'Feed A Cold, Starve A Fever'? Here's What Science Says

By Lindzi Wessel "Feed a cold, starve a fever" is an adage that has been around for centuries. Now a new study in mice finds that it might actually have some truth -- but it depends what exactly is the cause of your fever. Why it matters: Loss of appetite is common with sickness and Ruslan Medzhitov, an immunologist at Yale University, and his colleagues wanted to know why. Is it just a consequence of illness, or does it have some protective benefit we don't fully understand? The nitty gritty: Researchers infected mice with either a bacteria that causes food poisoning or a flu virus. All the mice began to eat less after falling ill, but some were force-fed food or given pure glucose. After 10 days all the bacteria-infected mice who had continued being fed had died, while more than half that had avoided food lived. But it was the opposite in those infected with the flu: More than 75 percent lived if they had been force-fed, while only about 10 percent lived if they hadn't. Food was protective against the virus, but detrimental to the bacterial infection. "To our complete surprise we found that force feeding was protective" in viral infections, Medzhitov said. Intrigued, the team conducted more experiments, and found that glucose, but not proteins or fats, was the dangerous component of foods during a bacterial infection. The study was published Thursday in the journal Cell. But keep in mind: The work was done in mice, not people. But a 2002 study in huma...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news