The Definition
In medicine, fever and back pain are two independent symptoms. Therefore, there are two separate definitions for fever and back pain. Of course, these symptoms can occur simultaneously or even together with other complaints and should be interpreted accordingly.
According to the definition, a person has a fever if the body temperature rises above 38° Celsius. The causal process of the fever is an adjustment of the target value of the body core temperature: Whenever the brain wants to raise the temperature, this information is transmitted from the brain stem to the nervous system of the entire body. Back pain is pain in the back, lumbar or neck area. The rear shoulder area can also be affected.
The causes
Both fever and back pain are very unspecific symptoms. This means that they can be triggered by an extremely wide range of different diseases and causes. febrile temperatures and back pain occurring at short notice are often triggered by a flu or flu-like infection.
The body then reacts to such a viral infection by increasing the body temperature, as this supports the function of certain immune cells. With back pain and pain in the limbs, the body tries to keep the affected person from moving too much – inflammatory messengers that convey excessive pain stimuli play a major role in this. But other infectious diseases can also trigger fever and back pain, such as meningitis, an inflammation of the meninges.
Since this shell is also found around the spinal cord, the pain is not only felt in the head but also along the spine. In rare cases, a malignant new formation or cell proliferation, as a tumor, can also be the cause of back pain and fever. Therefore, any longer lasting fever should be examined anyway, with back pain it is even more recommendable.
The accompanying symptoms
The causes of headaches are extremely varied. Headaches as an accompanying symptom of fever and back pain can be the expression of a bacterial or viral infection, for example influenza. On the one hand, this can lead to an increased sensation of pain, on the other hand, the fever and increased sweating can cause dehydration (= drying out), which additionally promotes headaches.
Care should be taken if the headache becomes extremely severe, causes sensory deficits such as impaired vision or neck stiffness: In this case, the head and back pain together with the fever can indicate meningitis, which should be treated in a hospital as soon as possible. During fever attacks, increased sweating naturally occurs. Every time a fever episode is over and the set point is lowered again, the body tries to cool itself with liquid on the skin.
In medicine, however, night sweat is understood to be such a strong sweating that every morning or even in the middle of the night the clothes or sheets have to be changed because they are soaked. Night sweat in this sense is a sign that the body’s metabolism is greatly increased – this can be the case with both tumors and infectious diseases. In any case, heavy night sweating of this kind in connection with fever and back pain should be examined by a doctor very promptly.
You can find more information about night sweating here. Nausea can be triggered by many causes, but it is usually an indication of an infection of the gastrointestinal tract. The symptom fever also fits in with this: with this increase in temperature, the body tries to make it easier for the immune cells to fight off the infection.
Back pain can also occur with a gastrointestinal infection. Rarely, it is also possible that the nausea is caused by the (severe) back pain – more often, however, there is a common origin of these symptoms in the sense of a gastrointestinal infection. If painful joints are added to the fever and back pain, this is an indication of a flu or flu-like pain in the muscles or limbs. As described above, in evolutionary terms this is a tool of the body to keep the person concerned from physical exertion.Pain in the limbs and joints are also causally connected: In order to feel fever, the body releases inflammation-promoting messenger substances that also make them more sensitive to pain. The pain threshold is lowered to such an extent that even parts of the body can hurt “for no reason” – such as joints or muscle areas.
