I am starting this thread so we can ask questions that we want to know about. It’s not a quiz thread. These are the questions that we have in our mind.
So I want to know that what is fever? What is the exact process that raises our body temperature in case of illness or infection?
Re: The Why thread.
The Why thread
Do we have to answer the previous question before asking another one ?
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The Why thread
Fever is one of the ways our immune system tries to combat infection.
Yes you can ask another question before the answer.
About fever, but how does the mechanism works
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Good question
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About fever, but how does the mechanism works
Going to take a shot at answering this. My thought process is usually all over the place...but let's hope I can make some sense.
Consider the hypothalamus as the ‘thermostat’ of the human body that regulates our core temperature and makes sure to keep it at a certain set-point temperature at all times. When and if the hypothalamic set point changes (through whatever means), it sends out signals to the rest of the body to increase heat production.
Pyrogens are one example of substances that can change the hypothalamic set point.
Pyrogens can be either exogenous or endogenous. An exogenous pyrogen example would be some sort of toxin produced by a microbe or bacteria that enters the human body. Once it enters the body the toxin proceeds to interact with the receptors on either macrophages or T-cells which in turn produce fever inducing cytokines. Cytokines are small proteins that regulate immune and inflammatory processes (among other things). Once these cytokines are produced they are released into the systemic circulation. Then these cytokines produce prostaglandins. The prostaglandins that are made in the rest of the body (excluding the brain) accounts for the aches and pains usually experienced when one is sick. The prostaglandins that are made in the brain interact with receptors on glial cells which produce a lot of cyclic AMP (cAMP- a neurotransmitter). It is thought that the rapid release of cAMP is responsible for the increase in hypothalamic set-point of the thermoregulatory center........which leads to what we call a fever.
Even in the absence of an bacterial/viral infection people still get fevers. This is because cytokines are also released during inflammation or any sort of trauma.
Very clear explanation Guac. Thanks a lot. It was so nicely explained that I was able to draw a systematic diagram on my pad to follow the whole procedure. Appreciate it.
Re: The Why thread.
The Why thread
Why is this thread title repeated?
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^ because it is a special thread opened by TLK 
J/K
That was a good question aaliyah.
Very clear answer lilly.
Next question please.
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The Why thread
I always wondered why things are called what they are? Like...why is white called white and not black?
This question has no answer. If white was called black, even then you had a similar question.
How did we figure out what to eat what not to eat, in plants and vegetable? There are so many plants that are poisonous in nature. How did we find out that this particular plant is dangerous for us to eat? Did we just follow animals and stared eating what we saw them eating, or did we lose people who died eating poisonous stuff to realize that we should but eat this or that?
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^Maybe it also has something to with our sense of smell...I am sure we must have smelled things before eating them...maybe something that did not smell appetizing..we kind of stayed away from....
Coz...I always smell food before I eat it :D
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The Why thread
When one gets flu , we always hear frm ppl it will end in 3 , 5 or 7 days , why it so ?
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nice guac!! i loved it!
in fact there are plants and flowers that smell really nice and look appetizing but are very dangerous to eat
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The Why thread
Tlk its actually the opp I think
We didn't pick and choose
Its availability and what our bodies were able to or learned to handle and process
All the way down to the cellular level
Things poisonous for us may not be for other species
But this is a random guess
Within mammals, it could not be very different. Rat poison is poison for rats, for you and me, for dogs, cats and I guess elephants too. If the biological systems were not the same amongst mammals, then medical testing on animals would be a useless effort
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True yes I dunno y I was thinking like humans and snakes rotfl