October 2025

Immune Resilience

• Ecological Immunity
• Snot – Your Immune System Superpower
• Rethinking Fever Beyond Suppressants
• Immune Resilience – Practical Tips

“Being alive involves getting sick.”

~ Jim McDonald

We are a culture on the go; we don’t have time for our bodies, not when we are sick and not when we are healthy. When you or your child gets sick, it is a disturbance to productivity, or might even feel like a failure, or as if you did not do something right. However, illness might be an opportunity to learn more about your body and immune system. 

Rethinking Fever Beyond Suppressants

If you cool water, it can turn into ice, whereas warming it will cause it to dissipate into gas. Kneading the dough will warm and help it rise; baking will transform it into bread. 

Our body’s temperature is crucial for the optimal function of our organs and systems. At the same time, it plays a vital role in supporting our inner ecology, creating a welcoming environment for the beneficial bacteria that reside in and on our bodies.

What is fever?

Fever is a rise in the body’s temperature that usually occurs when the organism experiences a crisis or needs to rise to a challenge. It can be triggered by an exciting event such as a birthday or a long trip, a developmental milestone such as teething, a rapid weather change, or a vaccine reaction. The body’s warmth forces are called upon to help find a new balance in the face of change, either in the external conditions or within the organism. 

Many parents report a change in their child after recovering from a disease accompanied by fever. It might be that a new skill was acquired, a new challenge was met, or a growth spurt occurred. Like bread, fever allows the soul to “knead” the physical body to bring more balance, growth, and individuation into the developmental process.

Our reaction to disease and fever is very subjective. Some people might react to a fever by feeling lethargic, while others feel irritable and restless. If you assess disease by only the objective marker, such as a lab test or the number on the thermostat, you might choose the wrong strategies for caring for the sick person.

Fever & The Immune System

Every time you get sick and get better, you train your immune system and increase your resilience. Being patient with your body and allowing it to do the work instead of trying to solve the problem for the body will boost your immune system in the long run. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the body as an ecology, where differences in PH and temperature affect the types of biome residents. Fever is your body creating an environment that is unwelcome to pathogens.

Fever is often considered a disease, but fever, like cough, inflammation, and congestion, is an immune response. You want to think of fever as your body attempting to protect itself, instead of a disease you want to fight or suppress.

Your body’s baseline temperature is unique to you. Fever is an elevation of your body temperature. To know if you have a fever, you want to know what your average individual body temperature is (not after physical exertion or after lying in bed) 

The Role of Fever in Fighting Infections:

When a pathogen enters your body, a white blood cell in the mucus sends a message to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus regulates the body’s temperature. When it gets a message from the immune system that a pathogen has invaded the system, it will say to itself; Oh, there is a problem and dial up the body’s temperature. 

The body’s response is to feel cold because the hypothalamus tells the body that an average body temperature is 101°F or 102°F. That is why you shiver in the early stages of fever as the body tries to generate more heat.

The influenza virus dies at 100-101°F without any white blood cells touching it. The virus dies of heat exhaustion.

To increase its temperature, the body closes the skin’s pores so heat does not escape the body. That is part of the sensation on your skin; when you have chills, your pores are closing. 

In an ideal process:

• Pathogens come in –  a message is sent to the hypothalamus.
• The hypothalamus dial-up body temperature by increasing circulation and energy production and by closing the pores. 
• The virus dies 
• The pores open, you sweat, the fever breaks, and the toxic body of the virus is eliminated through the sweat. 

In real life, it does not happen like that. You have a vital force working to keep you healthy, but pathogens also have a vital force that works to keep them healthy. 

What is happening is more like that:

• Pathogens come in – a message is sent to the hypothalamus.
• The hypothalamus dial-up body temperature, increasing circulation and energy production, and closing the skin’s pores.
• The virus is still trying to reproduce. 
• The body feels too hot, so it will lower the temperature by opening the pores.
• Then it closes them up again, so the body alternates between opening and closing the pores, and by doing so, it manages the body’s temperature. 

Shutting down the skin’s pores completely will overheat and dry the body. On the other hand,  when all your pores are totally open, all the heat you generate escapes the body. 

After a while, the virus dies (not before you sneeze its offspring into other people) – the body opens the pores, the fever breaks, which results in sweating.

Conventional approach to fever

Conventional medicine and a holistic approach to healing share the same understanding of how the fever process works in the body. However, while traditional medicine is looking to shut down the thermostat in the hypothalamus, a holistic approach will support the body’s attempt to manage its temperature by opening and closing the skin’s pores. 

In conventional medicine, when the temperature gets high, people take NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs). NSAID medicines lower the temperature by dialing down the thermostat, not by ventilation. By doing so, they interfere with the body’s ability to fight off the virus. Moreover, your white blood cells work more effectively at elevated temperatures than at your average body temperature.

When you take drugs that reduce fever, you interfere with the immune process and inhibit one of the ways the body uses to fight pathogens. Suppressing fever in a person with flu will lead to more shedding of the virus and more sick people.

Holistic approach to fever

Understanding the body’s intention and how we can support it instead of suppressing it means that you widen your perspective and look beyond the fever. 

When you are sick and spike a fever, you don’t necessarily need to take herbs or any remedies; sometimes, all you need is to wait and trust the body to do its thing.

If you are fixed on the thermometer, you check the thermometer to assess how someone is doing. Instead, try observing how the person is doing by looking at their behavior. For some, a low-grade temperature feels miserable; for others, a high temperature doesn’t much affect their function.

What to consider?

When you or your loved ones spike a fever, consider:

Most people lose their appetite when they are sick. The body allocates all resources to the immune system, so digestion is not a priority.

Drinking, however, is crucial. You sweat, lose fluids, and salts when you have a fever. The mythical chicken soup is more than a myth, but a true medicine.

Some people feel malaise when sick with a fever, but others become fidgety. Rest and sleep are essential for healing. If the ill person feels irritable and restless, they might need medicine to reduce the fever.

Diaphoretic herbs

Diaphoretic herbs increase circulation in the center of the body and push the heat to the periphery while opening the skin’s pores. Through their action, diaphoretic herbs reduce fever.

Elder flowers

Elder flowers are a good example of a diaphoretic herb. A hot infusion of Elder flowers will have a relaxant diaphoretic action. It will relax constriction in the peripheral blood vessels, promote circulation from the center of the body to the periphery, open the pores, and facilitate sweating and detoxification. 

A hot infusion of the flowers works as a decongestant to disperse mucus stagnation, specifically in the sinuses. Elder is an astringent that can be beneficial for a runny nose. Elder flowers are slightly demulcent (not as much as licorice and marshmallow) and have a slight expectorant action. They have a soothing effect on irritated tissues. 

The fever reduction is not dramatic; instead it is a gentle lowering by one or two degrees that can help the ill person get the much needed rest.

Confidence in treating yourself and your loved ones when they are sick and spike a fever can only come with experience. Fear and anxiety will not support healing. If you are unsure, always turn to your medical doctor.