You give me fever...

[tcpip]

Nothing quite like being struck down with sickness in the fourth world is there?



I mean it's not as if you can wander down to the corner doctor and say "Hey, I reckon there's something wrong with me", whereupon they give you a script for some serious drugs, take some blood for testing and say "ring me back in a couple of days".

Nope, here's it's about 1 doctor per 10,000 people. Only the most serious, immediate and life-threatening problems even get looked at. And you can completely forget about mental health specialists.

So when struck down by a viriluent fever, the best treatment is treat yourself. And here's how it goes.

Thursay Afternoon: Starting to feel quite queasy. As the afternoon progresses, I notice my hands and feet going cold and my torso becoming hot. Vision blurry, dull headache. Finding it increasingly difficult to work - attempt to do document reading, but even that proves to be too much. Go home early.

Thurday Night and Friday: Hands and feet very cold. Body sweating, yet feels too cold to have the fan on. Headache absolute pounding - utterly impossible to sleep. Painful to open my eyes beyond squinting.

Working on the adage of "starve a fever", I restrict myself to small mouthfuls of water or tonic water. Still manage to consume 4 litres.

Friday Night: Visited by a work colleague wanting to make sure that I am still alive. Headache reduced to a dull roar. Sweating much reduced. Sleep only interrupted several times.

Saturday Morning: Headache nearly gone. No longer sweating. Feel confident enough to have a small amount of rice and fish. And a nice cup of English Breakfast Tea (ahhh, civilization!)

Go to work. (Yes, I'm as crazy as a coconut)

At least it didn't have the tell-tale signs of by joints feeling like their being crushed (dengue fever). Nor did it last for several days (e.g., malaria). The "starve a fever" strategy seems to have worked, although it was undoubtably assisted by my sturdy constitution. Nevertheless, not an experience I'd particularly care to repeat.

*shrug* I guess I wouldn't have come here if I didn't expect to get sick.

Comments

[lefae.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[missmalice.livejournal.com]

i'd never heard of 'starving-a-fever'. whacky.

i hope its all out of your system now *hug*

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

lafae, missmalice... thank you for your hugs, most appreciated believe me.

The "starve a fever" saying is two-part "feed a cold, starve a fever". It isn't to be taken to extreme by any stretch of the imagination, in fact most medical advice rejects it entirely.

The way I figure it, the general theory is if you have a cold, your body needs resources to fight it. With a fever there's not much point, indeed, you'll probably feel ill if you try to eat.

There is some (although hardly convincing) evidence that food consumption causes short term changes to the immune system - "starved" people produce more "front line" antibodies through the cytokine interleukin-4, which is good against short-term devasting ailments like fevers, whereas "fed" people produce more "reserve" white blood cells through the cytokine gamma interferon, which works against those relentless grinding ailments like the 'flu.

Again it's emphasized this shouldn't be taken to extreme. Of course, the reverse shouldn't be suggested either.. I had a frail friend make an wobbly visit on the third day of "starving a cold". She was most disconcerted to discover she'd just been making the situation worse.


c.f., van den Brink, G. R., van den Boogardt, D. E. M., van Deventer, S. J. H. & Peppelenbosch, M. P. Feed a cold, starve a fever? Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 9, 182 - 83, (2002).

[angel80.livejournal.com]

That was informative. But doesn't flu give you a fever as well - whereas a cold doesn't. That's how I distinguish them anyway!

Anyway, whatever it was I had a couple of weeks ago responded well to a hot, slowly cooked stew.

[ktwhoopi.livejournal.com]

starving a fever is a wives tale i think!! how can your body fight the virus if you don't give it any fuel? :)

or were you nauseous and couldn't eat anyway?

glad you're better, sounded like a bastard of a virus!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ah, those old wives are a little smarter than some may think ;-)

http://mededucation.bjmu.edu.cn/medsite/newshow.asp?num=71

And something I missed from the last response (silly me), colds are caused by a virus, fevers are (usually) from a bacteria.

[ktwhoopi.livejournal.com]

well colour me corrected! :)

bugger off the nasty little bacterias :P :)

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Eep! It scares me when you get sick because it's usually rather dramatic - a short period of really full on illness. It sounds slightly terrifying.

Hope you're feeling better *smoooch*

I can't fault your research but

[pollyanna-n.livejournal.com]

Pyrexia = hypermetabolic state
This is from the critical care book I've got sitting next to me (never leave home without your emergency medicine textbook)

"in the fasting critical patient it is not the lack of calories but the lack of amino acids tht is moe likely to be life thretening. Amino acids are necessary for the synthesis of vital host defece proteins such as immunoglobulins, clotting factors and acute phase reactants. Providing an exogenous source of amino acids, calories and other nutrients will not eliminiate this catabolic response but can blunt it to some extent and act to support the patient's response to disease and injury while preserving endogenous tissues.
In the case of a patient that has already experienced a significant degree of malnutrition nutritial support may be essential to survival"

I've always been taught that nutrition in a pyrexic animal is extremely important as they are in a hypermetabolic state (ie everything is sped up and chewing up calories). I haven't read your reference yet though.

Saying that we don't often place feeding tubes etc as they require general anaesthetics. Oh except nasogastrics and I've only placed one.. in a rabbit.
(it died, but then I knew it would)

Re: I can't fault your research but

[pollyanna-n.livejournal.com]

The conclusion of the research scientist in the newspaper article on this...

"It is important to realize that our findings are interesting but still very preliminary and have no implications yet for the people at home," Van Den Brink said. "It may serve as an example however that although everybody realizes that one should eat well, food may not get the attention it deserves from people in basic research.

Re: I can't fault your research but

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yep, I wouldn't take the adage as the gospel-truth yet, but in my case it seemed to have worked (in moderation).

I must say I am thoroughly charmed by all the delightful and gorgeous women who have come to look after me at a time of medical crisis.

Unbelievable, I'm blushing...

Nurse? *giggle*

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Just to confuse things, it shows up in the literature both as "feed a cold, starve a fever" and the other way around.

Some years ago I read an article in either NewScientist or SciAm evaluating the "feed a cold, starve a fever" adage that concluded that there might be some sense in it after all - IIRC the idea is that by starving a fever, you take nutrients out of circulation that the bug needs to reproduce. But general advice is still simply to avoid stress, which includes under-eating.