New research from the University of Alberta suggests that the disappearance of a mild fever may have health benefits, as untreated moderate fever helped fish clear infections quickly and control inflammation. Although the benefits of natural fever in humans remain to be confirmed, researchers believe that similar benefits are likely due to common fever mechanisms across the animal kingdom.
Research in fish suggests that delaying medication may be beneficial in humans.
According to new research from the University of Alberta, it may be better to let a mild fever run its course rather than jump in with medication.
The researchers found that leaving the fish untreated for a moderate fever helped them quickly clear the infection from their bodies, regulate inflammation and repair any damaged tissue. “We let nature do what nature does, and in this case it was very positive,” says immunologist Daniel Barreda, lead author of the study and joint professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. sciences.
A moderate fever will resolve on its own, meaning the body can both cause it and turn it off naturally without medication, Barreda explains. The health benefits of natural fever in humans still need to be confirmed by research, but researchers say that since the mechanisms that cause and maintain fever are shared among animals, it is reasonable to expect similar benefits to occur in humans.
This suggests that at the first sign of a mild fever, we shouldn’t turn to over-the-counter fever medicines, also known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. “They eliminate the discomfort of having a fever, but you’re also potentially giving away some of the benefits of that natural response.”
Using a custom swimming chamber to study how fish respond to fever, researchers Daniel Barreda, Amro Soliman, Farah Haddad and their team found that mild fever helped the fish quickly clear the body of infection, control inflammation and prevent tissue damage. Credit: University of Alberta
The research helps shed light on the mechanisms that drive the benefits of moderate fever, which Barreda says have been evolutionarily conserved across the animal kingdom for 550 million years. “Every animal tested has this biological response to infection.”
In the study, fish were given a bacterial infection and then their behavior was tracked and evaluated using[{” attribute=””>machine learning. Outward symptoms were similar to those seen in humans with fever, including immobility, fatigue, and malaise. These were then matched to important immune mechanisms inside the animals.
The research showed that natural fever offers an integrative response that not only activates defenses against infection, but also helps control it. The researchers found that fever helped to clear the fish of infection in about seven days — half the time it took for those animals not allowed to exert fever. Fever also helped to shut down inflammation and repair injured tissue.
“Our goal is to determine how to best take advantage of our medical advances while continuing to harness the benefits from natural mechanisms of immunity,” says Barreda.
Reference: “Fever integrates antimicrobial defences, inflammation control, and tissue repair in a cold-blooded vertebrate” by Farah Haddad, Amro M Soliman, Michael E Wong, Emilie H Albers, Shawna L Semple, Débora Torrealba, Ryan D Heimroth, Asif Nashiry, Keith B Tierney and Daniel R Barreda, 14 March 2023, eLife.
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.83644
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