Homeopathy
There’s no one single remedy for fever in homeopathy. Like always with homeopathy, you need to understand the unique way a person has the fever. Did it come on all of a sudden? Was it after the person was exposed to a cold wind? Do they desire cool drinks or warm? All of these little details help select the remedy that best supports the individual experiencing the fever.
Homeopathy works by matching the frequency of the person with the frequency of the substance the remedy is made from. I think of it like tuning an instrument. If you aren’t ready to nerd out on learning homeopathy for your personal use, finding a practitioner to help navigate the intricacies of selecting remedies is the way to go. It used to be only medical doctors that practiced homeopathy in the US and that’s still the way it is in most European countries. We have an idea of how it works but let’s just remember how little we really understand in how we practice medicine (look up the method of action for aspirin. oh wait, you can’t because we don’t know…). For things like homeopathy, the clinical evidence is more than enough to show how beautifully this medicine can support us in health. Fevers and acute illness are absolutely no exception.
Here are some examples of common homeopathic remedies used with fever just so you get an idea of when some remedies are used over others.
Belladonna: Sudden onset of a high fever. The face is hot but the hands are feet are cool. The person is usually flushed with heat and may have night terrors, dilated pupils and are thirst-less.
Arsenicum: The person is cold with burning pains that are better with heat. They pretty much can’t been too warm. They desire small sips of warm liquids often or are thirst-less. They are generally restless and a little (or very) anxious.
Aconite: Sudden onset of high fever with one cheek red, the other pale. This one often comes after exposure to a cold, dry wind and their pupils are more constricted.
Hydrotherapy
When it comes to addressing a fever, it’s best to come up with a plan that both you and your healthcare provider feel comfortable with. The most effective fevers are right around 101-102 degrees F. One of my absolute favorite ways to support an effective fever (and lower fevers that start to feel a little too high) is with hydrotherapy. These are the guidelines I use.
If there is no fever in the case of an infection, a warm bath can help support warming the core to better fight the virus/bacteria.
For temperatures between 98.6-99.5 degrees: magic sock treatment. Check out my IGTV on how to I do magic socks.
For temperatures between 99.6 up to 104 degrees: Neptune’s Girdle. Wring out a thing bath or hand towel in cold water. Fold in half so it’s two layers thick and wrap around torso covering chest to hip bones. Tightly wrap a dry wool blanket around the cold wet bowl and wear this wrap until the body warms it up. This usually takes 10-20 minutes.
For temperatures over 104 degrees: A tepid bath (around 99 degrees F) can be drawn. The person should sit in the bath just until shivering starts.
These are old-school fever management methods that have proven effective time and time again. Clemence ended up with a fever over 105 degrees F and within a few minutes in a tepid bath and a well selected homeopathic remedy (talking about this tomorrow), it had dropped to 103 degrees F. That felt a little more reasonable and allowed her to be quite a bit more comfortable while her body kept fighting the infection.
Fasting
Did you know the digestive system basically shuts down around 99.5-degrees F? That is because as the core temperature rises, fighting infection and addressing inflammation becomes a higher priority. This is actually the way things go when the body encounters any form of stress, digestion is one of the first things to go.
That means the old saying “starve a fever” is actually pretty spot on. Keeping the diet simple and easily digestible prevents maldigestion and toxicity that comes from food sitting in the digestive tract. The exception is in pregnancy, breastfeeding and other conditions where fasting would not be appropriate. So what are some of the best foods during fever? Bone broth is numero uno. Long cooked rice in the form of congee too. Bieler’s broth is an excellent form of vegetable soup (recipe is easily found with a google search) full of minerals from zucchini, celery, string beans and parsley that are cooked and blended for easy assimilation. Herbal teas, Pu-erh and black tea, fresh juice, whole fruit popsicles and plenty of filtered water at whatever temperature sounds the best. Stewed and pureed fruits are also a great option here. And for breastfeeding kiddos, breastmilk is often they only form of nourishment and hydration they will accept and as taxing as it can feel as the maker of all that nourishment, it’s really the best thing they could be getting. Literally tailor-made for exactly the kind of illness they are dealing with.
All that being said, there’s no reason to force food during a fever (especially in the first few days). The biggest priority is preventing dehydration with plenty of liquids. Hunger will come back when the body is once again ready to break down and assimilate food.
Benefits of Getting a Fever
Chances are, you were taught to reduce fevers, like I was. Becoming a naturopath forced a paradigm shift (many, actually) around how I approach fevers but nothing has put that to the test quite like watching my own kiddo venture into uncertainty of a really high fever this last week. That sure brought out the mama bear in me! Even still, trusting the body has never led me astray and I came out of the experience with even more confidence in just how freaking ah-mazing the human body is when we support its healing potential.
One of our greatest defenses against infection is the ability to increase our core temperature. In doing so, enzymatic reactions increase, immune cells proliferate, and the environment in which the bacteria or virus thrives becomes a bit less inviting. This is especially important before the immune system is mature and ripe with all the antibodies necessary for more complex immune responses, like when you’re a child.
It’s for all these reasons that understanding and managing fever is important rather than automatically moving towards the acetaminophen as soon as a temperature is registered. By reducing fever, especially with medications, the illness can actually be prolonged because the body’s defenses against infection haven’t been allowed to carry out the response that was necessary in order to manage the infection properly. There’s always exceptions to the rule, which is why having a health care provider that understands the benefits of fever and how to manage it properly is so important.
Fever is also an excellent way for the body to detoxify through a ramped up metabolism, fasting and whatever discharges (sweating, diarrhea, vomiting, mucous producing, etc.) that comes along with the illness. This is one of the reasons I get a little worried when someone tells me they never get sick because I wonder how they’re handling their waste products (where are they going?) when they aren’t getting sick at least annually. It’s actually really common for people experiencing chronic illness to not get sick that often so it’s definitely a goal to bring that about at some point in treatment.
I’m going to spend this week talking more about fever. There’s even a spiritual side of fever. Of course there is! Stay tunes and in the meantime, what’s your favorite first foods after coming out of being sick with a fever? Homemade chicken soup, white rice with butter and applesauce for me!
