Fever effect | Hacker News Reader

Fever effect

embraceasd.com

98 pointsshawndumas31 comments

Rhonda Patrick has an information-dense talk on sulforaphane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4YVJ4aRfg

Rhonda is a rare gem of critical thinking in the wild west of nutrition science. I cannont suggest her enough. I do wish she would make more layman-accessable content, but am loathe to ever ask anyone to dumb themselves down. Very dense in information and theory, but assumes an understanding of some basic biology to follow. I think her appearances on the Rogan podcast are the easiest to parse for most.

I've often noticed that I'm weirdly productive with a low level illness. It's as though my focus is improved .

Think I know what you mean. Sitting at a computer is more appealing when a bit sick, but more likely to want to get out and about if feeling well.

Similar to having a single drink or two. It dulls the brain just enough to remove internal distracting thoughts, but not enough to dull all higher thought functions.

Sleep deprivation (I’m an insomniac) has a similar effect if I have a lot of grindy work to do there is a point between tired and exhausted where I can hammer through it.

It’s a but like the balmer peak though.

Anecdotally this has not been my experience; I am just as likely to procrastinate while also being marginally cognitively impaired.

Maybe it's due to histamine.

Seems like the virus has a greater chance of spreading when its host is behaving more social.

That's a freaky (sorry, but it fits) idea. I mean, it does seem that rabies increases the likelihood that its hosts will bite others. And respiratory viruses cause sneezing. So it's not impossible that selection pressure could drive viruses to modify behavior of hosts in other ways. Something like black-box decompiling.

Or you are more likely to get help if you are a bit more thankful than normally

That's a very good counterpoint. Human species did evolve to be social "pack" creatures already.

I have a probably TMI story about a case of food poisoning my wife and I had that was prefaced by us being especially frisky for a few hours — we even both said something to each other about how unusual it was. I’ve always wondered if there was a connection.

I see a possible multi-billion research program there.

I want to know more.

They say that ~50% of a lethal dose of just about anything will get you high.

Fevers are a response of the human immune system, and so are subject to human selection pressures.

But pathogens have a selective pressure to game the host immune system in spreading them further

Yep https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean...

I used to spend a lot of time on an alternative medicine forum whose primary goal was to provide support for parents of children with ASD and similar conditions. They primarily were focused on metal poisoning, but some kids were being treated for infection, such as PANDAS.

Perhaps some cases of ASD involve infection and fever helps suppress it a bit.

I belive this is caused by anti-inflammatory medication and not by the fever itself.

There is plenty of research linking brain fog with inflammation. I myself am far more social on ibuprofen than the default and I suggest you try this yourself; try taking 400-600mg ibuprofen even when not sick but "not feeling like yourself" and notice the effects.

EDIT: Reading the article further they tried to give sulforaphane to patients and they saw improvements. This compound is believed to have anti-inflammatory and neuro-protective effects ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5225737/ ).

Be cautious when taking ibuprofen regularly and/or in large doses, and be aware of potential side effects.

Ibuprofen can cause gastrointestinal problems (eg stomach ulcers), and has also been linked to reduced male fertility.

> has also been linked to reduced male fertility.

Short term while actively using it, or even long term after you stop using it?

Long term when used as a child, possibly negligable in adults, but likely was my understanding.

Here are a couple of the discussions on HN

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18787086

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16254760

Sure, it is not a long term solution and even short term you should never take it on an empty stomach. I was only suggesting it as a sort of test, if it lifts your mood or makes you more social you can start researching natural ways to get the same effect like eating brussel sprouts daily for the sulforaphane or taking it as a supplement. CBD could be helpful as well

Also female fertility.

Reading that link it seems sulforaphane has wonderful properties, but my geeking is limited to MCUs. Left wondering if the positive results are seen in humans, and if so whether ibuprofen is an effective sulforaphane analog?

As someone with both chronic brain fog and a chronic inflammatory condition, occasionally taking a nondrowsy H1 blocker like loratidine is hugely helpful. H2 blockers work even better, but then I basically can't digest anything so I have to avoid those.

I have a hypothesis that getting sick (and taking the necessary rest to heal) is beneficial to mental health. The current culture of taking a pill and plough on regardless might be a cause of these epidemic spread of depression, etc.

"Obviously making people purposely sick would be unethical"

What if it could save or improve their lives?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com