Stop Fighting Your Body's Immune System

Could "Externally-Induced Fever" such as Sauna be a way to keep your body healthy?

Important aspects of our immune system- like the role of fever response to illness- have gone overlooked within the current dominant practice of western medicine. Sometimes we need a different way of looking at something to recognize its value.

"Externally-induced fever" as a practice dates back hundred's of years, notably: The Finnish sauna, Russian banya, Japanese mushi-buro, and Korean jimjilbang. These are all examples of traditional medicine practices that all, in fact, have solid scientific backing. In all of these, a person is exposed to extreme hot temperatures followed by a rapid cooling- emulating the body's fever response to attack, which impacts and empowers our immune system.

According to modern science, fever does not threaten our well-being, it in fact, actually is preserving it. Benefits are similar, whether externally or internally induced, the benefits of fever have been know for generations.

Research has found that imposing dramatic body temperature changes can improve immune function, specifically the type of immune function which many viruses including COVID-19 are known to attack.

Hot and Cold

One of the key features of our innate immune response is increased body temperature or fever. Fever burns off pathogens. Fevers of 39.5C (103.1F) were linked to better survival and quicker recovery. Researchers found that a fever could activate monocytes.

And, despite popular belief, short periods of cold exposure did not actually lower immune response. On the contrary, a 1999 study found that cold exposure could stimulate immunity in much the same way fever does.

So when your immune system mounts that fever early in the course of an infection, it is doing exactly what it has been designed for millions of years to do. That means the best thing you can do is not get in its way.

This post was inspired by an article at the epochtimes.com. Read the full article there.

#immune #illness #health #wellness #functionalmedicine