chills
Synonyms in a broader sense
- Febris undularis
- Muscle tremors
English: chills, shivers, shivering, shivering attack
definition
Chills are not an illness in and of themselves, but can be an accompanying symptom of many other illnesses. This symptom is defined as a feeling of coldness associated with involuntary muscle tremors.
The muscles contract again and again at a very rapid rate and then relax again without the person being able to do anything about it. The chills usually affect the large muscles, i.e. thigh muscles and back muscles, and the masticatory muscles are also involved in the process relatively regularly. Such an attack usually lasts several minutes, with the chills getting stronger and weaker at intervals. Since this phenomenon of chills means a lot of effort for the body, one is often so exhausted after a chills attack that one falls straight into deep sleep. It can happen that a flare-up practically goes straight to sleep.
Chills look almost exactly like when someone starts shivering from extreme cold to protect the body from hypothermia. By contracting (Contract) of the Musculature heat is generated. When tension and Relaxation Alternating as quickly as in the case of chills is a very effective way to get your body temperature back up quickly. The normal core temperature is around 37 ° C. A healthy person is normally able to maintain this temperature relatively constant through their metabolic processes and muscle activity.
There are transmitters in the human body that ensure that the “set point” for the body temperature is shifted upwards, so to speak. The body suddenly “thinks” that it has to increase its temperature to 39 or 40 ° C, so it tries to produce heat by shaking muscles. At the same time, the metabolism is also changed and the blood flow increased in order to achieve the new target value.
causes
Chills can be caused by a variety of diseases. In most cases, however, chills occur in the context of febrile infectious diseases (see fever). So the most common cause of chills is likely a common cold or the flu.
Illnesses that are also often accompanied by chills are pneumonia, scarlet fever, blood and fungal poisoning, roseErysipelas), Tetanus, typhoid, inflammation of the renal pelvis, inflammation of the epididymis or prostate inflammation.
Read more on the topic: Superinfection
However, chills are also a symptom of various tropical diseases that rarely occur in Germany. So if you develop chills after traveling to tropical countries such as South America or Africa, you should urgently see a doctor. This will then try to rule out diseases such as malaria, anthrax, smallpox, yellow fever or plague.
Another disease that is very rare, but which should also be considered if a patient complains of chills and none of the more likely possibilities can be confirmed as the cause, is acute glaucoma (i.e. an acutely high intraocular pressure).
Excessive exposure to direct sunlight can result in heat stroke or sunstroke. Although these phenomena usually only last a very short time, they often show chills as an accompanying symptom.
Chills in children
Just like adults, children can if you have a fever react with chills. The most common cause is an infection. However, children experience such infections much more frequently than adults and react very quickly with a rise in temperature. As a result, there is chills quite common in children to observe. It is not possible to recommend when a child should see a pediatrician or receive an antipyretic because of chills. Rather, you should make this decision dependent on the level and duration of the fever. If the temperature is slightly elevated, no fever-lowering measures are required. If the temperature rises above 39 ° C, consultation with the pediatrician antipyretic agents (for example Paracetamol) or fever-lowering measures such as calf compresses (except directly in the case of chills) and adequate fluid intake are taken. If the fever persists for more than a day or if there is no response to medication, a pediatrician should be seen. This also applies if the child gets or has additional symptoms such as a rash or diarrhea Febrile seizure is observed. Fever is often more difficult to assess in younger children. For children under three months of age, it makes sense to see a doctor at temperatures above 38 ° C. Young infants can have infections without developing a fever. Therefore, parents should always watch out for changes in skin color, rash, or drinking habits.
diagnosis
First of all, if you have chills, the doctor will take a detailed medical history. This means that the patient is asked in detail about his symptom. For example, the doctor probably wants to know how long the chills it is already clear whether there are any other complaints and whether the person affected has other diseases. In addition, he usually asks whether a trip to a tropical country has recently taken place in order to know whether he also has to consider diseases that are actually unusual in Germany.
A physical examination will then take place after the survey. As part of this examination, the doctor looks to see whether he can find any obvious sources of inflammation on the body, and he also hears them lung and feel the Lymph nodes (in many inflammatory diseases, the lymph nodes are swollen). After that, the suspicion of a certain cause for the chills has usually been confirmed to the point that more specific examinations can follow. Since the most common cause of chills is bacterial infectious diseases, most of the time the doctor needs to draw blood. This blood is then sent to a laboratory for examination, where a blood culture is created, in which the exact pathogen is determined.
In some cases it makes more sense to take a smear, for example from inflamed tonsils (Tonsils) as part of a scarlet fever, so that a culture can then also be made.
Depending on the doctor's suspicion, other examinations may also be necessary. Examples here are bronchoscopy (Lungoscopy), one X-ray of the chest, a urine test, a Ultrasound recording of the kidneys or a measurement of the Intraocular pressure to call.
Symptoms
The chills are a symptom in and of themselves, so you can't really say that it causes other symptoms itself. However, the symptom is almost always found alongside the chills feverresulting from the development of the disease (see above).
Differential diagnoses
It can also happen that a person suffers from chills, but initially no cause can be found. Then one should also think of other conditions that can lead to similar symptoms. These include, for example, a Hyperthyroidism (Hyperthyroidism), mental states of excitement that can have very different triggers, or withdrawal symptoms that occur after discontinuing addictive substances such as alcohol, nicotine or Painkillers can arise.
therapy
Treatment for chills varies depending on the underlying condition. When the chills by a simple cold or flu is conditional and accompanied by fever occurs, no doctor is usually consulted and the person concerned can treat himself.
Most of the time, even simple home remedies such as hot baths, warming teas, cold calf compresses or the so-called sweating cure (the fever should be "sweated out", the patient is kept warm by constantly covering with lots of blankets) alleviate the symptoms.
If a doctor is consulted and he was able to identify a certain pathogen, he will decide, depending on the disease, whether it makes sense to use Antibiotics to treat or not.
If a disease is likely to heal itself over time without further complications, antibiotics should not be given if possible to prevent increased resistance to the antibiotic used. In the case of tropical infectious diseases in particular, however, it is usually necessary to administer antibiotics, as these can often be severe.
If the chills are an accompanying symptom of an underlying disease, the primary focus must of course be on getting this disease under control, which will also make the chills disappear secondarily. This applies to glaucoma, for example.
Should the chills be the result of one heatstroke or one Sunstroke then it is imperative that the body be cooled as quickly as possible. This can be done with the help of cold towels, leg wraps, or baths. It may also be necessary to stabilize the circulatory system to prevent the affected person from collapsing. You should also ensure that you are hydrated, and ideally the drink should be particularly rich in minerals so that the increased sweating The resulting loss of fluid and electrolyte can be compensated for.
Drug treatment should really only take place in very severe cases and then usually takes place with preparations that have a positive effect on fever and pain, such as the Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).
Furthermore, fever can also be lowered through homeopathy. Read everything about this in our topic Homeopathy for fever.
Home remedies for chills
Chills associated with a cold are often just a symptom of the rising fever. Basically, the Combating fever most importantly. Some home remedies have proven effects. The muscle twitching in the case of chills helps to reach the higher target temperature with a fever. This can be supported by adding heat to the body from outside. The point is to "sweat out" the fever, so to speak (Sweat cure). Best practices include a warm bath and absolute bed rest under possibly several blankets. Warming up from within can also help. Hot teas, for example from linden blossom or elderberry, or a warm broth are a frequently chosen method. Lots to drink but has another advantage: it prevents the body from drying out (dehydration), which often happens with a fever.
Is the chills the Result of heat stroke or sunstroke, help cooling measures. In any case, further sun exposure should be avoided. It is best not to be outside or at least in the shade, preferably in one sitting positionso that the upper body and head are elevated. Cold, damp cloths on the forehead or neck can help, as can calf compresses. You should also drink a lot here!
Calf wrap
Leg wraps are a very old home remedy that the Cooling the body serves. Therefore, it is often used to lower fever. If the wraps remain on the body for about 10 minutes, specific heat can be extracted. What is important here is that if you have chills and fever at the same time, no calf compresses should be done. Chills are said to give the body warmth. With a calf wrap, the heat generated would be withdrawn from the body immediately. Therefore, calf compresses are especially helpful in the event of a fever when the body is sweating. This means that before putting on the calf compress you should feel whether your hands and feet are cold despite the increased temperature. If this is not the case, two towels are soaked in cold water (16-20 ° C) and wrapped around both calves. The ankles remain free. Two dry towels are placed over the top to catch any excess water. If you have an arterial circulation disease in the legs, you should avoid using leg wraps.
Duration
The duration of chills can vary widely, depending on the type of underlying disease.
Chills are common with a cold or flu when the fever rises in front. Then it usually comes to Flare-ups that last a few minutes and then flatten off again. Chills can persist all the time of the underlying illness. Mostly, however, it is found at the beginning of the flu and less so when the infection has already healed. If the chills persist for a long time and are accompanied by a very high fever, a doctor should be consulted.
chills if you have heat stroke usually lasts for a short time and should depend on the severity of the heat stroke subside after a day.
At a tropical disease Chills and the course of the fever can be very different. If there is a possibility of tropical disease, a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible.
prophylaxis
It is hardly possible to specifically target the emergence of chills to prevent. As mentioned above, the most common chills are due to a cold or flu, which is accompanied by a fever.
If you consider that the average adult suffers from a cold about two to five times a year, then you can calculate that chills can occur correspondingly frequently.
As most colds are caused by a weakened immune system triggered, you can generally take care to strengthen your immune system or not to expose yourself to excessively stressful situations. Cold and stress weaken the defense; a healthy one nutrition, lots of sleep and sufficient exercise have a positive effect on our immune system. The vast majority of colds are pathogen-related, i.e. they are caused either by bacteria or viruses.
You can protect yourself against both of these by taking hygiene measures and by staying away from those who are already sick as much as possible, as they are potentially contagious. The infection occurs here, for example, through to cough or sneezing. You can also get through many pathogens Vaccinations prevent.
Summary
In conclusion, it can be said that the chills ast always simply the symptom of one cold and therefore does not usually have to worry a person particularly concerned. He is the by-product of fever and in this context a meaningful defense reaction of the body against various bacterial or viral pathogens. The name actually describes what happens to the body when there is chills: In the context of febrile illnesses, the setpoint for the body temperature is increased so that the body generates heat.
It does this effectively with the help of regular muscle contractions. Nevertheless, the person concerned shivers because the body wrongly thinks that its current temperature is too low. At the latest when the fever subsides, the chills will also go away. The "diagnosis" and therapy are usually carried out by the patient himself, because a sweat cure is often enough to get the chills to prevent.
However, if the symptom really persists for a long time, you should consider consulting a doctor in order to rule out more serious underlying illnesses, especially if the chills and fever occurred after a trip to the tropics.
