"Feed a cold, starve a fever" is an adage or a wives' tale which attempts to instruct people how to deal with illness. The adage dates to the time of Hippocrates when fever was not well understood. His idea was the fever was the disease, and starving the sick person would starve the disease.
In 1574, John Withals published "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer" in a dictionary. The adage states that eating will help cure a cold; not eating will help cure a fever. In 2002 a small-scale study testing the accuracy of the adage concluded that different foods can provoke an immune system response in patients.
Going back to the time of Hippocrates, many people thought that fever was a disease in and of itself. [1] His treatment of patients with fever was said to be starvation. [2] The Greek physician has been credited with coming up with the idea, "Feed a cold and starve a fever". [3] Hippocrates thought that starving the fever was a way to starve the disease. He said "The more you feed a diseased body, the worse you make it." [4]
Some scholars believe that the interpretation of the adage is, "If you stuff a cold, you will have a fever to starve". Others interpret it literally. Nobody knows for certain where the phrase originated. [5] The first known publication of the adage was in John Withals's 1574 book, A shorte dictionarie most profitable for yong beginners. In the book Withals includes the phrase, "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer". [6] [7] [8]
In a 1942 paper published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, the "feed a cold, starve a fever" adage was determined to be justified according to medical knowledge. [5] [9]
In BBC Science Focus, an article discussed the positive effects of a ketogenic diet on illness. But they also state that there "may be a thread of scientific truth to the old adage 'feed a cold, starve a fever". [10] A 2002 study in Holland learned that eating activates an immune response which kills a cold virus, but fasting provokes an immune system response which attacks bacterial infections which are responsible for many fevers. [11]
A 2007 New York Times article concluded, "There is little scientific evidence behind the notion of starving a cold and feeding a fever, or vice versa." [12] A 2017 CNN article suggested that starving a fever is not a good idea. CNN quoted pediatric infectious disease expert Jon S. Abramson, as saying. "Feed a cold, feed a fever. Nurture your body, and never starve it". They also quoted Emory University internist Sharon Horesh Bergquist who agreed but also advised: "When you're sick, drink more than you think you need". [13]
When a person is sick or has infection in their body, white blood cells release cytokines to fight infection. The cytokines affect the hypothalamus part of the brain which may arrest hunger resulting in a loss of appetite. [14] In 2002, researchers in the Netherlands studied the issue by setting up small-scale tests which monitored consumption among participants. They discovered that consuming different food or liquid[ which? ] activates different immune cells. [15] In the study researchers determined that certain foods[ which? ] might be given to sick patients in order to stimulate the correct immune system response in the patient. [11] Some scientists have said the results of the Dutch study have little merit because it was small-scale, and the results have not been replicated. [12]
Ruslan Medzhitov, of the Yale School of Medicine, states that the lack of an appetite is a common condition during an illness. Medzhitov has discussed experiments on mice, where mice that were infected with Listeria bacteria died when they were made to eat. The animals that stopped eating naturally eventually recovered. Sugar (glucose) was determined to be detrimental: mice survived after being fed protein and fats but no glucose. Another study of mice infected with the flu virus showed that the infected mice survived when fed glucose. The flu-infected mice died when they were not given food. [16] [17]
Bergquist suggests that liquids are more important for recovery than eating. She said that if a cold or fever has altered a person's appetite they should not force feed; however, a sick body needs nutrition in order to assist the immune system. [18]
Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, or the formulation of humoral theory. The Hippocratic school of medicine revolutionized ancient Greek medicine, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields with which it had traditionally been associated, thus establishing medicine as a profession.
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
West Nile fever is an infection by the West Nile virus, which is typically spread by mosquitoes. In about 80% of infections people have few or no symptoms. About 20% of people develop a fever, headache, vomiting, or a rash. In less than 1% of people, encephalitis or meningitis occurs, with associated neck stiffness, confusion, or seizures. Recovery may take weeks to months. The risk of death among those in whom the nervous system is affected is about 10 percent.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin 3 to 14 days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin itching and skin rash. Recovery generally takes two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into a more severe dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.
Fever or pyrexia in humans is a body temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point in the hypothalamus. There is no single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature: sources use values ranging between 37.2 and 38.3 °C in humans. The increase in set point triggers increased muscle contractions and causes a feeling of cold or chills. This results in greater heat production and efforts to conserve heat. When the set point temperature returns to normal, a person feels hot, becomes flushed, and may begin to sweat. Rarely a fever may trigger a febrile seizure, with this being more common in young children. Fevers do not typically go higher than 41 to 42 °C.
The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exposure to the virus. These may include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, headache, and fever. People usually recover in seven to ten days, but some symptoms may last up to three weeks. Occasionally, those with other health problems may develop pneumonia.
Naegleriasis is an almost invariably fatal infection of the brain by the free-living unicellular eukaryote Naegleria fowleri. Symptoms are meningitis-like and include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, a stiff neck, confusion, hallucinations and seizures. Symptoms progress rapidly over around five days, and death usually results within one to two weeks of symptoms.
Vibrio vulnificus is a species of Gram-negative, motile, curved rod-shaped (vibrio), pathogenic bacteria of the genus Vibrio. Present in marine environments such as estuaries, brackish ponds, or coastal areas, V. vulnificus is related to V. cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. At least one strain of V. vulnificus is bioluminescent. Increasing seasonal ocean temperatures and low-salt marine environments like estuaries favor a greater concentration of Vibrio within filter-feeding shellfish; V. vulnificus infections in the Eastern United States have increased eightfold from 1988–2018.
Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria Leptospira that can infect humans, dogs, rodents and many other wild and domesticated animals. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild to severe. Weil's disease, the acute, severe form of leptospirosis, causes the infected individual to become jaundiced, develop kidney failure, and bleed. Bleeding from the lungs associated with leptospirosis is known as severe pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome.
In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a specific population or populated place when that infection is constantly present, or maintained at a baseline level, without extra infections being brought into the group as a result of travel or similar means. The term describes the distribution (spread) of an infectious disease among a group of people or within a populated area. An endemic disease always has a steady, predictable number of people getting sick, but that number can be high (hyperendemic) or low (hypoendemic), and the disease can be severe or mild. Also, a disease that is usually endemic can become epidemic.
Rickettsia rickettsii is a Gram-negative, intracellular, coccobacillus bacterium that was first discovered in 1902. R. rickettsii is the causative agent of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and is transferred to its host via a tick bite. It is one of the most pathogenic Rickettsia species and affects a large majority of the Western Hemisphere, most commonly the Americas.
Salmonellosis is a symptomatic infection caused by bacteria of the Salmonella type. It is the most common disease to be known as food poisoning, these are defined as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. In humans, the most common symptoms are diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. Symptoms typically occur between 12 hours and 36 hours after exposure, and last from two to seven days. Occasionally more significant disease can result in dehydration. The old, young, and others with a weakened immune system are more likely to develop severe disease. Specific types of Salmonella can result in typhoid fever or paratyphoid fever.
Viral pathogenesis is the study of the process and mechanisms by which viruses cause diseases in their target hosts, often at the cellular or molecular level. It is a specialized field of study in virology.
Transmission and infection of H5N1 from infected avian sources to humans has been a concern since the first documented case of human infection in 1997, due to the global spread of H5N1 that constitutes a pandemic threat.
Paratyphoid fever, also known simply as paratyphoid, is a bacterial infection caused by one of three types of Salmonella enterica. Symptoms usually begin 6–30 days after exposure and are the same as those of typhoid fever. Often, a gradual onset of a high fever occurs over several days. Weakness, loss of appetite, and headaches also commonly occur. Some people develop a skin rash with rose-colored spots. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Other people may carry the bacteria without being affected; however, they are still able to spread the disease to others. Typhoid and paratyphoid are of similar severity. Paratyphoid and typhoid fever are types of enteric fever.
Pyroptosis is a highly inflammatory form of lytic programmed cell death that occurs most frequently upon infection with intracellular pathogens and is likely to form part of the antimicrobial response. This process promotes the rapid clearance of various bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoan infections by removing intracellular replication niches and enhancing the host's defensive responses. Pyroptosis can take place in immune cells and is also reported to occur in keratinocytes and some epithelial cells.
Influenza-like illness (ILI), also known as flu-like syndrome or flu-like symptoms, is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms. These include fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss of appetite, body aches, nausea, and sneezing typically in connection with a sudden onset of illness. In most cases, the symptoms are caused by cytokines released by immune system activation, and are thus relatively non-specific.
Sickness behavior is a coordinated set of adaptive behavioral changes that develop in ill individuals during the course of an infection. They usually, but not always, accompany fever and aid survival. Such illness responses include lethargy, depression, anxiety, malaise, loss of appetite, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, reduction in grooming and failure to concentrate. Sickness behavior is a motivational state that reorganizes the organism's priorities to cope with infectious pathogens. It has been suggested as relevant to understanding depression, and some aspects of the suffering that occurs in cancer.
Akiko Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, commensal bacteria, COVID-19 and Long COVID.
Angela Lynn Rasmussen is an American virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.