Tis' the season for influenza and with it often comes fevers.  In decades past, it was common practice to limit fevers to within an acceptable range for fear that too high of fever may damage the body.  In those days, the fever was regarded as potentially dangerous.

The contemporary approach to dealing with fevers involves simply monitoring the fever and preventing dehydration because we now understand that fever is a symptom of an infection.  But how high of fever is too high?  104°F? 106°F?  Try this: heat water to 106°F, insert your finger and feel how warm it is.  Do you feel anything other than lukewarm water?

But what about febrile convulsions, which are muscle twitches usually accompanying high fevers?  Febrile convulsions are simply hypocalcemic tetany, which is muscle twitches due to low blood calcium levels.  Calcium is used in the muscle to relax muscle contractions.  So when blood calcium levels are low, muscles have a hard time properly relaxing, which leads to twitching or transient muscle contractions.  These twitches do not cause brain damage or lead to epileptic seizures.

Here is an excerpt¹ I'd like to share with you:

The biochemistry of inflammation and repair requires increased ionized calcium, because the ability of phagocytes to carry out their function is dependent on the available calcium in these cells.  Ionized calcium means free, uncombined calcium in the ionic form.  The ionic form means the element carries an electrical charge.

Although fever is a purposeful process to release stored calcium from bone reserves, it is better to supply calcium in the diet rather than withdrawing it from bones.  The pasteurization of milk alters the available free calcium.  In turn, pasteurized milk is not a good source of free calcium.

Calcium lactate is regarded as a good source of ionized calcium to utilize in overcoming and/or preventing calcium deficits and thus fever and febrile convulsions.

When I have a fever, I take 2 servings of calcium lactate once per hour until my fever breaks, which usually occurs within the first hour.  You're more likely to find products containing calcium carbonate since it is more readily available than calcium carbonate.  However, calcium carbonate is an inferior form of calcium to calcium lactate, albeit less expensive.  If you have trouble finding calcium lactate, please let me know and I'll either order some for you or help you find a place local to you that carries it.

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1. DeCava, J. "Symptoms of Disease or Symptoms of Repair?" Biochemical Research & Clinical Nutrition, Vol 1 No. 9, 1990