OT: Why does my temperature go up when I'm sick?

[Guest guest]

I thought this was interesting. Never knew that, " ...when the body is

hotter, levels of iron circulating in the blood system fall... " Wonder

if this, however remotely, has anything at all to do with why systemic

JRA patients, especially when their arthritis is active and they are

having fevers, tend to be anemic?

~Georgina

Why does my temperature go up when I'm sick?

San Diego Union-Tribune December 27, 2000

With few exceptions, an elevated temperature is evidence that your body

is responding to an infection. When the immune system becomes

activated, components of it produce a protein signal called IL-1, which

triggers the destruction of the infection and raises the body's

temperature.

There are three possible benefits to increasing the body's temperature.

First, it may be that a hotter body affects the reproductive ability of

invading microorganisms. Second, T cells (one of the immune system's

soldiers) work better at higher temperatures. And third, when the body

is hotter, levels of iron circulating in the blood system fall, reducing

a key ingredient needed by mircoorganisms to replicate.

Incidentally, many of the symptoms we feel when we're sick -- fever,

tiredness, aching joints, a lack of appritite -- are dut to IL-1 and its

related proteins, not the invading virus or bug. It's the body's way of

making you slow down while it speeds recovery.