Positive side of Fever: Improve Immune

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Everyone must have experienced a fever. Researchers from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that high body temperature may help the immune system work better and harder against the infected cells.

Previously, researchers thought that the body's efforts to block dangerous microbes breed. This study also showed that increases the body's immune system function for a while when the body temperature increases.

The secret is in the immune cells or lymphocytes called CD8 + cytotoxic T-cells. Lymphocytes are cells capable of destroying virus-infected cells and tumor cells. The researchers found that high body temperature as the fever increases the number of CD8 + cytotoxic T-cells, which indicates a stronger body response to infection.

In this study, two mice injected with antigen and see how the CD8 + cytotoxic T-cells are activated to react to an antigen. They then raise the body temperature of mice 2 degrees Celsius, while the other mice did not. Researchers found that mice raised body temperature has a cytotoxic CD8 + T-cells more than the rats whose body heat remained.

Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who was not involved with the study said the findings were not suggesting that the fever does not need to be treated, because the fever is too high can cause damage to brain cells. Parents should still be careful of fever in children, especially if a fever above 39 degrees Celsius, due to high fever can cause seizures.

Discover magazine in 2007 had load peneltiain other Roswell Park Cancer Institute that showed that mice that are heated produce more immune cells to fight disease than mice that were not heated.