Most people have had a fever at some point, and they probably see it as a sign of trouble to come.
Dr. Zachary Coston, a family medicine physician with Baylor Scott & White, recently wrote an article on the company's blog explaining what a fever is in hopes of easing fear about it.
He spoke to KERA's Sam Baker.
Dr. Coston: A fever is just your body's physiological response to trying to deal with an invader. Your thalamus, which regulates a lot of different things in your body that you don't have control over, kicks into gear and says, "Hey, I'm going to turn up the heat on this invader and let's see if we can essentially cook it".
Baker: Can I self-diagnose myself? When do I know that I have a fever?
Dr. Coston: You certainly can have a subjective fever where you can feel really hot or you can feel really cold.
A really good objective way to know is actually to check your temperature and really validate that. You don't have to come into a clinic setting to do that, but a thermometer would really be a benefit just at validating, "Hey, I feel this way, but is this actually what's taking place?"
Baker: I suspect most people view a fever as a bad thing, a sign of physical trouble. You say, well, no, or not necessarily.
Dr. Coston: We certainly don't have to be fever phobic, so to speak, but the fever can kind of be a canary in the coal mine for an issue.
But the fever, in and of itself, doesn't typically pose too much threat. We certainly can allow ourselves to experience that fever and possibly we're dealing with a viral infection where that can resolve on its own after just some time and some support.
But certainly, if the fever persists, right? All right, then it deserves some additional attention because there may be a different type of infection present, something bacterial that could warrant some antibiotics.
Baker: How long does or can a fever last?
Dr. Coston: As long as the fever has not lasted five days, it's usually reassuring, but certainly if that fever is persisting beyond five days that can be a clue that there's a bigger issue present for which you might need some antibiotics or some additional evaluation.
Baker: Which brings me to the next thing I was going to ask you. How do you break a fever?
Dr. Coston: There's a couple of ways to do that, right? One, maintaining adequate hydration, because if our body temperature is higher, that means we're using water to better carry out its processes more frequently.
Baker: Water or will any type of liquid do?
Dr. Coston: Ideally water, but as long as there's not a high caffeine concentration, liquid is liquid. Just try to keep your urine as clear as possible.
Moving into a cooler environment, that's another really good way to try and help lower your body's internal temperature.
And then as well, you can take over-the-counter medications that can help lower your fevers, things like Tylenol, Motrin, Naproxen.
But there's definitely caveats to that. For instance, pediatric patients, we really don't advise ibuprofen or Motrin use below the age of six, just because the children's kidneys have not developed appropriately. And then as well, we don't advice aspirin because you can get some really severe complications from that, especially with the pediatric population.
Baker: When should you really worry about a fever?
Dr. Coston: If there's any sign of confusion.
If you have a skin eruption, like if you have a rash that suddenly showed up that wasn't there previously.
If there's any unexplained bleeding in your person, but they don't have any history of any trauma, they didn't bump into anything or anything like that, there wasn't any injury.
If the blood pressure is lowering, those are signs to really be or if the fever is as high as 104 and is not coming down with medication.
So, you give the fever medication either to yourself or to a child, ideally within an hour, that temperature should be coming down. And if it's not, that's cause for consideration for being seen.
RESOURCES:
What is considered a fever? A simple guide for adults and children
In brief: How is body temperature regulated and what is fever?
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