Will a high fever damage the brain?

We often hear that high fever can damage the brain. In fact, this statement is not an exaggeration. Especially when a high fever occurs, it will cause many adverse effects on health. However, it does not mean that all high fevers may affect intelligence and cause encephalitis or meningitis. Generally, encephalitis and meningitis are mainly caused by some virus damage, which damages the intelligence or sensory function. However, no matter what causes the fever, you must pay attention to correct treatment.

1. Fever will not "burn the brain". The reason why parents immediately go crazy when the baby has a fever is nothing more than a traditional concept that a fever will damage the child's brain. A high fever itself will not cause "brain deterioration and intelligence decline". Such misunderstandings existed in the past because medical knowledge was not yet popularized and the causes behind high fever were not clearly distinguished. In fact, only diseases such as encephalitis and meningitis where the brain itself is damaged by viruses will harm intelligence or sensory functions, rather than fever making people stupid or deaf.

2. The temperature control center of infants and young children is not as stable as that of adults. Even a mild viral infection may cause a fever as high as 40°C. Parents only need to know how to deal with the fever. As for the diagnosis of the cause, it should be left to a professional doctor and there is no need to worry too much. According to statistics, no matter what the cause of the fever is, the body temperature rarely exceeds 41°C. If it exceeds this temperature, the possibility of suffering from bacterial meningitis or sepsis is relatively high, and you should be particularly vigilant.

3. As for the high temperature limit that brain cells can tolerate, it may have to reach 41.7°C before the cell proteins will deteriorate due to high temperature and cause irreversible damage. This extreme high temperature is rarely accompanied by disease. Clinically, the only high temperature that can be reached is an allergy to anesthesia, which causes a malignant fever.

4. Because fever itself will not harm children, whether it is necessary to reduce fever has long been controversial. Scholars who advocate that fever should not be reduced believe that fever is a normal immune response that helps white blood cells fight bacteria. Analyzing the pattern of fever can help diagnose the cause, while simply reducing fever can be misleading. However, most doctors and scholars support moderate fever reduction. Because fever increases metabolism and causes internal consumption, patients will suffer from headaches, fatigue, rapid heartbeat, and feel very uncomfortable. Infants and young children are prone to dehydration, and fever causes water evaporation, which is a vicious cycle. Infants and young children have a higher incidence of febrile convulsions. It is unnecessary to allow fever and cause harm.