Taking Your Temperature

Taking your temperature is a really funny way to say it. If I take your temperature, it’s not as though I’ve now captured the temperature you previously had, so I’m now sick with whatever has previously ailed you.

I can even take my own temperature, but I do have to put forth some effort to acquire the information. Why should it work, though? Why does measuring your temperature tell you whether or not you’re sick (at least a lot of the time)?

It all starts when your immune system detects something that doesn’t have any real business inside your body—a pathogen. This could be a virus like the flu or covid, or it might be bacteria like food poisoning.

Your immune cells release something called pyrogens. These are complex molecules that operate as little text messages whenever one of those pathogens starts partying a little too hard in there. They signal the brain’s hypothalamus to turn the temperature up inside.

Side note: pyro = fire; gen = create. It’s tough to imagine a more appropriat…