How to lower a fever without medication (and from when it should be lowered)

Humans regulate their body temperature so that it remains constant around 37ºC. Like other herbivorous and frugivorous animals, it defends itself from the heat by cooling itself with sweat. Fever –pyrexia or hyperpyrexia– is the prolonged increase in that body temperature.

From how much is fever

Animals that do not sweat, such as carnivores, do so through respiration, increasing respiratory rate and evaporation with their mouths open and sticking out their tongues. The nervous system balances losses and the caloric income to maintain the constant temperature. For various reasons, body temperature can rise above normal.

It is considered that there is a fever when it exceeds 39 ºC. If the temperature only rises a few tenths, it is a fever. When the elevation is temporary, for example after a great physical effort or a hot bath, we do not speak of fever but of hyperthermia.

normal body temperature

Normal body temperature is usually about 36.4ºC early in the day and about 37ºC in the afternoon, although the figures vary from person to person. The most accurate temperature is rectal And it’s usually a higher grade.

Children usually have more intense or high fevers, due to the vitality of their immune system, which is usually a sign of a good prognosis.

How to measure body temperature

Usually, for convenience, body temperature is measured in the armpit. Another option is to take it in the mouth, where it can reach half a degree more than in the armpit.

Causes of fever

Most of the time the fever is of infectious origin. Microorganisms introduce toxic substances into the body and it responds. Trauma, bleeding and bruising, non-infectious inflammation, heat stroke… can release internal substances that also activate the fever mechanism.

And there are emotional situations that, by directly affecting the nervous system, unbalance the temperature regulating centers and produce fever. The fever begins with chills accompanied by tremorsgoosebumps, teeth chattering… in a process that triggers the increase in body heat by contracting blood vessels, reducing heat loss and increasing muscle tone and activity.

With increasing body temperature the number of pulses increases and the Breathing frequency. Urine becomes thick, appetite is lost, thirst increases, and tends to constipation already the heaviness or headache.

How to lower fever without medication

Contrary to what fever may seem does not imply a loss of control by homeostasis systems or self-regulation of the organism, but rather an act of solidarity and coordination between the systems and organs that compose it.

As it is easier to suppress the fever than to wait for it to take effect, and we have no time to take care of ourselves, the usual thing is to take an antipyretic without listening to the body nor solve the situations that produce it. But that is equivalent to cutting the red light cable that indicates the lack of oil in the car instead of adding it to the tank.

still the fever a defensive process it should not be suppressed systematically. As Dr. Isaac Puente said, “medicine cannot offer the sick body a substitute for fever capable of equaling it in results, nor of replacing it in curative efficacy. The first indication is to respect it when it does not reach excessive proportions”.

The best treatment is, therefore, to help with our therapeutic resources to meet the objectives that the fever itself seeks, to the point of making it unnecessary for having achieved them. That is, acting in favor of the organic effort instead of suppressing it. Only when this is not enough do we have to resort to medication.

Therefore, the best treatment for a person with a fever is to use our therapeutic resources to help meet the objectives that the fever itself seekseven making it unnecessary.

drink fluids and rest

The lack of appetite that accompanies the fever indicates that avoid digestive overexertion. Its cleansing and detoxifying function suggests the need for an easily assimilated liquid diet: provide liquids that carry toxins from the tissuesthrough the bloodstream, in order to expel them with urine or sweat, and hydrate well to recover those aqueous losses.

Therefore, before a fever, especially if it is very high and with great sweating, It is advisable to eat natural fruit juicesespecially citrus fruits that stimulate immunity (two or three glasses a day), purifying vegetable broths (onion, celery, cabbage…) without oil or salt and with him juice of a lemon (two or three bowls daily), and three or four infusions a day of depurative plants (horsetail, sage…), sweaty (elder, ginger…) and relaxing (tila…), that stimulate cleanliness and calm down.

All this can be accompanied by more specific preparations for the disease that causes the fever (thyme for respiratory problems, chamomile for digestive problems…). should also drink during the rest of the day one or two liters of water depending on the amount of urine or sweat eliminated.

Until the fever disappears, it is not convenient to start a solid dietand fruits and salads have to be used for the transition to the usual diet.

If you have a fever, or the temperature does not reach 38 ºC, you can initially adopt an expectant attitude with rest and a liquid diet. Rest always makes it easier for most of the energy expenditure to focus on stimulating the immune system and internal self-regulation mechanisms, as well as the combustion of toxins.

If it is a higher fever we can help by causing sweatingsheltering ourselves in bed with enough blankets and ingesting the vegetable broths and the infusions (especially the mixture of lime blossom, elderberry and ginger) piping hot.

Cold water trunk wraps lasting two or more hours also cause sweating.

lavatives or enemas

A very effective measure in the majority of patients with fever, especially if the origin is infectious, are the enemas or enemas, applied at slightly cold temperature. Apart from refreshing and decongesting, intestinal cleansing removes waste and toxic substances that most of the time they are part of the environment that feeds viruses or pathogenic bacteria.

For an enema to be effective in an adult should be at least a liter to a liter and a half of liquid (in children a quarter of a liter or a half is enough). Irrigation is usually done with an infusion of thyme or chamomile, due to its disinfectant and anti-inflammatory power.

He reposethe liquid dietthe sweating and the cleansing enemas They are measures that act in solidarity with the organism and facilitate the disappearance of the fever because they help it to fulfill its function.

cold rubs

Sometimes, when the fever shoots up at very high temperatures, 41 or 42ºCwe can resort to a series of six cold rubsone every half hour, or to wraps of the trunk with cold water little drained and of short duration (twenty or thirty minutes), to lower the temperature temporarily with a non-drug symptomatic treatment.

The headache that sometimes appears due to congestion or the mobilization of toxins can also be relieved with enemas, with trunk wrapsapplying a cold compress on the forehead or with the application of hydrotherapy socks (put on some cotton or string socks soaked in cold water and drained, other dry ones on top of them and a third of wool on the previous ones).

When to take medication and why be prudent

Fever is perhaps the most characteristic of the phenomena of body defense. It is a response to a previous aggression aimed at restoring lost harmony and health. A Hippocratic aphorism already said: “Give me a fever and I will cure the sick”. We must not suppress it, but understand it and help.

Being aware that fever healswhen this is prolonged in excess of time, or the temperature is very high and the help we have provided is not enough, we need an effective suppressive treatment. Antipyretics can be useful, but it must not be forgotten that there is a pending problem that should be addressed with purifying treatment to avoid relapses.

Unfortunately, today we act systematically suppressing fever with medication (paracetamol is the most widely used medicine), either because it is considered a negative symptom that must be neutralized or simply for convenience.

This makes the cleaning effect, immunity-stimulating and healingtypical of an acute process such as fever, does not occur, and a ground and a defensive system is maintained that slows down its capacities, which facilitates future pathological processes that can become chronic.

This medicalization is worrisome, especially in childhood fever. According to recent studies, 50% of children with fever receive incorrect doses of drugs from their parents.

If there is a clear source of the fever, such as a bacterial infectiontreatment can be complemented with natural antibiotics such as propolis or immunostimulating plants such as echinacea.

functions of fever

When toxins reach the bloodstream, certain cells, basically white blood cells, release the so-called endogenous pyrogens. These give the order to the thermoregulatory nervous center to increase the temperature; They also stimulate the production of T lymphocytescells essential for immunity.

When the temperature exceeds 38 °C, the interferon (a protein produced by the body with antiviral, antibacterial and neutralizing capacity for other foreign substances) becomes up to three times more powerful.

The higher body temperature hinders the growth of the bacterial strains or viral and Carcinogenic cellswhich decreases its destructive capacity.

The body purifies

The internal combustions that occur in fever destroy morbid substances, disintegrating them and making their elimination possible through the organic emunctories, that is, through sweat, urine, or breath.

This effect not only affects the possible toxic of bacterial, viral, drug origin, etc. that have just arrived in the organism, but also to the organic catabolic deposits that have been generated for a long time.

All of this contributes to the fact that once the fever has passed, the person usually recovers vitality and reaches a higher degree of health than before the febrile process.

Fever allows the body to focus on the priority

The anorexia or lack of appetite characteristic of fever reduces the energy expenditure of digestion and concentrates all the organic effort on increase immunity and fight aggressioninfectious or not.

According to Manuel Lezaeta and his Thermal Doctrine, fever is also a help mechanism to restore body heat balance by bringing blood from the internal organs, usually congested, to the surface of the skin, which is frequently…