Why you should embrace your fever. The hidden power of heat

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The only thing hotter than you is your immune system

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You know that feeling. The chills, the aches, the sudden need for every blanket you own. A fever is a universal sign that something is not right, and our first instinct is often to reach for a pill to make it all go away. But what if that uncomfortable, burning feeling is actually a brilliant defense mechanism? What if the very thing making you miserable is a sign that your body is in full-on battle mode and winning?

Our bodies are pretty amazing. We have an ideal operating temperature, a kind of sweet spot where all our internal machinery works at peak efficiency. We spend a lot of energy maintaining this temperature, and it’s no accident. This constant internal warmth makes us almost entirely immune to one of the biggest threats out there: fungi. While many other creatures can get seriously sick from fungal infections, our bodies are just too hot for most of them to survive.

This brings us to fever. Think of it as a defensive climate change, a clever trick to make your internal world miserable for invading microbes. When your body detects an enemy, it deliberately cranks up the thermostat. It’s an ancient evolutionary strategy, so old that even cold-blooded animals like fish and lizards use it, by seeking out warmer spots to raise their body temperature when they're sick. But for warm-blooded mammals like us, this heat comes from the inside out, turning your insides into a punishing environment for invaders.

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