What you should know about fever
By THEODORE IRWIN
Just what
is fever? Simply defined it’s a state
in which your body temperature has risen automatically. It’s mainly a symptom, an early warning
signal that all is not well with you.
In an adult, it may reflect anything from an infection to some bizarre
parasitic disease.
Is
98.6degrees the normal temperature? Not
always. “Normal” temperature differs slightly in various parts of the
body. When a thermometer is placed
under the tongue, the red line at 98.6degree F is generally regarded at normal
for most people. (Taken rectally, the normal temperature is 99.6degreeF; in the
armpit it’s about 97.6degreeF).
Today,
however physicians tend to consider a range between 97 & 99degreeF, orally,
a “normal” zone. One reason is that
body temperature has its ups and downs during any 24-hour period. It is lowest (97degrees of less) from 2 to
5a.m., when you’re sleeping. It jumps
to perhaps 99,5 degrees by the late afternoon at early evening. Also, it is likely to be a little higher
after meals.
Beyond
this, individuals vary in their natural, customary temperature. At Northwestern University Medical School, a
professor staged a revealing experiment.
Using 276 healthy students as subjects, he took their oral temperature
at 8a.m. One student registered
99,4degrees, another 96.6degrees with the median of the group at
98.1degrees. The classic 98.6degrees
was shown by only 19 of 276 students.
What
about children? Since the
heat-regulating system in infants and young children has not been fully
developed, they tend to run alarmingly high temperatures, even if only a slight
higher averages than adults. A child
may run up a fever 105degrees for a bad cold and not be terribly sick; yet his
father would probably be in serious trounce at 105 degrees.
What
does a high temperature signify?
Essentially, it means that you are producing heat faster than you are
losing it. Your body’s heating system
is not unlike that of your home. When
your food [fuel] is burned, the generated heat is sent through your blood
vessels [pipes]. Layers of fat under
the skin [insulation] serve to cut down heat loss. You constantly produce and throw off heat. When production and loss are equal,
temperature is normal. With fever, your
body’s “thermostat” has evidently been pushed too high.
How is
body temperature controlled? Though
that thermostat, a complex mechanism governed mainly by the involuntary part of
the nervous system. These cells are
believed to be centered in hypothalamus, a thumb-size area of nerve tissue
situated on the floor of the brain, behind and above the bridge of the nose.
What
sparks a fever? Dr. David J. Gocke,
professor of medicine and microbiology and chief of the division of immunology
and infectious diseases at Rutgers Medical School, explains it this way. “Fever is a sign that tissue or an organ has
been damaged. The body responds with an
inflammatory reaction. In an infection,
for instance, the body tries to get rid of the damaged tissue. White blood cells [leucocytes] infiltrate
the area and devour the damaged tissue so that they can be carried out. In the process, the white cells themselves
break down and often die, releasing pyrogens [heat-producing substance], which circulate
to the brain and there prod the thermostat into action. Body temperature rises, and fever results.”
While an
infection is the most common cause, a verity of other factors may cause
temperature to shoot up. Fever may be
associated with an illness, such as gout or cirrhosis of the liver, which has
no oblivious infection. An injury or
burn can send bits of damaged cells into the bloodstream, to be carried to the
thermostat. Certain drugs produce a
similar heating-up.
How does
fever affect body? When fever takes
over, you may get the shakes, your teeth may chatter. Your skin is pale and slightly blue, and you feel cold. Shivering generates more heat and boots the
temperature even more. Generally, with
high fever comes loss of appetite, mausea, weakness, and sometimes a stomach
upset.
As the
temperature rises, your thermostat issues emergency signals to all vital
organs. In the battle to cool your
body, blood vessels in the skin dilate, making your face red. Your heart has to beat faster, and the blood
must flow for healthy new cells. Sooner
or later, the chill subsides, inside warm reaches the skin, and you
sweat—cooling-off process that drops your temperature.
Is
higher temperature always dangerous?
Not always. Nor is it
necessarily true that the higher the fever the graver the illness. However, a high temperature above 100
degrees can be regarded as significant.
Consequences may depend on the fever’s persistence as well as on the
individual’s age. At temperatures above
103 degrees, various degrees of temporary mental derangements may appear,
raging from impaired judgment to complete confusion, restlessness and
delirium. In adults, a temperature of
106.6degrees lasting for a few hours would likely cause brain damage and could
be fatal.
Few
patients survive a temperature over 109degrees. Luckily, before it reaches that level, your body ordinarily
brings life-saving emergency mechanisms into play, to take command and produce
more white cells to attack bacteria, and to create antibodies to kill
germs. Also, since the fevers that accompany
various diseases act differently, the behavior of your thermometer can be of
great help to your physician in diagnosing and charting the colures of an
illness. The fact that you can work up
with fever could be a good sigh—that your body is sound enough to battle
infection.
How
should temperature be taken? Use a
clinical thermometer. Before each use,
sterilize it in alcohol, rinse it in cold water, and shake it down so that the
mercury drops below 95degrees. An oral
thermometer should be held under the tongue, with the mouth shut, for a minimum
of three minutes. [A rectal thermometer
should first be lubricated, the patient placed on his sue and the thermometer
inserted up to the 98.6degree line for three to five minutes.
Proper
care must be used in taking mouth temperature.
The reading may be off if the patient drinks hot or cold beverages—or
smokes—just before the thermometer is inserted. And if he breathers through his mouth instead of his nose when
oral temperature is being taken, the reading is meaningless.
What can
be done to reduce a fever? Most
physicians agree that the following measures are usually helpful:
·
Keep the body’s water balance high. Since you lose a lot of water in sweating
and in vaporization from your air passages, drink plenty of fluids.
·
Get plenty of rest and nourishment, rather than “starve
a fever,” as some believe, doctors may recommend a high protein diet, fat and
carbohydrates. Hence, it’s generally
advisable to increase the intake of solid food [that is easily digestible] so
that your body is not weakened further.
·
For mild fever, aspirin of asprin-containig tablets
generally bring down temperature within 30 to 60 minutes. Adults can take a couple of five-grain
tablets every four hours; infants and children, tablet containing a total of no
more than one grain per year of age, every four hours.
·
Use light bed covers and keep your bedroom comfortably
cool and humid. “Sweating is out” by
bundling up under blankets in an overheated room is considered unwise. After all, your body is striving to get rid
of heat, not trying to conserve it. An
ice pack may help when the fever mounts over 103degrees.
Let your physician examine you and diagnose what’s
wrong. In your doctor’s hands, the
revealing symptom called “fever’ can usually be brought under control, and any
underlying cause be safely treated.
