It's always been curious to me that a number of things we do some to be counter to our own bodies' healing mechanisms. Besides trying to reduce inflammation, t

It's always been curious to me that a number of things we do some to be counter to our own bodies' healing mechanisms. Besides trying to reduce inflammation, the other big one of course is antipyretics, or fever reducers. Fever is a big trigger for our bodies' innate immune system, both helping to denature bacterial and viral enzymes and triggering the recruitment of defense cells. Suppressing the fever unnecessarily (i.e. when the fever itself isn't causing harm) seems to have a significant effect on the body's ability to fight pathogens. > "the use of antipyretic drugs to diminish fever correlates with a 5% increase in mortality in human populations infected with influenza virus and negatively affects patient outcomes in the intensive care unit." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786079/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786079/