Still a large majority of people (and medical professionals - at least in our parts) have a firm belief/fear that High Body Temperature (HBT) has to be controlled/maintained or kept low.
My question at this point is: when did we get persuaded that our immune system – developing/evolving over last few hundred thousand years - is poor with some pretty big flaws? And that we have to correct and supervise it.
A subject science, being developed perhaps for over few thousand years - not by infallible Nature’s selection or evolution, but by our selective, subjective, egotistic individualistic minds – seems to believe (and wants us to believe) that we have become smarter and more powerful than God/ Mother Nature (or however you name our Creator).
Do we really need to control and regulate our body temperature, because our organism or immune system fails to do efficiently or safely?
HIGH FEVER CRAMPS
I have had an experience with my 4yrs old son, having had an episode of high fever cramps. I wasn’t present, my wife explained it in details - a horrific sight, alone with him, without having a clue on how to help him. Professionals (I am making conclusions based on my personal extended laic experience and studies) are very skeptic and timid about high fever cramps. This is supposedly something that MUST NOT get repeated, hence their main approach ‘is’ (at this point today I am slowly starting to hope for ‘was’) - fever cramps are caused by HBT, so they need to fight it.
My first point: Symptoms - cause, correlation or effect?
Are fever cramps a symptom, an effect, or a cause? Is HBT a primary cause or just a link in a chain of events, meaning that HBT itself is more of effect of some mutual primary cause?
After my son’s arrival to hospital, his body temperature was measured first (38.5’C) and he was instantly administered with an antipyretic (temperature reducing drug). After that I have arrived soon and was explained that he has experienced high fever cramps and was brought to hospital with HBT. To eliminate a possibility for another cramps episode repeating he received a dose of antipyretic, and of course, preventively with an injection of antibiotic treatment.
My second point – Treating symptoms?
Is treating symptoms supposed to solve anything (besides unpleasantness)?
Take a headache, for example: I believe that a headache is our organism’s mechanism to force us to calm down, as it needs a body to rest in order to effectively process some event, inflammation. Does treating symptoms like taking a painkiller, really help us? Or do we actually decide to act against our own organism? (And later wonder about potential appearance of unexplained consequences)
My wife explained that at home his body temperature was 39,5’C. Undoubtedly quite high temperature. As to my knowledge, there is an old belief (gained from some medical professionals) that higher HBT is usually correlated with viral infections and lower HBT more with bacterial infections. (Only that much known by professionals about HBT today?!?) So I wondered and asked the doctors why did they decide to use antibiotics. They proudly explained their decision to outrun the disease, should it turn-out to be bacteria related (as antibiotics are usually ineffective for treating viral infections or disease).
My third point – What does 38.5’C actually mean?
High Body Temperature is somehow divided into lower and higher (supposedly more dangerous) part. Why is 38.5’C been treated as almost critical these days and needs to be instantly lowered?
My fourth point: ’Preventively’ administering some dangerous drug?
Harmful effects of antibiotics are widely recognized and we the public are often warned about the unjustified and widely overused antibiotics nowadays. But professionals (not only my son’s doctors) still get to ‘decide to preventively’ prescribe or administer antibiotics?
I did some research about fever cramps and HBT and every medical study was pointing in direction of trying to stabilize body temperature. Cramps supposedly occur due to - not high, but fast elevation of body temperature which brain can’t tolerate that well. I was still in doubt about body’s inability to tolerate its own mechanisms but I left that one for some other time. So, if the organism - for some reason - does trigger a rise in body temperature, it will probably try to achieve that temperature until it is no longer necessary. If we literally drop our body temperature for few degrees C with use of antipyretic drugs (by disabling our thermo-regulation system) our organism will - when its thermo-regulation system recovers from a drug – try to execute that ‘standing order’ to achieve that specific temperature as soon as possible. If the first ‘natural’ rise of temperature was too quick for the brain, why should the second (late one) be any different/slower? Studies warn that use of antipyretics causes fever cramps, which seems logical.
My fifth point: Does fighting HBT do any good at all?
I found an article in medical journal (few years old) from a professor at university medical center professional, a chief of pediatrics, who was warning medical professionals to not to interfere with HBT. I mailed him, explained the situation and expressed my thoughts on the matter and asked for his opinion. He agreed with my conclusions and told me that he’s been warning people in a medical profession for years about this, but there is still too much fear present. Also added that in his long career he never experienced a child dying from HBT, that is without external factors (like being left in a heated car in summer).
They x-rayed his chest to confirm bacterial pneumonia - but supposedly ‘x-ray’ expert on duty didn’t know how to read child’s chest x-ray as there were no signs of bacterial pneumonia.
Blood tests also haven’t confirmed any signs of elevated bacterial presence - supposedly sometimes they hide in different parts of the body when blood is taken for tests.
Final diagnose - ‘atypical bacterial pneumonia’ and to hit him with stronger antibiotics. I decided to oppose their diagnosis and stop them. Consequently we were discharged from a hospital, because they were unable to achieve any improvement due to my obstruction of their diagnosis and therapy. I mean, who are these people?!? They do not get to be wrong, ever?
We went to university medical center for a second opinion and received a diagnose of mild viral infection and sent home – no antibiotics needed whatsoever.
My sixth point: My thoughts/questions/doubts on HBT
So, what does HBT actually mean or represent? - A disease by itself, a symptom, a perfected body’s mechanism?
What exactly does the measured number tell us? – Is 37.3’C any much difference to us than 37.7’C? Do we feel/know (even children) when we’re not in a mood for anything than rest? Any sense in measuring it at all?
Does our organism ‘fire up the system’ and accidentally put a wood or two on fire too many? - Or does it require a specific temperature for a specific duration for a strictly specific state in a body? Do we get to mess with our over few hundred thousand years perfected immune system’s mechanisms, that have kept us on the safe side of evolution, without repercussions?
But I might be gravely wrong. It feels very contradictory and often getting in conflict with most of common steady beliefs. What you take away from my thoughts is completely up to you. Build your own stand and belief.
Thanks a lot for taking your time and reading my post! I'd love to hear your thoughts, but I don't give a f* about comments from those who don't want to liberate their own brain.
If you found this article interesting, feel free to UPVOTE or RESTEEM. ;)
And you are welcome to check my other posts.