​Can Food Fix a Fever?

Most of the U.S. has been taught that a fever is a bad thing, and Greenville, NC is no exception. Fortunately, the erroneous practice of synthetically lowering a fever is starting to turn as people become more aware of what a fever is.  Many chiropractors and medical doctors have begun to educate their patients and communities that a fever actually is a biological process that is helpful in fighting infections and not something to be feared.  Reaching for the Tylenol to lower a fever is not a good idea because Tylenol does nothing to help support the body’s natural immune system. It actually is likely to hinder your ability to fight off an infection.

Fever is designed so that the muscles increase the temperature of the bones they are surrounding in an effort to leech ionized calcium from the bones.  The calcium is then used to activate white blood cells.  Hopefully, you see where this process is going concerning your immunity. This only happens when there isn’t enough calcium available. One of the main ingredients is in my “go to” whole food supplement cabinet I prescribe for people with fever… calcium lactate.

Calcium lactate is not the same as 99% of the calcium supplements available.

Most Calcium supplements are made of calcium carbonate which is the least bioavailable and requires approximately a dozen different biochemical process to be broken down to where it can be used. It also requires hydrochloric acid to be digested. If you, like most people with heartburn, are taking an antacid, which reduces the acidity the HCL in your stomach, with calcium added, you’re wasting your money. But I digress.

Fever is a beneficial process to help release needed calcium that is essential to phagocytes to carry out their immune supporting functions. However, it is better to supply this calcium in a bioavailable (whole food) form to support your immune system without the need for breaking off calcium from your bones. Providing this calcium via nutritional means will have the wonderful effect of reducing the fever, which is no longer necessary.

This is the key difference in chiropractic and medicine.

A medical doctor has been taught that there is a symptom, fever, and it must be treated. Once the fever is gone the patient is “cured”. A chiropractor understands that the fever is there for a reason.  Once the CAUSE of the fever is addressed the patient is better able to function the way they are designed.  This is clearly true in the case of a fever. The fever is not a problem but an indicator that there is an infection present and nutritional support is needed to help support that immune process of fighting that infection.

Chiropractor Dr. Bret Wickstrom is a structurally focused chiropractor who has a fully integrated office that is able to help analyze and address not only chiropractic related issue but nutritional ones as well. Call Corrective Chiropractic at (252) 758-7583 or fill out our form today to schedule a consultation today to see if structural chiropractic care, whole food nutritional therapy or both can help you.