Cameron Staten - Illness

In relation to Dr. Sistrunk's illness, I plan to do a blog on how fevers are caused, its treatments, and the various illnesses associated with getting a fever. A fever is a higher-than-normal body temperature (98.7 degrees) that can cause waves of chills or exhaustion usually occuring from infection or inflammation; although its causes can vary from drugs, heat exposure, poisons, cancer, injuries to the brain, or disease to the homonal or glandular system.  With this, rarely does an adult have "just a fever", it is usually accompanied by symptoms that help medical doctor's indicate what fever-causing illness is present in the individual.

The human body's temperature is regulated by a component in the brain called hypothalamus, which is essentially a thermostat for the body that maintains normal body temperature through heating and cooling mechanism such as shivering and sweating.  When pyrogens, fever-causing substances, enter our body from an outside source it triggers the hypothalamus to increase our body temperature's set point causing our body to shiver in an attempt to heat up to the new body temperature cause by the pyrogens.  Pyrogens include: viruses, fungi, bacteria, drugs, and toxins.

A body temperature of 100-101 degrees is consider a low-level fever, while a temperature of 103-104 are high-level fevers, and lastly a body temperature of 104-107 is a dangerous high-level fever.  The different levels of fevers help clinicians indicate the severity of the fever, while  the frequency of fevers help show which type of fever it is.  Prolonged fevers are fevers lasting longer than two weeks; a constant fever is continuous and usually low-level; a chronic fever last longer than 4 days; an intermittent fever fluctuates between normal body temperature and fever level for 1-3 days; and remittent fevers that come and go over a span of longer than 3 days.  

There are many variables to consider when having a fever and medical assistance is key in finding the right treatment for the illness one has.  In conclusion get better Dr. Sistrunk, hope to see you next week.