Authored by Dr Harsh Sharma, Edited and Peer Reviewed by Dr. Pooja Sharma

Published January 29, 2015, Last updated October 21, 2016

Every month, I get dozens of cases of viral fever. During the change of season, the cases are far more numerous. In fact, viral fever cases might top the charts if I were to see all problems for which patients visit me. It has been consistently so over the last 2 decades. Therefore I have a lot of first hand experience treating viral fever. The profile of the patients varies. From an infant to an old woman to a young executive, all sorts of people get affected with this.

Fear of fever may be unfounded

When it comes to treating viral fever, I have seen that patients often fear fever. They think of it as a nuisance which is stopping them from their routine and other important works. It needs to be understood that the fever is just an outward expression of an inner problem. It is there because the body is trying to fight with an infection. The real problem is the infection. But patients tend to think of fever as the real problem.

One must realise that the normal defense mechanism of the body fights any infectious agent by raising the temperature of the body. This is because the infecting agents like viruses cannot survive in high temperatures. The fever helps the body to neutralise the virus. Normally, patients do not understand this aspect of the fever and its importance. On the contrary, they expect the medicine to bring down fever immediately.

How Allopathy treats Viral Fever and abuse of antibiotics

The normal practice is to use anti-pyretics like Paracetamol or Crocin to bring the temperature down artificially. This approach is advisable only when the fever in itself becomes a threat. This can happen in hyperpyrexia or when the temperature is more than 104 F. At that time, there may be dangers associated with high temperature itself. In the case of infants, this can happen at temperatures above 102F . Under other circumstances, this approach is counterproductive. When one takes Paracetamol, it reduces the body temperature within half an hour or so. As the effect of the Paracetamol reduces in about 6 hours, the fever comes back and one has to repeat the dosage. If the body temperature is brought down suddenly, as happens when one takes Paracetamol or Crocin, the virus gets more time to multiply and proliferate. This allows the infection to spread. This is counterproductive as then the fever will take more time to resolve. Also, antibiotics are routinely prescribed by doctors or taken over the counter by patients. This is quite dangerous. WHO and all major medical bodies in all countries have been routinely cautioning against the abuse of antibiotics. This routine abuse of antibiotics is making the bacteria more and more resistant. It also diminishes the immunity of the body.

How the immune system gets strengthened or weakened over time

The body’s immune system is in itself capable of dealing with infections. It is only when it is completely overwhelmed that some help needs to be provided. Otherwise it should be allowed to handle the infections on its own. There is an added benefit of this approach. Every time the immune system neutralises a bacteria or a virus, some antibodies remain in the memory of the body’s various defensive blood cells. This allows the immunity to fight off a similar infection the next time an infectious agent tries to invade. Thus it helps to strengthen the immunity. On the other hand, routine use of strong medicines does not allow the immunity to develop. The body becomes used to the aid of antibiotics and the bacteria become more and more resistant. Therefore one needs stronger and stronger antibiotics every time round.

How Homeopathy cures viral fever and strengthens natural immunity

Homeopathy treats viral fevers differently. Homeopathic medicines help the immunity to fight the viruses. They do not bring down the temperature of the body artificially. If you are taking a homeopathic medicine for viral fever, your fever will not come down within half an hour as happens after taking a paracetamol or any other anti-pyretic. It happens because the medicine does not intend to do so. Rather, it intends to fight the virus and annihilate it. Of course, this takes some time. This means that the fever may persist for a day or so. But once the infection is subdued, the body starts to reset its temperature to the original levels. It is because the body does not need to keep its temperature at higher levels anymore. Therefore, once the fever comes down, it does not come back. In my practice, I have seen that it takes just about 2 days on an average for viral fevers to be cured with the proper homeopathic medicines.

Advantages of Homeopathy in curing viral fever

The homeopathic approach has multiple advantages. First and foremost, it leads to strengthening the immunity of the body. This is in stark contrast to the antibiotic approach which leaves the natural defense mechanisms of the body weakened. The antibodies produced by the body’s immunity live in the memory of the immune system forever. Anytime a similar virus tries to invade the body, the antibodies spring into action immediately and do not allow the virus to proliferate and spread. So it helps the body to fight further infections. The second advantage is that there are no remnant after effects of the fever. It is often seen that patients tend to have prolonged weakness after a course of antibiotics. Some report loss of appetite. At times, the taste of the mouth remains bad for days. Weakness is another thing that remains for a long period of time after taking antibiotics. None of these things happens when you take Homeopathy. Once the fever is cured, one feels perfectly fine. You can immediately start your routine work. There is no weakness afterwards. The taste of the mouth also remains fresh as ever. Your appetite is also as good as ever.

Last but not the least, you are not contributing to routine abuse of antibiotics. This abuse of antibiotics is becoming a threat for the medical community as well as the general population. Once the present generation of antibiotics becomes useless, there is no new pipeline to refresh them. Therefore, it is much wiser and healthier to take Homeopathy for your viral fever.