Recently, there have been more patients with physical fever, which has a lot to do with winter weather, pathogens, physical fitness, etc.
Different patients have different degrees of fever and different pathologies, some have a low-grade fever, which can be carried for a day or two, some have a high fever, and the body temperature rises to more than 39 degrees, and some have repeated fever, and the body temperature fluctuates. Quite a few people choose medication to relieve their symptoms after they have a fever.
Some people wrap their bodies tightly with quilts after taking medicine, which is called "covering sweat", which is considered to be the method left by their ancestors; some people like to wrap ice cubes in towels and stick them to their foreheads and necks, which is called "cold compress", which is considered to be a trick of modern adjuvant therapy.
One to cover sweat or one to apply a cold compress, which one is better?
In fact, these two different ways represent two different treatment attitudes, sweat covering is a practice in China for thousands of years, and cold compress is a modern response in Europe and the United States.
An earlier record of covering sweat can be found in the adjuvant treatment method in the first party of the "Treatise on Typhoid Fever", "Guizhi Tang", which is called "to help the medicinal power, warm and cover the sweat for a while", that is, to help Guizhi Tang sweat by covering the quilt and prevent cold after sweating.
The origin of cold compresses is roughly in the early 19th century, before that, the Western way of dealing with fever was bloodletting and drinking rune water. Later, the microscope observed that the fever may be caused by germs, and in order to protect the brain from being invaded by germs, a cold compress cooling method was invented.
Although the cause of sweat and cold compress is fever, sweat covers the whole body except the head, and cold compress covers the head, which is only a part of the body.
Fever is the body's normal defense response to the invasion of pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, and the purpose is twofold:
1. As the body temperature rises, the reproduction and replication of pathogens in the body are inhibited, and the movement is like falling into a mud puddle, which becomes extremely inconvenient.
2. After the body temperature rises, the attack and reaction power of immune cells increase significantly, and the elimination of pathogens is more violent.
However, if the body temperature continues to be too high for too long, the pathogen will be killed, but it will also burn out the brain.
Fever, usually in 3 stages:
One is the body warming, at this time the patient feels cold, hands and feet are not warm, will not sweat, at this time if you use ice to cool down, the body will tremble, the correct way is to rub the hands and feet, let the temperature rise, do a good job of keeping warm.
The second is that the body surface is obviously high, at this time the body is not cold at all, the hands and feet are hot, and the immune system kills the virus into a peak. If the heat is hot, a cooling reducer must be used.
The third is the cooling stage, at this time, the body automatically adjusts, and it feels that it does not need too high a temperature to kill the pathogen, and it begins to cool down, the body surface is wet and sweaty, and it is okay to wipe the sweat, pay attention to keeping warm and preventing cold.
In the first stage, it is not wise to rush to reduce the fever, it will make the body's adjustment function disordered, at this time it is not appropriate to apply ice, but to keep warm, cover the quilt, or wear more clothes, the correct way is to "cover the sweat".
In the second stage, if the fever is uncomfortable, you can take antipyretics, and the standard of taking the medicine is to see if it is uncomfortable, not to look at the body temperature, because some people do not feel uncomfortable at 39 degrees, and some people feel uncomfortable at 38 degrees. At this time, it is suitable for cold compresses, and the correct way is to "dissipate heat".
In the third stage, the body temperature drops, the cold compress is no longer suitable, with sweating, it is not right to cover the quilt all the time, you should wipe the sweat in time, and then cover the quilt, the correct way is to wipe the sweat and keep warm.
Therefore, covering sweat and applying cold compresses to different situations at different stages of fever should be used correctly, rather than "one size fits all".
Covering sweat is to create a high-temperature environment for the body as soon as possible, speed up metabolism, so that pathogens can not survive, so it must cover the whole body; cold compress is to protect the mind under high temperature, to prevent the brain or important organs from being burned out, so it is necessary to apply cold compresses to the forehead, both sides of the neck, armpits, thighs and other positions.
The flexible combination of the two methods is the most suitable.