New research suggests that untreated moderate fever could have beneficial effects on the body. Scientists found that untreated fever helped fish to clear their bodies of infection rapidly, controlled inflammation, and repaired damaged tissue. Immunologist Daniel Barreda, lead author of the study, explains that the mechanisms driving and sustaining fever are shared among animals, meaning that similar benefits are likely to happen in humans. This suggests that reaching for over-the-counter fever medications at the first signs of a mild temperature may not be beneficial. The study sheds light on the mechanisms that contribute to the benefits of moderate fever, which has been evolutionarily conserved across the animal kingdom for 550 million years.
