What is fever and inflamation?

How does the body see inflammation and fever? Dr. Roz helped me to put the big picture into words. The congestion and redness around a wound is a sign that there is more blood flow, oxygen and nutrients coming in for fight and repair...at the same time, because of the increase in flow, there is local swelling and because of the increased metabolic activity there is increase in temperature, both of which excite pain-sensitive nerve ending, which cannot discriminate whether it is for a good cause or a bad cause, transmitting the information of "pain" to the brain, and pain = bad to all of us but the masochists....hence the desire to diminish those effects.

The same phenomenon applies inside the body, with the extra problem that swelling can be dangerous in confined spaces (brain...), increased temperature also modifies the function of adjacent organs and systems and there is an accumulation of debris and toxins that can impair the function of other local organs while waiting to be eliminated...so here we have a balance to find between helping normal and healthy processes, preventing them to become "exaggerated" and supporting all systems so that normality is restored as fast as possible.

Somehow, and I do not (yet?) have a (proper) explanation how this happens, well indicated homeopathic remedies have that ability to control all those functions without doing any harm...herbs do that too but when you examine their indications and uses, you quickly realise that they do that "homeopathically" even though phytochemistry has nice explanations for their actions. Allopathic treatment simply either lowers or drops the natural physiological reactions, or increases the threshold by which we interpret the sensations as harmful: anti-inflammatories will lower the inflammation, central painkillers like opiates will allow for more tolerance (I feel the pain but I do not care).

That is where clinical judgment comes in: there will be times when you absolutely need to lower a fever no matter how, because too high too long will denature enzymes everywhere in the body, leading to a shutdown of organs and system...you just need to know when to use what in an appropriate manner.

Joe.

A comment by Dr. Roz from the homeopathic discussion group Minutus.com

Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD
"The greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind"