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Practical home healing: fevers PRACTICAL HOME HEALING: FEVERS
A fever is a condition of the body in which there is a more or less marked rise of the temperature above the normal range. It can be present with quite a range of ailments, such as: colds, flu, infections, childhood diseases, cancer, and just plain indigestion. It may also appear without any recognized sickness. The elevated temperature is so widely common that it will, I am sure, be familiar to most readers of this book.
The rational treatment of fever requires, first, an understanding of what causes it and what its purpose is. Through some means, such as an infection, a virus, a letdown in dietary habits, or over-fatigue caused by intemperance in work, the body resistance is lowered, and a toxic condition develops either in a localized point or throughout the body generally. Nature's inbuilt healing powers respond at once. They set to work to eliminate the toxins by generating heat to burn them up. Thus, fever is an evidence that the body is hard at work and needs our assistance. This recognition is well expressed in the following words: "Give me a chance to create fever and I will cure any disease." This is what the great physician, Parmenides, said over 2,000 years ago.
"Fever is one of the body's own defensive and healing forces, created and sustained for the deliberate purpose of restoring health. The high temperature speeds up metabolism, inhibits growth of the invading virus or bacteria, and literally burns the enemy with heat." How to Get Well, Paavo Airola, Ph.D., N.D., Health Plus Publishers, Phoenix, Arizona, 1974. Bacterial poisons are often the cause of fever. These poisons irritate several things: 1) the vaso-motor centres (the areas in the medulla of the brain and spinal column that control the constricting and dilating of the blood and lymph vessels), 2) the nerves, 3) the surface blood "vessels, thus driving the blood from the skin, and thereby producing chilliness and greatly reducing heat elimination. In many fevers, oxidative changes and heat production are decreased rather than increased by bacterial poisons and metabolic wastes. These poisons may be introduced from without or from the growth of bacteria within the body itself or upon some of its surfaces. In this situation damage to the body and its organs comes almost wholly from crowding the system with toxins, and not from the abnormal temperature. Unless the fever is very high or much prolonged, there is little to be feared from the fever itself. The fever is not the cause of the disturbance, but only the symptom of it.
Fever is an effective protection and healing measure not only against colds and simple infections, but against such serious diseases as polio and cancer. In biological clinics, overheating therapy, or artificially induced fever, is used effectively in the treatment of acute infectious diseases, arthritis and rheumatic diseases, skin disorder, insomnia, muscular pain and cancer, to name a few conditions. Such giants of medical science as Nobel Prize Winner, Dr. A. Lwoff, Dr. Werner Zabel, and Dr. Josef Issels, recommend the use of fever therapy extensively. A research team under the direction of Dr. David S. Muchles, from Oxford University, recently reported something that ancient physicians and biological doctors knew all along—that fever is effective in combating many diseases, including cancer.
"There are many ways to induce fever. Some doctors use certain vaccines (like BCG) or drugs to create artificial fever. Personally, I prefer a more natural approach. Although fever induced with BCG or drugs can have a beneficial effect by 'waking up' and stimulating the body's natural defensive and immunological mechanism, there is less stress on the body if fever is induced with an overheating bath." ibid.
These words make it clearer that fever is our friend, designed to do us good. It is a fire burning in the system to consume toxins which would otherwise destroy us. It would seem entirely logical, then, to assume that a fever should simply be left to itself to do its work without any interference. However, it is the nature of fire that only a certain amount of heat can actually do the intended work. The rest of it must be dissipated along controlled channels, or it will become a dangerous destroyer.
When men light fires, they are careful to control them so that they do the intended work and nothing more than that. Likewise, a fever in its generation of heat must be controlled, or it will do harm as well as good. In fact, the harm could be so great that little good, if any, will result.
The body generates the fires of a fever to consume rubbish which has accumulated, usually in a fairly localized area of the system. As the heat does its work, it needs to be drawn away, just as the heat in a cook stove is channelled out through the chimney as fast as it does its work. If the patient is wrapped up in warm blankets or given a hot bath allowing no heat to escape, the fire spreads to healthy tissues and destroys them. This can, in turn, cause the fire to spread further resulting in extensive damage which can lead to permanent brain damage, organ damage, and even death.
Therefore, the very worst thing which can be done is to wrap the patient in warm blankets. It is critically necessary that the heat be drawn off as soon as it has done its work. This principle of drawing off the surplus heat is objected to by some. They argue that this is putting the fever out, and this argument seems to be supported by the speed with which the fever dies. They find it hard to believe that a problem can be cured so quickly. But it must be emphasized that this treatment does not frustrate the fever in its work, but only assists it so that it accomplishes its work with surprising rapidity. Too long have we been accustomed to fevers lasting for days on end when, in fact, they should only last for an hour or two.
I once read the story of a man with fever in a hospital in Broome, Western Australia. Broome is a place where the temperature is generally very high anyway, and when the heat of his fever was added to the discomfort produced by the heat of the sun, he felt as if he were literally on fire. Having come off a foreign pearling boat, he could not speak English. Those caring for him sought to confine him to a hot bed, while he was bent on pouring buckets of cold water over himself, much to the consternation of those who were trying to help him. The fact is, that he was on the right track. Eventually he regained his health, thanks to the cold water he did manage to get, and in spite of the fact that he should have gotten much more.
Two signs that would indicate some form of cold water application in the event of a fever are a full pulse with a flushed face, and hot, dry skin. When we feel the body burning under the touch of our hands, then we use cold water methods. This is a two-fold aid because, while it draws off heat, it stimulates circulation and the production of much-needed red and white blood corpuscles. The white corpuscles must be present to consume the toxic bacteria, and the red must be present to rebuild cells destroyed by the disease. Without these important defences, victory in the struggle would not be won. Fresh oxygen supply is important to the work of the red corpuscles. Therefore, the room in which the patient is cared for must be well ventilated and well lit with sunshine, although it should not be drafty. The patient should be encouraged, as far as possible, to take deep respirations.
One of the most effective of these cold water methods is the wet sheet pack.
*6\62\2*
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