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The Argument for Letting a Fever Run Its Course
It may lead to better outcomes, some experts say
In the 1970s, a University of Michigan physiologist named Matthew Kluger conducted a series of experiments in which he and colleagues infected iguanas with illness-causing bacteria. Their goal was to study how these infections responded to fever.
In one experiment, the sick iguanas were given access to heat lamps, which helped the cold-blooded lizards raise their body temperatures in ways that mimicked a fever. All but one of them took advantage of the heat lamps, and the outlier was the lone animal to die of its illness. In another experiment, Kluger gave sick iguanas fever-reducing drugs. Five of these iguanas still managed to develop a fever, and those five lived. Meanwhile, the seven that did not develop a fever died.
Fevers are no fun — for lizards or for human beings. In people, fevers are associated with sweating, chills, and body aches, as well as weakness, nausea, breathing problems and, in some cases, strange dreams or hallucinations.
Why put up with all that? Many doctors say you shouldn’t. Take a fever-reducer like aspirin or acetaminophen and feel better. “Fever is your body’s way of telling you that something’s wrong, and you need to do something about it,” says Dr. Lee Riley, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. A fever not only causes unpleasant symptoms, but it also places added stress on the body — stress that may impair its ability to recover.
“Every aspect of your immune system works better at a higher temperature.”
The Covid-19 crisis has a lot of people on the lookout for fever. Along with a cough and shortness of breath, fever is one of the virus’s primary symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the CDC does not explicitly recommend taking fever-reducing drugs to treat the virus. And not all doctors believe that a fever is something unpleasant to be suppressed or snuffed out.
Some argue that, rather than impeding the body’s ability to get better, a fever actually helps the body rid itself of harmful pathogens. “Every aspect of your…
