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by minorannoyance2
955 days ago
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I am not a doctor so treat this with caution, but from personal experience and limited medical understanding ibuprofen doesn't just "lower the temperature" and keeping the temperature high is not "helping the fight" in any meaningful and universal way. You will feel worse with the higher temps and even worse if you get a headache or muscle pains from covid, this will be an additional strain on your body, taking ibuprofen 2-3 times a day (with a 2-4h half life it lasts up to 6 hours realistically) for the worst 2-5 days of covid should usually help with this. Unless you have access to covid specific medication (to which most people won't have access for years or ever) it's hard to see how the official advice could be different. |
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In [1] the author, who is a doctor, "... plead(s) for recognition that fever may be used as a non-specific treatment of flu. The fever is not just an unpleasant symptom of flu but a crucial part of the body's defence mechanism that should be encouraged".
He generalizes this beyond just influenza:
"Infectious organisms are adapted to the temperature of the part of the body they colonise, so it follows that they will grow best at that temperature. Rhinoviruses, which infect the cooler upper airway and sinuses, grow best between 33° C and 35° C, so inhaling air at about 45° C for 20 minutes will much improve the symptoms of a common cold.2 Conversely, treating the common cold with aspirin causes an increase in the rate of production of the virus."
The author summarizes:
"A famous 17th century physician, Thomas Sydenham, said, “Fever is nature's engine which she brings into the field to remove her enemy.” The public and the medical profession have still not realised the full importance and potential of this statement."
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC529400/