In the past when I used to get 'colds' that I rarely get now because I optimize vitamin D, I would stay in bed well covered to keep the temperature up with excellent recovery. My body told me, shall we say.
The iguana thing is crazy - so there's actually a signal to the brain for them to seek out heat? Maybe this explains why feverish people love lying under thick covers and wearing hats. I distinctly remember wearing a hat in bed when I had a fever as a young kid. Maybe just makes us feel freezing.
Also: fair to say that a lot of these things "are paleo" but we've since mucked up our bodies enough to become intolerant. E.g. the sun (sunburn if PUFA'd), fevers (dysregulated inflammatory response/cytokine storm nonsense)..
I just happened to see a video on Twitter yesterday about a domestic cat pressing itself against a burning hot cast iron stove, to the point that its fur got singed. Owner was like "haha dumb cat" but commenters were saying that even animals have instincts like this, and it might've been trying to stave off a bacterial infection. Sort of like the lizards make use of the heat lamps.
I hate to terminally miss the point, but regarding: "And just as hindering your Achilles' tendon's proper function with a block of foam under your heel is unlikely to improve your running performance"
Where would you recommend someone (me) starting to learn about this? My Achilles' tendon sucks, and my running sucks.
Unsure when I first noticed our shared feelings about so much of this stuff, Tuck, but fevers was high on the list of "ah ha" moments I had with regard to "conventional wisdom" being somewhat FOS.
I wondered about this even as a kid: if fever is supposed to be part of the body's defense, why mess with it unless it's extreme? I *think* I'd got that explanation of fever from the same parents pushing the aspirin. (I usually turned it down.)
I get it. However, there are potential limits. At some point high fever is a "poison" if you have complications such as delirium or seizures, organ shutdown, etc.
A Midwestern Doctor sometimes recommends an infrared mat or sauna to help feverish patients to get hotter:
"In the case of fevers, a long standing belief in the natural medicine community has been that suppressing fevers worsens your body's immune response and its attempts to expel an infection, so the natural medicine field strongly advises against suppressing fevers. This for example was clearly demonstrated throughout the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic and many reports at the time showed it determined if a patient would live or die.
"From reading all of these reports, (provided the fever is not too high) I've adopted the practice of instead often encouraging fevers during these types of infections and found it frequently significantly improves how quickly the patient recovers. Furthermore, I also found that for some patients, a significant amount of the discomfort they experience during an illness comes not from its fever, but rather the body struggling to heat itself up to the target temperature needed for the fever. For this reason, I often find (provided the patient is not on the frail end), that to reduce discomfort it is more effective to heat the body up (e.g., with an infrared mat) than it is to use a medicine which suppresses the fever by turning off the body's signal to heat itself up.
"However, since the response with a fever reducing medication is immediate and dramatic (thus being something simple to do which showcases the efficacy of pharmaceutical focused medicine), the medical profession has always been attached to treating fevers. In turn, a variety of conflicting data exists on if suppressing a fever worsens the course of an illness or makes it more likely to be transmitted, and as you might expect, whenever data emerges suggesting fever suppression is harmful, it's repeatedly attacked. For example, this study, this study and this study support my position while this study (from a very orthodox journal) opposes it.
"Since there is so much conflicting data, I've gone off my own personal experience where it's often been quite clear that suppressing fevers worsens the course of these illnesses while doing things like going in a sauna greatly accelerates the speed with which you clear them."
Yes, I wrote this post originally when my daughter was suffering from dengue hemorrhagic fever, and was suffering from seizures and hallucinations.
They're very upsetting.
I got the panicked call from the physician to stop the antipyretics she had prescribed (and I had ignored) when it became clear she had dengue, as they make the bleeding worse.
"However, ibuprofen, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are contraindicated in dengue fever because they can aggravate gastritis or bleeding."
In the past when I used to get 'colds' that I rarely get now because I optimize vitamin D, I would stay in bed well covered to keep the temperature up with excellent recovery. My body told me, shall we say.
The iguana thing is crazy - so there's actually a signal to the brain for them to seek out heat? Maybe this explains why feverish people love lying under thick covers and wearing hats. I distinctly remember wearing a hat in bed when I had a fever as a young kid. Maybe just makes us feel freezing.
Also: fair to say that a lot of these things "are paleo" but we've since mucked up our bodies enough to become intolerant. E.g. the sun (sunburn if PUFA'd), fevers (dysregulated inflammatory response/cytokine storm nonsense)..
"Maybe this explains why feverish people love lying under thick covers and wearing hats."
That's what I always do. It's probably why you feel chilled when you have a fever: to encourage you to help your body keep the temperature high.
I just happened to see a video on Twitter yesterday about a domestic cat pressing itself against a burning hot cast iron stove, to the point that its fur got singed. Owner was like "haha dumb cat" but commenters were saying that even animals have instincts like this, and it might've been trying to stave off a bacterial infection. Sort of like the lizards make use of the heat lamps.
I hate to terminally miss the point, but regarding: "And just as hindering your Achilles' tendon's proper function with a block of foam under your heel is unlikely to improve your running performance"
Where would you recommend someone (me) starting to learn about this? My Achilles' tendon sucks, and my running sucks.
Google "minimalist running shoes". That should open a lot of doors for you. Also "heel drop".
See my old post here:
"Eccentric Heel Drops for Achilles Tendinopathy"
https://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/2011/12/eccentric-heel-drops-for-achilles.html
Unsure when I first noticed our shared feelings about so much of this stuff, Tuck, but fevers was high on the list of "ah ha" moments I had with regard to "conventional wisdom" being somewhat FOS.
I wondered about this even as a kid: if fever is supposed to be part of the body's defense, why mess with it unless it's extreme? I *think* I'd got that explanation of fever from the same parents pushing the aspirin. (I usually turned it down.)
I get it. However, there are potential limits. At some point high fever is a "poison" if you have complications such as delirium or seizures, organ shutdown, etc.
Yes, I mention the point at which it becomes a problem, but again, the problem is not the fever, but the infection driving the fever response.
Seizures are not indicative of a problem, surprisingly.
A Midwestern Doctor sometimes recommends an infrared mat or sauna to help feverish patients to get hotter:
"In the case of fevers, a long standing belief in the natural medicine community has been that suppressing fevers worsens your body's immune response and its attempts to expel an infection, so the natural medicine field strongly advises against suppressing fevers. This for example was clearly demonstrated throughout the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic and many reports at the time showed it determined if a patient would live or die.
"From reading all of these reports, (provided the fever is not too high) I've adopted the practice of instead often encouraging fevers during these types of infections and found it frequently significantly improves how quickly the patient recovers. Furthermore, I also found that for some patients, a significant amount of the discomfort they experience during an illness comes not from its fever, but rather the body struggling to heat itself up to the target temperature needed for the fever. For this reason, I often find (provided the patient is not on the frail end), that to reduce discomfort it is more effective to heat the body up (e.g., with an infrared mat) than it is to use a medicine which suppresses the fever by turning off the body's signal to heat itself up.
"However, since the response with a fever reducing medication is immediate and dramatic (thus being something simple to do which showcases the efficacy of pharmaceutical focused medicine), the medical profession has always been attached to treating fevers. In turn, a variety of conflicting data exists on if suppressing a fever worsens the course of an illness or makes it more likely to be transmitted, and as you might expect, whenever data emerges suggesting fever suppression is harmful, it's repeatedly attacked. For example, this study, this study and this study support my position while this study (from a very orthodox journal) opposes it.
"Since there is so much conflicting data, I've gone off my own personal experience where it's often been quite clear that suppressing fevers worsens the course of these illnesses while doing things like going in a sauna greatly accelerates the speed with which you clear them."
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/is-covid-more-dangerous-than-the
It's ironic that he attributes that notion to the "natural medicine community" and is entirely unaware that it's mainstream medicine.
seizures may or may not be a problem. It's a big problem with parents. Call on your seizure and raise a shutting down kidney.
Yes, I wrote this post originally when my daughter was suffering from dengue hemorrhagic fever, and was suffering from seizures and hallucinations.
They're very upsetting.
I got the panicked call from the physician to stop the antipyretics she had prescribed (and I had ignored) when it became clear she had dengue, as they make the bleeding worse.
"However, ibuprofen, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are contraindicated in dengue fever because they can aggravate gastritis or bleeding."
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(19)30157-3/fulltext
"hemorrhagic" anything is at least some sort of contraindication for aspirin and NSAID's.