When you feel sick, your brain is helping you heal - The Washington Post

New research shows that dedicated neurons in your brain are responsible for sickness symptoms and help us fight off disease and infection Think about the last time you were sick. Maybe you ran a fever, had body chills, felt lethargic and lost your appetite. You may have thought, as many of us do, that those symptoms were caused by your immune system defenders fighting off the bacteria, viruses and other pathogens invading your body. But your brain probably played a key role as well and controlled many of the symptoms you felt. Two recent studies published in Nature report that specific parts of the brain rapidly respond to illness and coordinate how the body counters it. Although the studies were in mice, this new understanding may also hold clues about why some people continue to have chronic problems such as long covid months after a bout of infection. “When we are ill, we imagine that if we are feeling crappy, it’s because our immune system is going into overdrive, and somehow this

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• Phạm Thu Uyên