Sickness Can Be Good for You

General Biological Science

EDS1022

Section 3

Sickness can be Good for You

I am not a fan of being sick and I am quite sure no one is a fan of being sick. I do not like to take medicine, but depending on how sick I am, I will take some over the counter medicine. For a runny nose, cough or sore throat I usually do not take any medicine, but I will drink orange juice for a couple of days just to get the vitamin C flowing. If I do not start to feel better after day three, that is when I will buy some over the counter medicine.

According to the article cough, diarrhea and fever are not in themselves diseases, but they are defenses that have evolved to protect us when needed. Coughing helps clear bacteria from the lungs, and from what I gather on fever, is that helps fight infections. Now the article does not address if a running nose is good or bad. I feel that a runny nose can be both good and bad. A runny nose is good, because it helps clear your body from infectious mucus, and it keeps your nose from being too dry inside. On the other hand, it is bad because you can wipe your nose so much until it sore, and it leads to other problems such as a sore throat, earache and cough. I would say diarrhea is helpful in getting rid of bacteria and infection as well, because when you eat something that upsets your stomach; one of two things will happen. One, you will either have diarrhea from it, or two you will have to vomit.

The cost of these defenses are worth it, because once our body has had an encounter with these defense, they know how to work together against other ailments. The cough rids the lungs of harmful bacteria, fever fights off infections, diarrhea also rids the body of harmful infections, and a runny nose helps clear out infectious mucus.