Recent comments in /f/askscience

JohnnyJordaan t1_j95ej4n wrote

Reply to comment by diamondpredator in Why are fevers cyclical? by Key-Marionberry-9854

It doesn't outright kill individual pathogens, but it does combine the effects of making it harder for them to survive (so letting the population die out) and increased production and activation of immune cells. But that doesn't mean it's a better environment for them than normal body temperature, as of course the system is designed to handle 99% of the infections in that condition. Fever really is the fallback scenario where all bets are off until they fix the issue, causing all the other effects we call 'being sick'.

16

Mercerskye t1_j956q5z wrote

Reply to comment by light24bulbs in Why are fevers cyclical? by Key-Marionberry-9854

Starving to death is arguably more damaging than a fever, with the odd occurrence of infections that prompt a fever high enough to be lethal.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijeb/2015/179791/

Closest link I can find talking about calorie restriction vs inflammatory responses.

It makes a lot of sense though. We practically have nothing left to adapt to, at least not on a major level. Our last big changes were at a point where food wasn't a daily guarantee, but getting some kind of injury or infection was pretty likely.

Our ancestors that could fight off an infection long enough to get to the next meal, or at least survive long enough to reproduce are, imho, the better candidates for passing genes compared to those that just kept trying to "burn the infection out."

1000yrs ago, just hanging around spending all your fuel for what amounts to no forward momentum in the survival game was probably a fast ticket out of the gene pool.

0

EsUnTiro t1_j954zww wrote

Reply to comment by Interesting-Month-56 in Was reading something related to Rock Salt mining. In places like the Himalayas where rock salt mining is done in cold temperatures, a lot of miners report burns. Why is it so that salt burns in a colder surroundings? Would it be the same reason why the salt ice challenge was so dangerous? by vvdmoneymuttornot

> wet skin can be really dangerous

This is such an interesting point, I’m going to go down all kinds of Wikipedia rabbit holes now.

4