Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Dessalles on 24/11/2022 18:14:36
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On the Naked Scientist podcast (22.11.22), I heard Chris say that fever brings the temperature to a range in which bacteria become dysfunctional. This is hard to believe, knowing the incredibly varying conditions in which bacteria can live and prosper. On the other hand, our cells are designed to function at a very precise temperature. My understanding is that fever is a very basic and efficient way to put our cells in a state in which there are inefficient, as a way to slow down pathogen replication.
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Hi.
Presumably, you know already that the reasons for raising body temperature are complicated and the consequences are numerous. We're still not entirely sure about all of it. Not all of it has an explanation in the sense of being helpful - some of it seems to be just a side-effect of fighting infection and doesn't offer any direct advantage.
The podcast was a very simplified explanation of just one thing that raising the body temperature can do. Your comments about reducing the replication rates that can be achieved by viruses is another. (Just for clarity, viruses and bacteria are not the same thing, they attack by slightly different methods and hence slightly different things are helpful against each of those attacks. I seem to recall the podcast mainly considered a bacterial infection).
I might leave it for some others who are more like experts in Biology to say some more. You can find many explanations from Google (stick to the more credible sources of information). You can get a slightly different set of consequences and effects from each website and they are ALL at least partially right. As stated in the beginning of this post, there are numerous consequences of raising the body temperature and many mechanisms by which we think that will help to fight infection.
If you were trying to simplify the situation and pull as many of the mechanisms together as possible then it's considered reasonable to say that raising the body temperature tilts the playing field in your bodies favour. You aren't offering a like-for-like penalty between yourself and the bacteria or virus. Yes, some of your physiological functions are impaired as much as any bacteria or virus* but the key activities you need like your immune system, that usually gets stimulated and works at least as well at higher temperatures.
* physiological machinery that a virus has hijacked, it has little of it's own.
Best Wishes.
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& on behalf of All of Us, Welcome to the TNS Forum!
P.S. - 🙂