How to Sweat Out a Fever (and Other Seemingly Bright Ideas)

Do you feel that sweating too much is a bad sign of a fever coming up to ruin your weekend? Well, how would you like it if I told you that sweating out a fever may be the best thing to your paracetamol, ibuprofen and Tylenol?

The best cure when dealing with a fever is to get rest – lots of it. The body has a built-in healing system that, if given the chance, will try to repair and fix itself. You can only do so much by taking medicine to treat the symptoms… and sometimes, taking too many medicine or too much of a medicine is not always ideal.

Having a fever really sucks. But having a fever with you doing nothing about it takes a toll on the body and may allow the fever to last longer than expected. And in this busy world, being sick and missing work is a burden we don’t really need.

Hence, we go to sweating.

When you have a fever, it indicates that your body is fighting off an infection – sort of like a war of the worlds taking place inside your body. It’s a by-product of the action that’s taking place inside your body. Unfortunately, a fever means an uncomfortable couple of days – you feel tired, irritable and sticky (possibly due to the sweat). You would still want the body to fight off the infection but not feel the effects of a fever.

Sweating it out is a good way to help your efforts to recover from a fever quickly. It brings out toxins that are obviously unwanted in the body, making it easier for your white cells to eliminate the intruding virus or bacteria and prevent further harm from spreading throughout the entire body.

To boot, here are some ways to work out a sweat:

• Taking a warm bath will definitely make you sweat. Set the water to as warm as you can take it, but to make you feel less dehydrated, lukewarm water will do.
• Warm liquids are a great way to bring out the perspiration. Hot tea and hot soup are two of the most popular hot/warm liquids you will always find on a feverish person’s menu.
• When you have hyperhidrosis (or excessive, spontaneous sweating), you are advised not to take garlic. But this antiviral and antibiotic herb is the perfect agent to help your fever fight off that threatening infection. (If you’re worried about the smell, then consider having odor-free garlic capsules and tablets at your disposal.) The spices ginger and cayenne – when included in soups – are also capable of bringing out the sweat.
• Speaking of sweat, don a sweater. The thick piece of clothing will eventually make you sweat, even if you don’t want to.
• Do you have a heater at home? Then turn it up. But never go above 75 degrees… unless you want to have a heat stroke or a serious issue of dehydration.

If you’re sweating out a fever, you are losing a lot of liquids (water) that your body actually needs. Don’t forget to drink lots and lots of water and electrolyte drinks to keep your electrolytes balanced and in tip-top shape. Pretty soon, you’ll be back to your normal, hard-working self.