Fever isn’t an illness. It’s the body’s attempt to fight illness. So when we treat fever with antipyretics, like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen, we only handcuff an important part of our immune response. Although it might seem counterintuitive, several studies have now shown that antipyretics increase the severity of infections. The time has come to get over our fear of fever.Much has been learned about the importance of fever from studies in animals, which can be divided into two groups:…
