How Fever Works

In this podcast, learn what causes a fever and what actually happens to the body when a fever occurs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Get smarter in sixty seconds with brain Stuff from how
stuffworks dot com Hi Marshall Brain. When your body temperature
rises because of an infection, it's called a fever. Fevers
are caused by chemicals called pyrogens flowing in the bloodstream.
Pyrogens make their way to the hypothalamus in your brain,

(00:20):
which is in charge of regulating your body temperature. When
pyrogens bind to certain receptors in the hypothalamus, your body
temperature rises. So where do the pyrogens come from? One
common pyrogen is called inner luken one or I L one.
I L one is produced by white blood cells called

(00:41):
macrophages when they come into contact with certain bacteria and viruses.
One purpose of a fever is thought to be to
raise the body's temperature enough to kill off certain bacteria
and viruses that are sensitive to temperature changes. One interesting
debate right now, therefore, is would you lower a fever. Aspirin,

(01:02):
for example, will reduce fever, But if the fever is
actually helping rid the body of infection, then lowering it
might not be such a good idea. On the other hand,
people sometimes die from fever. Right now, the general medical
consensus falls on the reduced the fever side of the coin.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast?

(01:24):
If so, please send me an email at podcast at
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