When it comes to infections, mild fever may be better than medicines: Study

It may be better to let a mild fever run its course rather than reaching for medicines, suggests a new animal study which found that slight temperature could help clear infections faster.

The study, published in the journal Immunology and Inflammation, shows that a mild fever helped fish clear their bodies of infection rapidly, controlled inflammation and repaired tissue damage.

"We let nature do what nature does, and in this case it was very much a positive thing, said immunologist Daniel Barreda, lead author of the study, from the University of Alberta in Canada.

"Moderate fever is self-resolving, meaning that the body can both induce it and shut it down naturally without medication," Barreda explained.

The researchers noted that health advantages of natural fever to humans still have to be confirmed through research, but because the mechanisms driving and sustaining fever are shared among animals, it is reasonable to expect similar benefits are going to happen in humans.

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