Algemeen: Koorts: vriend of vijand? Koorts speelt een cruciale rol in ons immuunssyteem. Onderdrukken van koorts, vooral bij kinderen, lijkt schadelijk voor ons immuunsyteem. het is beter om koorts uit te laten razen.

Lees aub de waarschuwing voor dr. Robert Gorter en het Medisch Centrum Keulen. Dr. Robert Gorter is in opspraak geraakt in Duitsland en Egypte en ook wij distantiëren ons van dr. Robert Gorter. Klik hier of onder vragen voor uitvoerige uitleg waarom wij dr. Robert Gorter geen betrouwbare arts meer vinden.

27 oktober 2010: Bron: The Newscientist

Koorts: vriend of vijand? In The Newscientist schrijven Robert Matthews en Clare Wilson over de invloed van koorts en onderdrukken van koorts op ons immuunssyteem. Het lijkt vaak beter om de koorts uit te laten razen dan deze te onderdrukken met koortswerende middelen als paracetamol of ibuprofen bv. We zullen dit artikel proberen zo letterlijk mogelijk te vertalen, maar hebben daarvoor even tijd nodig. Klik hier en lees ook het artikel uit the American Scientist over de waarde van koorts en warmte: Hier de eerste alineas van het artikel uit The Newscientist:

High temperatures can help you fight infections – or make you much worse. Now doctors are learning when it's better to let a fever burn itself out

It is often the first sign that we're coming down with some bug: we feel groggy, tired - and hot. A thermometer or a hand to the forehead confirms that we have a fever, or as doctors call it, pyrexia.
One of the hallmarks of infectious illness, a fever is not just uncomfortable. In some cases it can trigger fits and perhaps even brain damage. The usual response is to bring down the temperature with antipyretic drugs, such as aspirin, paracetamol (aka acetaminophen) and ibuprofen.
It has long been acknowledged that such drugs could, in theory, be counterproductive - they do, after all, interfere with the body's natural response to infection. But these qualms have been set aside for a variety of reasons: the need to relieve discomfort; fears about brain damage; time-honoured practice; and, some would say, the urge to be doing something rather than nothing.
The upshot is that antipyretics are routinely used for any feverish illness, from the sickest of patients in intensive care to people using over-the-counter medicines at home. The standard advice for people with flu, for example, is to dose up with paracetamol. Parents of young children, who are especially prone to fevers, are well aware of the perils of inaction: febrile convulsions.
But now there's growing concern that these time-honoured approaches are at best misguided and at worst potentially life-threatening. New findings are starting to support a much older view of fever: that it is a key part of the body's disease-fighting strategy. The evidence is coming in from many sources, including insights into how the immune system battles infection, research into how bacteria respond to temperature and studies of critically ill patients. At the same time, the idea that antipyretics can prevent fits in children is looking increasingly shaky. It's not often that decades of clinical practice is overturned, but it looks like the game may be finally up for one of medicine's most basic precepts.
The idea that fever can be beneficial dates to the time of the Greek physician Hippocrates, 2400 years ago. Ironically, it was the emergence of modern medical science during the mid-19th century that led to fever being seen as harmful. The volte-face had its origins in a key concept of medicine: homeostasis. The idea was developed in the 1860s by the French physician Claude Bernard (pictured). It concerns the body's ability to maintain itself within the narrow range of conditions needed for health. Deviations from these ranges were deemed in need of correction. The most obvious deviation was fever - whose severity could be measured with impressive precision by a nifty new gadget: the small, mercury-filled clinical thermometer. Not surprisingly, doctors seized on new antipyretics like paracetamol and aspirin, which rapidly lowered soaring temperatures.

Notwithstanding a fashion in the early 20th century for "pyrotherapy" (see "Fever as cure"), fever has come to be seen as something that should be fought at all costs. Could this be a mistake? Klik hier om het hele artikel verder te lezen

koorts, paracetamol, auto-immuunziektes, ibuprofen