Starve a cold? Feed a fever?

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Or is it the other way around?
And how do you do one if
you've got the other? What do
you do if you've got Anthrax?
Torture it? Ignore it? Call it
names???


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[HordeKing1]

Conventional folk wisdom is to "feed a cold and starve a fever."

Like most folk "wisdom" it's based on ignorance. People used to believe that there were two kinds of sickness - those caused by cold temperatures (colds) and those caused by high temperatures (fevers).

The belief was that feeding a cold would raise the interior temperature of the body to a more normal level. Converesely, adding fuel (food) to something already hot (a fever) would just raise body temperature.

Feeding or starving a cold or fever won't delay or speed it's resolution. No matter whether it's a cold or fever, your body needs plenty of fluids and rest. On the bright side most colds run their full course within a week.

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