High body temperature is not uncommon. She usually scares us, and we either rush to help the doctors, or try our best to reduce her on our own. However, the high temperature of an adult to a certain value is not at all life-threatening, and it is not worth hurrying to shoot it down. On the contrary, an increase in temperature may indicate an effective work of the immune system, and this fact can not but rejoice.
Causes of high temperature
The high temperature of a small child is much more dangerous than the high temperature in adults – the immune system of babies is only being formed, and it can not normally react to any negative external influences. As for the heat in adults, the situation here is somewhat different. The mechanism of functioning of the immunity of an adult is adjusted, so he is able to control all processes occurring in the body and “include” certain indicators of his condition in accordance with the changes taking place in this organism.
Why does the adult have a high fever ? There are many reasons for this. The temperature can rise due to the presence in the body of bacterial and viral infections, allergies, inflammatory processes in tissues and joints, under the influence of natural hormones, with infarcts, bleeding, and so on. In any case, high temperature itself is not a disease, but serves as an indicator of the immune system’s response to some kind of disorder.
In general, physicians believe that an increase in body temperature – a favorable factor, indicating the ability of the body to resist the destructive effect of certain aggressive factors. High temperature kills many viruses and does not allow them to multiply fully and speeds up the synthesis of interferon, which significantly strengthens our immunity. Thus, with the normal functioning of the immune system, a high temperature is an indication of the good potential of an adult’s health. If there are clear evidence of a weakening of the immune system due to age, taking some medications, surgeries, treating chemotherapy and other things, the increase in temperature should already be regarded as something out of the ordinary.
In other cases, a high temperature, the value of which hardly surpassed 38 ° C, is not yet an occasion for an urgent call of a doctor. It should be called when the body temperature rises above 39.5 ° C. If it jumped to 41ºC, doctors should be treated without delay – at this level of temperature indicators, convulsions may begin. And after the mercury column on the scale of the thermometer reached a critical figure of 42, irreversible brain damage takes place very quickly, and the presence of doctors then becomes a matter of life and death. However, the temperature in adults very rarely reaches this level. In any case, with infectious diseases this usually does not happen.
How to bring down the heat
Of course, it is rather difficult to transfer heat, however, as we have already found out, it should be brought down only in extreme cases. How to bring down the heatin the most accessible ways? Before using all kinds of antipyretic agents, we must try to cool down. First of all, you should drink as much liquid as possible – its amount in the body, with increasing temperature, significantly decreases, which causes dehydration. And dehydration, in turn, leads to a further increase in temperature. You can drink juices, mineral water, tea, – anything, if only this would maximize the body’s water balance. Very good in this regard, hot tea or mors with honey, lemon, raspberries and currants. If, after he drank, the forehead of a sick person is evaporated, then the temperature began to fall.
However, this is not enough to prevent the mercury column from climbing up again after a while. In this case, the patient, completely undressed, can be rubbed with vodka, alcohol or cologne and some time after that, do not cover with a blanket and do not dress. He, of course, freezes, but you should not be afraid of it. This method of reducing temperature is very effective and completely safe – it has long been successfully used in many clinics.
Another good way to reduce temperature is an enema filled with a solution of a powder of antipyretic and half a glass of boiled water. This procedure is somewhat unpleasant, but it is the optimal and very fast way to reduce heat when it lasts a very long time.
As for antipyretic drugs, their help should be treated only in case of emergency. The choice is now quite large, the most popular and well-proven are paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen. Drink these tablets carefully – they worsen blood coagulability and in some cases can cause bleeding. In addition, aspirin can not be used by those who suffer from diseases of the digestive tract, as it irritates the mucous membrane and can cause an aggravation of these diseases.
If the high temperature lasts for three days above 38 ° C and is not accompanied by a cough, a runny nose, sore throat and other, clearly expressed symptoms of the disease, a thorough examination of specialists will be required. The cause of this situation can be pneumonia, pyelonephritis or some other dangerous disease, for the treatment of which you need to take antibiotics.
