. The liver is the clearing house for both digestion and detoxification. Lena Sanchez recommends fasting on very light broths and purified water to assist an overburdened liver during the fever process of getting rid of the body’s microbe waste materials. She also recommends enemas, which could shorten the fast.
She has seen pneumonia patients who were encouraged to eat more get worse and even die. She claims this only serves to drive deeper the disease one’s fever is fighting. And of course, she has seen several who followed her suggestion of starving the fever get thoroughly well quicker.
Another Blast from the Past – Sweat It Out
It was quite common for many to observe that by not trying to cool off, and by actually bundling up more and allowing body heat to induce sweating, the next day the fever has broken or was reduced significantly. What was really happening was that by encouraging the fever to completely take over, the fever did its job and was no longer needed!
An American practitioner of Chinese Medicine, Karen S. Vaughan, advises, “Initial levels of both Wind heat y Wind cold [Chinese Medicine terms describing underlying situations that induce fever] are treated by inducing sweating. You would take a warm bath, cover yourself with quilts and go to bed drinking teas.
“If the disease is not treated at this level or is treated inappropriately then it will penetrate to more internal levels and you will need strong antimicrobial herbs that drain the pathogens through the bowels and the urine.”
Often a fever is accompanied by chills, even to the point of shivering. That makes it easy to bundle up and sweat! But sometimes that is not the case. Then it takes a willful effort to follow the bundle up and sweat protocol.
All the sources cited for this article tend to agree. It’s the condition of the patient that matters more than the fever. Someone who is very ill without a solid fever (under 101 F or 38 C) should cause more concern than someone running a high fever but resting well while taking in fluids and eating little.
For More Information:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/diets/article-1246081/Why-treating-childs-fever-SLOW-recovery.html