Can Anxiety Cause Fever?

For more information about Dr. Gluzman, visit her website, BlossomPediatrics.com.

Anxiety can come in many forms, at different times, and in different ways. Some people may experience anxiety over certain school work assignments, projects at work, or other responsibilities like those pertaining to family life or finances.

Every single one of us experiences anxiety every now and then, but for some people, it is a much bigger problem because that feeling of anxiety never really goes away. In these cases, an anxiety disorder may be diagnosed as the cause.

Regardless of the cause, you may experience certain symptoms associated with the feeling. Having a better understanding of what kind of symptoms may be included will allow you to differentiate between anxiety and other ailments.

Common Anxiety Symptoms

The specific symptoms of anxiety that you or your child experience will likely depend on the kind of anxiety you are dealing with.

That said, the most common symptoms of anxiety include:

• Nervousness or restlessness
• Tension
• Feelings of danger, panic, or dread
• Rapid heart rate
• Rapid breathing or shallow breathing
• Increase, heavy sweating
• Trembling
• Weakness
• Difficulty concentrating or thinking about anything other than what you are anxious about
• Insomnia and other sleep disturbances
• Digestive and gastrointestinal problems

These are all common symptoms of anxiety, but the combination of them that you experience will vary depending on the severity of the anxiety, and whether or not you have an anxiety disorder.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are another symptom of anxiety, and they can be pretty severe. A panic attack is a sudden onset of extreme fear or distress, and it often peaks within minutes.

You can recognize a panic attack if at least four of the following symptoms are present:

• Heart palpitations
• Sweating
• Trembling or shaking
• Shortness of breath or feeling smothered
• Choking sensation
• Chest pains or tightness
• Nausea or other gastrointestinal problems
• Feeling hot or cold
• Numbness or sensations of tingling
• Feeling detached from oneself, which may also be referred to as dissociation, depersonalization, or derealization
• Fear of dying while the panic attack is happening
  

While, evidently, there are plenty of different symptoms that can be caused by anxiety, a fever is not a direct symptom of being anxious or stressed.

There is, though, a link between stress and anxiety and falling ill, and it is important to explore this connection. Understanding why stress can result in illness can help you take certain steps to reduce stress and prevent the onset of a cold.

Can Stress and Anxiety Actually Make You Sick?

You read that right! Stress and anxiety actually can make it easier for you and your little ones to fall ill.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you are at risk of becoming sick every single time you experience stress or anxiety. Instead, your risk of illness increases largely if you or your children experience prolonged periods of stress, or if you experience stress very frequently.

Essentially, this happens because stress causes things like an increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, nausea, headaches, and dizziness, and prolonged exposure to stress can make these symptoms last longer which ultimately wears down your body’s defenses.

Chronic stress can even cause you to fall victim to the common cold because it prevents your body from regulating a healthy inflammatory response, and chronic inflammation has been linked to the development and progression of certain diseases.

So, yes, chronic or frequent stress makes it much more likely that you will catch a cold if you are exposed to cold-causing particles… and yes, that means your kids are the perfect target.

As parents, the founders of Genexa understand what it’s like to have kids who are constantly sick because of classmates, and if your children experience chronic or frequent stress, this may mean they fall ill even more often. They also know the struggle of searching for the right medicine for your kids and being unable to find one that isn’t full of artificial inactive ingredients.

Genexa is the first clean medicine brand, meaning their products have the active ingredients you need without the artificial inactive ingredients that are commonly found in most medications.

If your kid keeps coming down with a cold, Genexa’s Kids’ Cold Crush homeopathic remedy may be able to help you out.

Psychogenic Fevers

Although a fever is not a common symptom of anxiety and stress, stress can actually cause a fever to occur, specifically if stress is chronic.

Psychogenic fever is an extremely rare psychosomatic disease where some patients develop extremely high core body temperature (Tc) up to 41°C / 105.8°F when they are exposed to emotional events, whereas others show persistent low-grade high Tc ~38°C / 100.4°F during situations of chronic stress.

The mechanism for psychogenic fever is not yet fully understood. However, clinical case reports demonstrate that psychogenic fever is not attenuated or reduced by antipyretic drugs.

Lowering Fevers with Acetaminophen

If your child does come down with a fever, you should always try to figure out the cause so that no illness goes unaccounted for. A trip to your pediatrician will make the process of ruling things out a little easier.

Whatever the case may be, Genexa’s Kids’ Pain & Fever liquid acetaminophen may be able to help ease your child’s symptoms and reduce their fever, and it is a clean, trustworthy alternative to many drugstore brands of acetaminophen. Genexa works hard to bring you medicine that you can trust so you and your loved ones can get the relief you deserve.

Conclusion

A fever is not one of the common symptoms of anxiety, but in fact, prolonged anxiety and stress can actually cause a fever to occur by raising your body temperature. That said, if you or your children are experiencing a fever, it is important to rule out illness or infection first.

More research needs to be done on psychogenic fevers in order to figure out why exactly they happen… but we know that they do happen. Other symptoms of anxiety include trembling, sweating, fast heart rate, and restlessness or tension. Any anxiety that lasts longer than a few moments or days may be an indication of an anxiety disorder, and a trip to the doctor’s office will help you get a proper diagnosis.

The bottom line is that prolonged stress and anxiety can definitely take a toll on your overall health and wellbeing by tampering with your body’s inflammatory response, so doing your best to avoid stressors and find healthy ways of coping with stress can help keep you healthy.

If you do fall ill, though, Genexa’s clean medicine (same active ingredients you need, but without the artificial inactive ingredients you don’t), may be able to help soothe your symptoms. Stress is something that we all deal with at some point or another, and knowing how to recognize it, and how to recognize when it is becoming a bigger problem, will help you keep yourself and your loved ones feeling good.