How to Break a Fever: Natural Ways to Get Rid of a Fever Fast

To break a fever, rest, keep sipping water, herbal tea and warm broth, dress in one light layer in a comfortable room, and use a lukewarm sponge bath if the heat feels miserable. A fever is your immune system turning up the heat on purpose to fight an infection, and I look at it the way I look at any symptom, as a sign of what your body is fighting, so the steps that help most are the ones that support a body designed to heal.718

That's also why you don't need to drive the number all the way back to normal. The American Academy of Pediatrics' clinical report on fever calls it "a physiologic mechanism that has beneficial effects in fighting infection" and puts the goal of care on comfort rather than a normal reading.1 So the work of breaking a fever is helping your body through it comfortably while you keep an eye on the few signs that mean it needs medical care.

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You're most likely to get sick from late August all the way until March,3 and through those months a fever often rides along with a cold, the flu or another winter virus. The same simple care helps with each of them, and you probably have most of what you need in your kitchen right now.

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What is a fever?

Your normal temperature isn't one fixed number. The famous 98.6°F (37°C) comes from Carl Wunderlich, a 19th-century German physician, but when researchers took the oral temperatures of 148 healthy adults up to four times a day for 3 days, the average was 98.2°F (36.8°C), and the top of the normal range was 99.9°F (37.7°C).9 A study of more than 35,000 patients and 243,506 readings put the average lower still, at 97.9°F (36.6°C), with 95% falling between 96.3°F and 99.1°F (35.7°C and 37.3°C).10 Americans may even be running cooler over time: across three U.S. groups spanning 1860 to 2017, average body temperature fell about 0.03°C with each decade of birth.11

Your temperature follows the clock as well. In that study of 148 adults, it ran lowest around 6 a.m. and highest between 4 and 6 p.m., swinging about 0.9°F (0.5°C) over the day, and women ran slightly warmer than men.9 That daily swing is why the adult cutoff shifts with the time of day, and why it helps to take a temperature the same way, at about the same times, while you're sick.

When people talk about running a temperature, they mean a fever, and a fever is a different thing from overheating. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke happen when your body takes on more heat than it can release, so your core temperature climbs past the setting of your brain's thermostat instead of following it. A fever that comes with an infection may carry a survival benefit, and that kind of overheating doesn't.12

Why does your body make a fever?

Your brain has a thermostat, a small region called the hypothalamus, and a fever starts when your immune system turns it up. Immune cells that meet a virus or bacteria release messengers called pyrogens, and those messengers trigger a compound called prostaglandin E2 in the hypothalamus, which raises the temperature your body aims for.12 Until you reach that new setting, your old temperature feels too cold, so you shiver, get goose bumps and narrow the blood vessels in your skin to make and hold heat.13 That's why the chills come first, and it's why a cold bath or ice can backfire: they make you shiver, which raises your core temperature.7

The way I explain it, the heat itself is one of your immune system's tools. Fever-range temperatures stimulate interferon, the signaling proteins that slow a virus's spread and activate natural killer cells and T cells; they improve how your immune cells recognize invaders; and they make neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes more active.14 A review in Nature Reviews Immunology traced the fever response back more than 600 million years, in warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals alike, and described how its heat stirs both your fast-acting first responders and your slower, targeted defenses, while the fever messenger IL-6 helps move immune cells into the lymph nodes where they organize their defense.8 In a classic animal study, desert iguanas infected with bacteria survived significantly more often when they were kept warm enough to run a fever,16 which fits how I see a fever, as your body doing exactly what it was built to do.14

The number on the thermometer tends to worry people more than it needs to. In a survey of 340 parents and caregivers, 91% believed a fever could cause harm, and 85% said they would wake a sleeping child to give a fever reducer.17 Yet brain damage from a fever generally won't occur unless it climbs past 107.6°F (42°C), and fevers from infection seldom go above 105°F (40.6°C) unless someone is overdressed or trapped somewhere hot.7

Traditional Chinese medicine has its own way of describing all this. A cold or flu can bring cold into your body, leaving you chilled and achy, or it can bring heat, and heat is where a fever shows up, often with redness and inflammation.3 Heat calls for cooling herbs and foods, and for warm, light, cooked meals that are easy for your body to digest while it's busy fighting.318 You'll find both in the remedies below.

How to break a fever

Treat a fever when someone is uncomfortable, vomiting, dehydrated or not sleeping well, and if the fever is mild with no other problems, fluids and rest are the treatment.7 The steps below make that rest easier and help heat leave your body, so you feel better while your immune system keeps working.

How to reduce or lower a fever without forcing it down

Start with what you're wearing and the room you're in, because your body releases heat through your skin. Dress in one layer of light clothing, sleep under one light blanket and keep the room comfortable, neither too hot nor too cool, and if the room is hot or stuffy, a fan can help move the air.72 Resist the urge to bundle up, even with the chills, because extra blankets and clothes hold in the heat your body is trying to let go.7 A review of 12 trials in 986 children reached the same place, concluding that fluids and unwrapping should be encouraged and that home care should support the body's own response to a fever.19

Can you sweat out a fever?

There's no need to try, and trying can work against you. Piling on layers, turning up the heat or sitting somewhere hot to force a sweat traps the heat your body is working to release, while one light layer lets it go.7 Let sweating come on its own, keep sipping fluids to replace what you lose, and change into dry clothes and sheets when you need to.

How to get rid of fever chills

Chills mean your body is still heating up toward its new set point,12 so a little warmth helps for now. Wrap up in a light blanket while you shiver, then take it off once the shivering passes and you start to feel warm.

How to get rid of a fever naturally: 8 natural fever reducers

These eight natural fever reducers start with what your body asks for first, rest and fluids, and each card shows you how to use it, along with the trials or the long traditional use behind it.

Fever-friendly recipes

When I'm sick, I make chicken bone broth soup with chicken, carrots, celery, onion and garlic, grate in ginger, and add thyme, oregano, sage and a big tablespoon of yellow miso.3 Here's that soup, along with simple drinks and soft foods for the days around a fever. The amounts are a starting point, so adjust them to your pot and your taste.

If you have time, make the base from scratch with our chicken bone broth recipe, or try our chicken vegetable soup recipe for a version without the miso. On days when even soup feels like too much, a mug of plain broth or a bowl of miso soup is light, warm and easy to sip.

A little raw local honey or manuka honey stirred into ginger or thyme tea is how I like to sweeten it.3 For a cooling cup, swap the ginger for a handful of fresh peppermint leaves.

Ice pops count as fluids,7 and a homemade one made from two hydrating, cooling foods is an easy way to get a reluctant child to take in more.23

Baked pears suit a body running hot, and they're soft and gentle when your appetite is just coming back.3

Rice is an easy grain for your body when you're not feeling well, and simmering it in broth gives you fluids and warmth in one bowl.3

What causes a fever?

A fever tells you your body is fighting something, so the most useful question is what's behind it. That's the root-cause way I look at every symptom, and with a fever, the answer is usually a mild infection you can name, such as a cold, the flu, a sore throat or an ear infection.27 Our guides to natural cold remedies and sore throat remedies cover the most familiar of those.

Some fevers come from other places. Your temperature can rise from physical activity, heavy clothing or a hot, humid room. A child may run a low-grade fever for 1 or 2 days after some immunizations, and teething can raise a baby's temperature slightly, though usually not above 100°F (37.8°C).7 Autoimmune disease and other inflammatory disorders can cause fevers, a fever can be the first sign of some cancers, and blood clots and some medicines, including some antibiotics, antihistamines and seizure medicines, can raise your temperature too.7 Some fevers last for days or weeks with no clear cause, known as a fever of unknown origin.7 When a fever lingers or keeps coming back like that, it's pointing you toward a cause worth tracking down.

Fever in babies and children

A fever in your child can be frightening, especially the first one, but it's your child's immune system doing its job. Dress your child in one light layer, since overdressing alone can raise a child's temperature, and keep the fluids coming.2 Babies should drink breast milk or formula, not fruit juice, and for young children, go easy on fruit juice and apple juice and skip sports drinks, offering water, ice pops and soup instead.72

Warm food helps children the same way it helps you. When I was sick as a kid, my mom gave me chicken noodle soup and ginger ale, which is close to the ancient Chinese remedy for a sick child: ginger tea and chicken bone broth soup, mostly broth with a little vegetable and a little chicken.18 For a child old enough to eat soup, it's a gentle way to keep warmth and fluids going. If a barking cough comes with the fever, our guide to croup walks you through what's happening and how to ease it.

Some young children have a seizure with a fever, which is frightening to watch. Febrile seizures affect 2% to 5% of children between 6 months and 5 years old,32 and most are over quickly; they don't mean your child has epilepsy, and they don't cause lasting harm.2 A seizure with a fever is one of the emergency signs listed in the safety section below.

When to call the doctor about a fever

For emergencies, conventional care is the right tool, and there it's nothing short of miraculous, so here's when a fever needs it.

Babies. Call your baby's doctor right away if a baby younger than 3 months has a rectal temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, and call for a baby 3 to 12 months old with a fever of 102.2°F (39°C) or higher.23334 In a baby 3 months or younger, contact the doctor before giving any medicine.7

Call your doctor for any of these:

• A fever that lasts more than 24 to 48 hours in a child 2 or younger, or more than 48 to 72 hours in an older child or adult
• A temperature of 105°F (40.6°C) or higher, unless it comes down readily with treatment and the person is comfortable
• An adult fever that stays at or keeps rising above 103°F (39.4°C)
• A child whose temperature rises above 104°F (40°C) repeatedly
• Fevers that come and go for a week or more
• A new or unexplained rash or bruises
• Pain with urination
• Recent travel abroad
• A weakened immune system or a serious long-term illness
• A child who still acts sick once the fever comes down
• Signs of dehydration, such as no tears when crying or no urine in 8 hours7233

Pregnancy. If you're pregnant and running a fever, call your prenatal provider the same day.

Fever reducers. If you or your child use one, give it as your doctor or the label directs, dosed by weight for children and one product at a time. In a study of 1,397 children's clinic records, about 1 in 4 (24.12%) had received more than 90 mg of acetaminophen per kilogram of body weight a day, which the researchers counted as an overdose.35 Don't give ibuprofen to a baby 6 months or younger.7

Aspirin. Never give aspirin to a child or teenager with a fever. It's tied to Reye's syndrome, a rare but serious illness that harms the brain and liver, usually after the flu or chickenpox, and U.S. cases fell sharply once that link became known.3637

Honey. Never give honey to a baby under 12 months; it can carry the bacteria that cause infant botulism.38

Herbs and oils. Use prepared elderberry products only, since raw elderberries, leaves and stems are toxic, and if you have an autoimmune disease or take an immune-suppressing medicine, check with your doctor before taking elderberry. Mix peppermint oil into a carrier oil before it touches skin, and keep it away from the face of a child under 6.5

The bottom line

How to break a fever: frequently asked questions

References

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2. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. When your baby or infant has a fever. U.S. National Library of Medicine; accessed November 11, 2026.
3. Axe J. How to Prevent & Heal Cold & Flu Naturally (Foods, Supplements, & Herbs for Rapid Recovery). The Dr. Josh Axe Show, 2024. At 4:15 (cold and flu season, late August to March), 20:28 (heat entering the body with fever; honeysuckle; quoted, lightly edited), 20:43 and 21:24 (honeysuckle, mint or peppermint, mulberry leaf, andrographis as cooling herbs), 25:52 (rest; quoted, lightly edited), 26:02 (fluids and herbal teas; quoted, lightly edited), 26:41 (broth or soup at every meal; quoted, lightly edited), 28:11 (his immune soup), 29:49 (baked pears for heat in the body), 30:26 (rice when you're not feeling well) and 33:26 (herbal tea with local or manuka honey).
4. Meremikwu M, Oyo-Ita A. Physical methods for treating fever in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;2003(2):CD004264. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004264. PMID:12804512
5. Axe J. Top 50 Healing Herbs & Essential Oils: A Field Guide to God's Pharmacy. DrAxe.com protocol; 2026. p. 11 (elderberry: "one of the few immune herbs with solid trials behind it"; cooling; "one of the easiest herbs to get kids to take"; 1 Tbsp 4 times daily for 3 to 5 days at first symptoms; prepared products only), peppermint (cooling), Essential oil safety and dilution (dilute in a carrier oil; peppermint away from the face of children under 6) and Safety & Interactions (autoimmune disease and immune-suppressing medicines).
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9. Mackowiak PA, Wasserman SS, Levine MM. A critical appraisal of 98.6 degrees F, the upper limit of the normal body temperature, and other legacies of Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich. JAMA. 1992;268(12):1578-80. PMID:1302471
10. Obermeyer Z, Samra JK, Mullainathan S. Individual differences in normal body temperature: longitudinal big data analysis of patient records. BMJ. 2017;359:j5468. doi:10.1136/bmj.j5468. PMID:29237616
11. Protsiv M, Ley C, Lankester J, Hastie T, Parsonnet J. Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the industrial revolution. Elife. 2020;9:e49555. doi:10.7554/eLife.49555. PMID:31908267
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13. Holgersson J, Ceric A, Sethi N, Nielsen N, Jakobsen JC. Fever therapy in febrile adults: systematic review with meta-analyses and trial sequential analyses. BMJ. 2022;378:e069620. doi:10.1136/bmj-2021-069620. PMID:35820685
14. Axe J, Cole W. Heal Your Cells. Avery; 2026. ISBN 9798217181353. Fever's immune benefits table (stimulates interferon; enhances antigen presentation; mobilizes white blood cells), in "Beyond Biohacking—The Way Nature Intended," p. 241.
15. Imeri L, Opp MR. How (and why) the immune system makes us sleep. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2009;10(3):199-210. doi:10.1038/nrn2576. PMID:19209176
16. Kluger MJ, Ringler DH, Anver MR. Fever and survival. Science. 1975;188(4184):166-8. PMID:1114347
17. Crocetti M, Moghbeli N, Serwint J. Fever phobia revisited: have parental misconceptions about fever changed in 20 years? Pediatrics. 2001;107(6):1241-6. doi:10.1542/peds.107.6.1241. PMID:11389237
18. Axe J. How to Boost Your Immune System Naturally | Q&A with Dr. Josh Axe. The Dr. Josh Axe Show, 2023. At 04:12 (white and light yellow foods while sick), 04:51 (cooked vegetables while fighting something off) and 16:57 (his mother's soup; ginger tea and chicken bone broth for a sick child).
19. Watts R, Robertson J. Non-pharmacological Management of Fever in Otherwise Healthy Children. JBI Libr Syst Rev. 2012;10(28):1634-1687. doi:10.11124/01938924-201210280-00001. PMID:27820389
20. Zakay-Rones Z, Thom E, Wollan T, Wadstein J. Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza A and B virus infections. J Int Med Res. 2004;32(2):132-40. doi:10.1177/147323000403200205. PMID:15080016
21. Prather AA, Janicki-Deverts D, Hall MH, Cohen S. Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Sleep. 2015;38(9):1353-9. doi:10.5665/sleep.4968. PMID:26118561
22. Guppy MP, Mickan SM, Del Mar CB, Thorning S, Rack A. Advising patients to increase fluid intake for treating acute respiratory infections. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011;2011(2):CD004419. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004419.pub3. PMID:21328268
23. Axe J. How to Hydrate Your Brain, Boost Energy & End Brain Fog. The Dr. Josh Axe Show, 2025 (hydrating foods; watermelon, coconut and bananas as cooling foods).
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25. Rennard BO, Ertl RF, Gossman GL, Robbins RA, Rennard SI. Chicken soup inhibits neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro. Chest. 2000;118(4):1150-7. doi:10.1378/chest.118.4.1150. PMID:11035691
26. Thomas S, Vijaykumar C, Naik R, Moses PD, Antonisamy B. Comparative effectiveness of tepid sponging and antipyretic drug versus only antipyretic drug in the management of fever among children: a randomized controlled trial. Indian Pediatr. 2009;46(2):133-6. PMID:19242030
27. Wieland LS, Piechotta V, Feinberg T, Ludeman E, Hutton B, Kanji S, et al. Elderberry for prevention and treatment of viral respiratory illnesses: a systematic review. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2021;21(1):112. doi:10.1186/s12906-021-03283-5. PMID:33827515
28. Zakay-Rones Z, Varsano N, Zlotnik M, Manor O, Regev L, Schlesinger M, et al. Inhibition of several strains of influenza virus in vitro and reduction of symptoms by an elderberry extract (Sambucus nigra L.) during an outbreak of influenza B Panama. J Altern Complement Med. 1995;1(4):361-9. doi:10.1089/acm.1995.1.361. PMID:9395631
29. Macknin M, Wolski K, Negrey J, Mace S. Elderberry Extract Outpatient Influenza Treatment for Emergency Room Patients Ages 5 and Above: a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. J Gen Intern Med. 2020;35(11):3271-3277. doi:10.1007/s11606-020-06170-w. PMID:32929634
30. Vighi G, Marcucci F, Sensi L, Di Cara G, Frati F. Allergy and the gastrointestinal system. Clin Exp Immunol. 2008;153 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):3-6. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2249.2008.03713.x. PMID:18721321
31. Zhao Y, Dong BR, Hao Q. Probiotics for preventing acute upper respiratory tract infections. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022;8(8):CD006895. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006895.pub4. PMID:36001877
32. Steering Committee on Quality Improvement and Management, Subcommittee on Febrile Seizures American Academy of Pediatrics. Febrile seizures: clinical practice guideline for the long-term management of the child with simple febrile seizures. Pediatrics. 2008;121(6):1281-6. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-0939. PMID:18519501
33. American Academy of Pediatrics. Fever: When to Call the Pediatrician. HealthyChildren.org; accessed November 11, 2026.
34. Pantell RH, Roberts KB, Adams WG, Dreyer BP, Kuppermann N, O'Leary ST, et al. Evaluation and Management of Well-Appearing Febrile Infants 8 to 60 Days Old. Pediatrics. 2021;148(2):e2021052228. doi:10.1542/peds.2021-052228. PMID:34281996
35. Lubrano R, Paoli S, Bonci M, Di Ruzza L, Cecchetti C, Falsaperla R, et al. Acetaminophen administration in pediatric age: an observational prospective cross-sectional study. Ital J Pediatr. 2016;42:20. doi:10.1186/s13052-016-0219-x. PMID:26920747
36. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Reye syndrome. U.S. National Library of Medicine; reviewed July 16, 2024.
37. Belay ED, Bresee JS, Holman RC, Khan AS, Shahriari A, Schonberger LB. Reye's syndrome in the United States from 1981 through 1997. N Engl J Med. 1999;340(18):1377-82. doi:10.1056/NEJM199905063401801. PMID:10228187
38. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Infant botulism. U.S. National Library of Medicine; accessed November 11, 2026.

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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