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  Fundamental MedicineTeresa Gryder, ND

A Fever is a Good Thing (Here's Why)

10/26/2019

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Picture
This is the author using a down jacket and cat to get warm.
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  If you’ve ever had the flu, you know how miserable it can be. Chills and sweats, body aches, coughs and sniffles—there’s nothing about it that anyone would choose to embrace. Many people get the flu vaccine every year and while that’s not the subject of this article, I will say that most of us don’t need it. Even if you get the vaccine, you might get the flu. Even if you don’t get the flu, you could easily get a cold or some other bug. When the days get short and the air gets cold and dry, more people get sick. That’s just the way it is.

In my parents’ generation the main treatment for a cold or flu was lowering the fever. Aspirin was avoided for children because it could cause Reye’s syndrome, but Tylenol was given. These days ibuprofen or naproxen are popular options for lowering a fever. But what if lowering the fever makes you sicker in the long run? What if it impairs your body’s effort to kick the bug out?

That is exactly what is happening. If you start to feel sick and get chills, the last thing you really want to do is lower the fever. It does not help you get better any faster. Instead of popping pills intended to keep yourself from getting a fever, you want to facilitate the fever. This is because fever is part of your immune system’s way of dominating infections and kicking them out. Once you realize this, you will know what to do. You might even be able to prevent yourself from getting all the way sick.

Whenever you feel strangely cold, it could be because your body has decided to turn up its internal thermostat. Chills are a sign that your body wants to be hotter. The best thing you can do is help it get as hot as it wants. Drinking hot tea, wrapping up in a blanket, curling up next to a fire are a good start. A hot bath is great. It’s hard to keep a bathtub hot for very long so boil a kettle of water and keep it on the side to pour in (carefully!!) when your water starts to cool down. If you have access to a hot tub or sauna where you won’t infect others, those are even better. Put on a warm hat or hoodie. Make a hot water bottle and put it on your midsection or your feet. Curl up with the kittie. The only warming thing you don’t really want to do is to exercise because you probably feel really tired if you have a fever and it will only make you more tired. Get warm and rest.

If your body is getting sick, it is mounting an immune response to something. You want it to do that. You want it to get the fever because that will help it get rid of the infection. Heating treatments are used for cancer too, because heat activates the immune system. There is nothing wrong with letting your body get a degree or three warmer than it usually is!

Unfortunately as we get older our bodies don’t get fevers like they used to. Kids make great fevers, so high that they can have harmless seizures from being so hot. Adults can get good fevers, high enough to kick infections, but rarely hot enough to cause seizures. Old people sometimes don’t get fevers at all, and this is a problem, because it’s hard to tell when they have an infection, and because the infections can hang around a long time. Regular heating treatments for elders are not a bad idea even when they are not sure if they’re sick. Some elders have low body temperatures to start with so if their temperature measures as “normal” (98.6F) they actually are having a fever.

Obviously you must be careful when using boiling water, heating pads or anything hot that you do not burn someone. A body temperature of 99F or more generally counts as a fever and if it gets over 101F or so your fever is getting real. This means the body is fighting something it considers dangerous. Generally we get higher fevers from bacterial infections than from viral ones, but getting our body totally warm helps us beat viruses just like it helps us beat bacteria.

The moral of the story is that fevers are good! If you get a fever, that means you are healthy enough to have a functional immune system, and it is doing its job. If you get the chills, your body is serious about beating an infection, and the best thing you can do is to get yourself toasty warm, drink liquids, and rest. Don’t eat food, that distracts the immune system, much of which lives in the intestine. Just get yourself hot and wait it out.

When your body suddenly starts sweating and you feel way too hot, the fever has broken. It’s OK to take off your hat and get out from the covers when this happens. The fever might come back again, or it might not. If it comes back again, drink hot liquids and cover up and get warm again. Usually after a few cycles of this the illness will be over. Unlike the lingering sickness that would have happened if you lowered the fever with pills and stopped your immune system from working. So be thankful for the innate intelligence of your body and enjoy the fever! It’s what nature intended.
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SEVEN ALLERGY SEASON TIPS

5/25/2018

 
The long version on this topic went out in a newsletter, but for those of you who are not subscribed, here’s a quick checklist of ways that you can reduce your dependence on drugstore remedies during allergy season. Now that we know benadryl can contribute to dementia, the last thing we want to do is take that every day.

1. Tolerate some symptoms. A runny nose is rinsing allergens out of your head, and that is good. If you want to help your runny nose do its job instead of taking some drug that dries you up and makes the allergens stay in there, try using a neti pot.

2. Exercise daily. Cardio immediately changes the balance of your immune system and makes you better able to fight infections and less prone to hayfever.

3. Eat a clean diet rich in fruit, veggies and fresh fish, and limited in meat and cheese. Mangos, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, ginger and hot peppers have been shown to reduce allergies. Fast food, leftover fish, and aged meat and cheese definitely increase allergies. Kids who eat fast food have a much higher risk of developing allergic asthma.

4. Limit allergic exposures. This includes changing your sheets and dusting your house, cutting back on foods you are sensitive to, not using soaps that you sometimes react to, wiping down your pets, and generally trying to live in a minimal-allergen environment.

5. Increase Omega 3 fatty acids—You can take fish oil or you can change your diet to consume more fresh fish and certain nuts and seeds, specifically walnuts, chia, flax and hemp. Eggs are allowed because there are omega 3’s in the yolk.

6. Be nice to your intestines because leaky gut is another allergy trigger. Avoid stress, eat fermented foods, avoid NSAIDS, and keep going back to that clean diet with lots of veggies. Make sure you are eliminating every day. A happy intestine reduces your risk of allergies and autoimmune disease.
​

7. If you drink alcohol, go easy on beer and wine and try mixing drinks with clear liquors instead. Wine contains sulfites which worsen allergies. Gin contains juniper berries which are a fairly strong anti-allergy medicine. And there’s something about gin and tonics that’s perfect when the weather turns warm.

Feels like Fall

9/11/2014

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The summertime here is glorious.  Roses bloom from March until October.  Sunshine pours down like the rain in winter.  I don't mind the returning coolness, though.  I thoroughly enjoy it.  I read once that people tend to be happiest when they settle at similar latitudes to where they grew up.  I think that perhaps this is true.  I am from farther south than here, and I find the summer days almost too long.  I get sleep deprived and feel a little manic.  The opposite happens in the winter, when the days are so short that all the daylight passes while I am at work.  I get plenty of sleep in the winter, but I can also get SAD.  Knowing that the seasons affect me in this way makes it possible for me to manage my moods accordingly.  Here are a few things to focus on in preparation for the shorter days to come.  May you have a beautiful fall and a blessed winter.

1) Start taking vitamin D again if you slacked off during the summer.
2) Get outside into the sunshine as often as possible while it lasts.
3) Look into an exercise program that will take you through bad weather.
4) Eat local fresh veggies and find ways to store some for winter.
5) Reconnect with friends close to home.
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Sproing!

4/9/2014

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Do you feel it?  The sun has returned!  The warmth is soaking into the ground and flowers are coming up everywhere.  In our garden the peas and asparagus are coming up, and the daffodils and tulips are on full display. The enlivening of the earth gives ME energy.  Suddenly I can do things that seemed pointless just a month or two ago.  Come see me for a spring tuneup!  Now is the time to start your allergy-prevention protocol.  I'm learning to use some new herbal combinations that are really making me feel sproingy and I'm eager to share.
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I recommend DEET

7/29/2013

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I never would have thought I'd say that.  When I was a BLM ranger in California for a summer, I covered myself in DEET to work in clouds of mosquitoes, and I thought it made me sick.  I was so eager to wash that stuff off at the end of a workday!  But it does work on bugs.

Recently I did a 6 day kayak self-support trip on the mighty Yampa river in northwestern Colorado.  I got sick when I got home.  BAD sick.  I think I had West Nile virus, and that it infected the meninges of my brain.  But I am bouncing back, finally.  The only upsides I can detect is that I lost some weight that I didn't mind losing, and that if I did have West Nile, I won't be getting it again.

A couple days ago I read the recent missive of the EWG (Environmental Working Group) about bug repellants (which we didn't have).  They pretty much said that the herbal ones don't really work, and with stuff like West Nile and malaria out there, you want one that works.  Hence the DEET recommendation.  I have more research to do about it because I hear that there's another chemical that may be less toxic to humans and work as well as DEET, but I don't know it yet to report on it.  I've heard that the clothing that is impregnated with bug stuff really works well too, so if I ever go "Yamping" again I'll take some of that.

Suffice it to say that I really recommend avoiding mosquito bites this season.  Apparently it's a bad West Nile season in Colorado and in Oregon, because of the mild winter and warm spring.  It's probably bad nationwide.  And the disease that can be caused by West Nile is sorely unpleasant.  Don't get it, but if you do get a big fever and headache after mosquito bites, get naturopathic support.  Conventional docs will just tell you to take ibuprofen or acetomenophen and go to bed.
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Lyme Disease Month

5/16/2012

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May is the month designated by ILADS to increase awareness about Lyme Disease.  Infections are on the rise, or at least, lots more people are being diagnosed now than ever before.  More infected ticks are being found too.

I have studied under two doctors who specialize in Lyme (Dr's Newman and Ambrose, see bottom for links).  I haven't been tested, but I would not be surprised to discover that I too carry the spirochete that causes it.  The fact of the matter is that lots of people have this parasite, but most of us don't have symptoms until we get run down or toxic, or otherwise challenged healthwise.  The unfortunate thing about having an assortment of parasites on board is that you feel fine until you don't, and then you go downhill quickly.

Lyme is caused by Borrelia burgdorferii, which is a very small bacterium in a spiral shape, ie. a spirochete.  Spirochetes are sneaky.  They don't get inside our cells like Chlamydia does, instead they have an assortment of defensive mechanisms that make it hard for our immune systems to detect and eradicate them.  They make slime barriers around themselves.  They shrink back into little hard cysts.  Once established in our tissues they are just about impossible to get rid of completely, even with intensive treatment.  A person who has this parasite needs to keep themselves healthy enough that the parasite doesn't cause them trouble.  And this is where naturopathic medicine comes in.

In naturopathic medicine, we may attempt to eradicate a disease-causing agent, but we are also interested in increasing the host's health so that such bugs are kept in check by our own bodies.  The disease-destroying treatments that are used for Lyme---either longterm antibiotics, or longterm antimicrobial herbs---are not enough.  If you have lyme, or if you think you have lyme, the best thing in the world you can do is get ahold of your diet and lifestyle.  It's easy to say, and oh so hard to do.  Believe me, I know.  But to start with, eliminate, or at least reduce, sugar and refined grains in your diet.  Eat a wide range of fresh organic vegetables.  Exercise daily.  Manage or avoid stress.  These basics, if actually employed and not just talked about, may have more effect than all the doxycycline and cat's claw in the world.  

Still, if you are struggling with severe symptoms, don't waste time, get help NOW.  And if you just got a tick bite, get help NOW, because at the beginning of an infection the spirochete CAN be eliminated.  Last but not least, if you have a way to do so, avoid getting deer ticks on you.  I don't mean that you should not go in the woods, but be aware about ticks, and avoid deer tick bites.  Learn when tick season is in your area.  Prevention is better than treatment 10 times out of ten.

Look it up:
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society http://www.ilads.org/ 
Dr Satya Ambrose http://www.starfireclinic.com/#!about-us
Dr Daniel Newman http://www.rising-health.com/portland-or-holistic
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Happy Samhain

11/1/2011

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Tis the turning of the seasons, for those of us up here in the northern hemisphere.  Suddenly it is dark at 6:30pm.  The train whistle blows eerily in the distance.  The candle is lit in the pumpkin.  I enjoy this time of the year.  I love the crisp air and the bright rich colors of the maples.  I love to nest, to make my homespace warm and lovely, to invite friends over to enjoy early evenings.  I like to get extra sleep when the nights are long.

I have a theory about humans and winter.  In our culture there is this diagnosis called Seasonal Affective Disorder.  This disorder is said to affect people in the winter, when they get SAD because they aren't getting enough daylight.  I think that a certain amount of hibernation is normal in humans.  When the nights are long, our bodies know what we need.  We want to eat more potatoes and less greens.  We want to go to bed earlier, or lay cuddled on the couch with a blankie.  I think that winter makes us SAD when we do not allow ourselves to retreat inward, to relish our warm homespace.  I think that SAD occurs due to a modern idea that the show must go on, we still must go to work for the same number of hours, and do the same amount of extracurricular activities, even if we don't feel like it.

But what would happen if we let our bodies and our instincts guide us?  What if instead of making ourselves go to another event that happens after sundown, we stayed home?  Got comfy?  Lit a candle?  Spent a little extra time with a loved one?  Would we still be so SAD if we just let it be winter?   What if we let winter be a time to hibernate, a time to enjoy warm furs and firelight and quiet times with our closest intimates?  I think we might find that the retreat into winter provides us with the restoration that we need to continue living life to its fullest, with great joy.
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    Author: Teresa Gryder

    Integrative Physician and Student of Life, Medicine, and the River.

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