Fever Should Be Monitored Rather Than Suppressed

by Pathways Magazine – ICPA.org:fever thermometer

Hippocrates taught that fever is the helpful response of the body to the disease process—the body’s way of overcoming disease. About 150 years ago, this theory was replaced by the still prevalent opinion that fever itself is a disease and needs to be treated as such. The tendency today is to give antibiotics, or at least aspirin or acetaminophen, at the first sign of fever. However, recent studies show a strong connection between taking aspirin for viral illnesses, such as chickenpox or influenza, and the subsequent development of Reye’s syndrome. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics now warn against giving aspirin to children. The approved choice, acetaminophen, as well as antibiotics, work to suppress fever “safely.” But when a fever is artificially suppressed in this way, the body’s defense system remains inactive.

Fever needs to be monitored, not suppressed. This allows the fever to mobilize the body’s immune system, which helps fight the disease at hand and is of possible long-range value in a world with immune-deficiency diseases. Monitoring the course of a fever is also a valuable diagnostic tool. Because certain illnesses have characteristic fever patterns, observing your child’s fever will help in a diagnosis. If your doctor advises bringing down the fever or you decide to do so, consider using some of the nonsuppressant therapies discussed later in this article.

Treating Febrile Seizures

What if the fever gets “too high”? When fever runs high, it can sometimes lead to a febrile seizure, or convulsion. Dr. Alvin N. Eden, whose point of view is representative of sound mainstream medical thinking, explains that a “simple febrile seizure” is a convulsion caused by a high fever from an infection anywhere in the body that does not primarily involve the brain. He notes, “Therefore, by definition, a child who has a fever during a seizure does not have epilepsy. Furthermore, simple febrile seizures do not lead to mental retardation.” He suggests that if a child has a febrile seizure, the parents consult with the physician to make sure the child does not have a “complex febrile seizure” which stems from infection in the brain.

What usually happens is that a healthy one or two year old becomes ill, often with a sore throat or ear infection, and starts to run a high fever. If the temperature reaches the child’s particular threshold for convulsions, it produces a seizure. The child may start to twitch and then shake violently all over. He or she loses consciousness, the eyes roll back, and often the child foams from the mouth. “These generalized convulsions, called simple febrile convulsions, rarely last longer than five minutes and stop by themselves without specific treatment. After it is over, the child frequently goes to sleep, and when he wakes up, he is fine. The first seizure is always a harrowing experience for parents, but no permanent damage results, and the baby will be fine.” In almost all cases, the convulsion occurs during the first day of the child’s illness and does not recur during the same illness.

It is important to know what the child’s temperature is at the time of a convulsion, for this is the “threshold convulsion temperature”—the temperature that you want to avoid in future illnesses! One child might have a convulsion at 103°F, while another might be fine until 106°F. The great majority of infants and children never have a febrile seizure.

If your child does have a febrile convulsion, Dr. Eden advises keeping calm, putting the child on his or her stomach, turning the head to one side, and making sure the mouth is empty. Once the seizure is over, you will want to start bringing down the temperature by giving the child a “sponge bath” with lukewarm water or by putting the child into a cool bath. The evaporation of the water causes the body to cool; however, if the water is too cold, shivering may occur, which increases muscular activity and raises the temperature.

Dr. Eden then suggests having the illness diagnosed. He warns that “some doctors recommend that a child who has had a simple febrile seizure should be kept on daily doses of Phenobarbital for a period of two seizure-free years to help prevent any further trouble. If the child is under three years of age at the onset, these doctors recommend that Phenobarbital should be given until he is five years old. Most physicians do not agree with this approach, however.”

If your physician advises Phenobarbital for fever convulsions, seek a second opinion and research the matter yourself, rather than accepting a course of action on which even conventional physicians do not agree. My own experience with young children on Phenobarbital suggests that the drug’s effect is almost like a veil, keeping children from really being “present” in their bodies. As always, the decision and responsibility for your child rest with you. So, become informed of your options and the potential results of various courses of action.

Drawing Out the Fever

Several techniques are available that do not suppress fever but rather draw heat from the body. To help keep a fever from becoming too high, doctors recommend giving the child plenty of fluids (such as water, tea, or juice), keeping the child’s room relatively cool, and giving a sponge bath as mentioned above. Alcohol should not be used in a sponge bath for babies, because it is absorbed through the skin and can cause neurological damage.

A lemon wrap. This technique, described in the useful book, Caring for the Sick at Home, is designed to draw heat away from the head and out the feet. It should be used only if the feet are very hot. Gather long strips of cotton cloth for wrapping the legs. Then, cut a lemon in half and place it in a bowl of warm water. Reach into the water to make slits in the lemon, and then squeeze it by pressing it against the bottom of the bowl. Roll up the cotton strips and soak them in the lemon water.

Now, place a towel under each of your child’s legs. Remove one of the strips from the water, squeeze hard, and begin wrapping the first leg starting at the foot and wrapping from the inside of the arch to the outside of the foot. Continue with additional wraps working all the way up to just above the knee. Be sure to cover the entire foot and leg, without leaving any gaps. Immediately wrap the towel up around the foot and leg to prevent too-rapid chilling. (If you do not have a towel handy, wrap a wool shawl or strips of wool fabric over the wet cotton strips.)

Repeat the entire process on the second leg, working carefully but quickly. Immediately replace the covers. Leave the wraps on until the cotton strips dry. This may take about 20 to 25 minutes. If the fever is still high after half an hour, repeat the procedure.

In the absence of the materials described above, others will do. If cotton strips are unavailable when your child produces a high fever, you can substitute a pair of adult cotton tube socks or a pair of your own knee socks that can reach well up your child’s legs. In lieu of towels, simply cover your child’s wrapped legs and feet with a blanket to prevent too rapid cooling. If you do not have a fresh lemon, try adding vinegar to the water instead.

Article originally posted at ICPA.org.

Symptoms Are Not the Problem

by Susan M. Brown, D.C. – ICPA:symptoms

I’ve had people say to me “I know you don’t want to hear about my symptoms, but…..” Enough people have said it lately that I thought an explanation of my view of symptoms was in order. It’s not that I don’t want to hear about symptoms or that you can’t tell me what they are, I just view them so differently.

The current view of health holds that if we have symptoms, we are sick and if we are without symptoms then we are healthy. And so much of modem health care, especially that which is medical in its approach, is geared toward ridding the individual of their symptoms. Some of the sickest people are symptom free. They just don’t feel anything. Their bodies are so impacted with toxins and stress and injury (emotional and physical) that they have shut down. So lack of symptoms does not necessarily prove to be a healthy individual. As the reverse can also be true. A person with symptoms is not necessarily “sick”.

Now at first, ridding the system of symptoms seems like a wonderful, noble thing. At least until you start to consider how the body functions. Many of the symptoms people experience are actually signs that the body is healing and stopping those symptoms can inhibit the healing process. For example, a normal fever rise is the body’s first line of defense against infection. Temperature goes up, which increases the body’s activity and signals the immune system to ‘turn on”. When we take something to decrease the temperature it compromises the body’s natural healing response.

When we ingest something that the body considers to be toxic, nausea and diarrhea are healthy responses. When a joint is injured the body gives us pain to let us know to be careful, to avoid using it and re-injuring it. It swells to provide a natural splint to the area to protect the injured joint and gets hot as the body increases the circulation to repair and heal the injured tissue. The runny nose we get at the change of seasons is the body sluffing off the old respiratory lining, much like the trees sluff off their leaves and animals sluff off winter coats.

Every symptom our body lovingly gives us is a message. The body can only speak to us in two ways, pain or pleasure, discomfort or comfort, ease or dis-ease. The words it speaks to let us know it is working or not working are what we have defined as symptoms. A heart that aches after years of abuse will signal us with chest pains. A stomach will flare up with an ulcer to let us know that we have let life get too stressful, that it is too much to bear. Our pulse will race with the anxiety forcing us to face the fears that have built up in our bodies.

When symptoms occur, when our body is trying its best to communicate with us, do we listen to what it is trying to say? Or do we just try to shut it up, quite down or stop the symptoms. Do we ignore the body’s only voice and try to “shut it up” like putting our hand over the mouth of a screaming child. If our intention is just to stop the symptoms, then we miss the gift. It’s not that I don’t want to hear about the symptoms, it’s that my intention is not to treat them or silence them, it is to acknowledge them with something far greater than talking about them.

My purpose and intent is to turn on the power of the body so that it can heal, and can integrate the experiences of life. Sometimes when the body is in flow with life it has no symptoms and sometimes it does. Sometimes we feel great, sometimes we feel the process of healing happening and sometimes we feel our body telling us that a change is definitely in order.

Life is a process not an event and so is healing. When your body is speaking, listen to what it is saying, acknowledge it and answer it. Educate yourself as to the processes of the body so that you can help it to heal and understand the messages it is giving you. I think the body’s wisdom will amaze you and if you both listen and respond, the conversations you have will surely enlighten you.

Article originally posted at ICPA.org.