Saturday, November 5, 2011

paradoxical primitive shiver

have you ever seen someone who was burning up with fever say they were freezing?  dig a little and see, this is a primitive reflex acting at the most central level of the nervous system, it cannot be simply paradoxical, it has the value of causing the infected host to find a warmer environment to cook the bugs just a bit more, outside their preferred range ...  throw a blanket on and turn up the heat! dont give anti-inflammatories unless you have a specific pathogen with a specific antibiotic - the body and the mind are coordinating seamlessly in your patient in an adaptive fashion to save the host from worse harm in a cold place!

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