When you have a fever, should you use a cold towel or a hot towel on your forehead?

When we have a cold or fever, our family will prepare a towel for us to put on our forehead. But some people use hot towels, while others use cold towels. So when we have a fever, should we use a hot towel or a cold towel?

If you have a fever, if your body temperature is over 38.5 degrees, you need to take antipyretics (such as Motrin). If it is not over 38.5 degrees, you can use the following physical methods to reduce fever:

1. Apply a cold towel to the forehead, warm it up, soak it in cold water and apply it again. Using a cold water bag or ice pack is more effective than applying a cold towel to the forehead.

2. Take a warm bath or soak in a bath: Take off your clothes and rub your whole body with a warm (about 37°C) towel or soak in a bath. This will dilate the blood vessels in your skin and release body qi. In addition, when water vapor evaporates from the body surface, it will also absorb body heat. Take a bath for about 10 to 15 minutes each time, about once every 4 to 6 hours.

3. Warm alcohol bath: Alcohol bath: Mix 70% alcohol with 1/1 tap water, or 75% alcohol with 1/2 water, or 1/4 white wine with 1/4 water, and put them in a small bowl. Close the doors and windows when bathing, and use gauze or a soft small towel to dip the alcohol in the bowl, and wipe the palms, soles of the feet, armpits, inner upper arms, chest and thighs. The water temperature after dilution is about 37-40℃, and then wipe the limbs and back; if you wipe directly with alcohol, you will feel very cold, very uncomfortable, and even convulsions. You can repeat it a second time, and repeat it about three times, and the temperature inside and outside the body can drop rapidly. And it is not easy to reduce high fever if it exceeds 40℃.

4. Wipe with a cool towel: Use a slightly cool towel (about 25 degrees) to wipe your forehead and face.

5. Drink more water: It helps sweating. In addition, water has the function of regulating temperature, which can lower body temperature and replenish the water lost in the body.

6. Add or remove clothes appropriately: If your hands and feet are cold, it means that your body temperature may rise rapidly and you need to warm them up; if your limbs and hands and feet are warm and your whole body is sweating, it means that you need to dissipate the heat and you can wear fewer clothes.