Fever: Friend & Foe

  Now that everyone is a proud parent of happy healthy children and all the parents out there are happy and healthy themselves as a result of the "Conception Preparedness" articles here is some information concerning an important aspect of a healthy immune system that is, the fever.

  Fever is a normal adaptive immune response to a pyrogenic (heating) stimulus, such as tissue trauma or more likely infectious organisms.

   It has long been recognized that fever seems to have an empirical upper limit, rarely exceeding105.8˚F. The initial chill phase, 100.0-102.0˚F, causes peripheral vasoconstriction as the body sets a higher temperature to activate the immune response. Phagocytic (killing the invaders) activity increases and pathogens (the bad invaders) are killed. The patient feels hot and the periphery then opens up indicating that the fever has broken and is on the way down.

  If the temperature is 104˚ its significance depends upon the patient feeling hot or cold. If the patient feels hot then the temperature is probably falling. However, if the symptoms or signs indicate cold then the temperature is still rising and the fever needs to be steadied. This can include tepid bathing or herbal peripheral vasodilators, and diaphoretics which can be given in a variety of forms including herbal teas.

  Possibly the best herb for preventing infection is Echinacea, but it must be the roots of E. angustifolia and/or E. purpurea. Echinacea is safe during pregnancy, as demonstrated by a large scale prospective study of the gestational use of Echinacea during organogenesis (organ growth), which found no association with an increased risk of malformation. Echinacea is the key pediatric herb for immune support.

   Sometimes it may be necessary to support or increase a fever as long as there is no underlying contraindication. This can be a successful strategy in chronic low-grade infections and persistent catarrh or mucous producing problems. This can be as simple as using cinnamon, ginger, garlic, and cayenne. 

  This information was taken from one of my favorite herbal therapy resources: "Phytotherapy Essentials: Healthy Children; Optimizing Children’s Health with Herbs." As with other information in this blog I have not sought FDA approval for any of this information.