![]() On one hand, food ultimately provides energy to your body, and some foods even contain compounds that may help eliminate pathogens. To eat or not to eat is a choice that affects your body’s fight against infection. Is there anything you can do to reduce this cost? Where will this extra energy come from? What should you do to avoid additional infections or injuries that would increase the immune system’s energy requirements even more?įever is a critical part of the immune response to some infections, but the energy cost of raising your temperature is particularly high. This presents a series of problems that your brain and body must solve to fight against infection most effectively. The human immune system is a complex set of mechanisms that help you suppress and eliminate organisms – such as bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms – that cause infection.Īctivating the immune system, however, costs your body a lot of energy. Your body sets priorities when fighting germs ![]() My colleagues and I propose that all these aspects of being sick are features of an emotion that we call “lassitude.” And it’s an important part of how human beings work to recover from illness. I’m an anthropologist interested in how illness and infection have shaped human evolution. But as it turns out, these changes may actually be part of how you fight off infection. Health care providers often treat these symptoms as little more than annoying side effects of having an infectious disease. Animal behaviorists and neuroimmunologists use the term sickness behavior to describe the observable behavior changes that occur during illness. In medical terminology, the symptom of malaise encompasses some of the feelings that come with being ill. ![]() The fact that illness comes with a distinct set of psychological and behavioral features is not a new discovery. You feel fatigued, maybe a little depressed, less hungry than usual, more easily nauseated and perhaps more sensitive to pain and cold.
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