Monday, June 18, 2018
Constants and variables 94, pills vs chills edition
Just calling attention to an ELEGANT use of constants and variables in this article on the importance of fever.
The article starts with a dubious reading of history:
Until a few decades ago, fevers were thought to be an unavoidable but unpleasant side effect of illness. But modern research suggests that most fevers are actually integral to effective immune responses.I don't think the concept is new. Conventional wisdom has always seen a fever as the body's attempt to evict the pathogen by making the internal environment uncomfortable for the pathogen. The idea that you must relieve the fever is quite recent, and arguably driven by the pharmaceutical industry in cahoots with pill-pushing MDs. Here's the beautiful and elegant part:
The evolutionary importance of the fever was first examined by comparing fevers to other dangerous spikes in temperature. Writing in American Zoologist, physiologist Matthew Kluger notes that responses to increased body temperature are different when the cause is a fever compared to, say, exercising in the heat. When our body temperature rises in response to an infection, we take actions consistent with trying to warm up even more: shivering, huddling under blankets. When hyperthermic, we sweat, feel the urge to drink cool water, and make every effort to cool down. In other words, when we’re sick, our bodies try their best to be hot.Kluger is observing what REAL ORGANISMS do in response to heat from two separate causes. He grasps the variable of PURPOSE in our natural responses. We're not just a bimetal thermostat. The signal from our thermosensors is combined with some (not yet understood) sense input from the immune system. Heat + immune activity = goal of preserving heat. Heat + muscle activity = goal of shedding heat.
Labels: Constants and Variables
¶ 2:57 AM
