97.5°F, not 98.6°F, likely new normal body temp
Since 1851, Average Human Body Temperature Has Decreased By 0.05°F Per Birth Decade
Nicholas Bakalar 11.01.2020
We seem to be getting cooler. Since 1851, when the standard was set at 37°centigrade (or celsius), or 98.6°Fahrenheit, the average human body temperature has steadily declined. Researchers studied three databases: 23,710 readings obtained between 1862 and 1930 in veterans of the Civil War; 15,301 records in a national health survey from 1971 to 1975; and 150,280 entries in a Stanford University database from 2007 to 2017. The analysis is in eLife.
The researchers observed that the body temperature of men born in the 2000s is on average 1.06°F lower than that of men born in the early 1800s.
Similarly, researchers observed that the body temperature of women born in the 2000s is on average 0.58°F lower than that of women born in the 1890s. Overall, the average body temperature decreased by 0.03°C, or about 0.05°F, per birth decade.
Differences in measurement techniques and equipment do not explain the effect. The decline was evident even within each database, year by year, and the drop between the two modern databases, when equipment and techniques were presumably the same, was identical.
Why this is happening is unclear, but scientists suggest that improvements in sanitation and improved dental and medical care have reduced chronic inflammation, and the constant temperatures maintained by modern heating and air conditioning have helped lower the resting metabolic rates. Today, a temperature of 97.5°F may be closer to “normal” than the traditional 98.6°F.
“Physiologically, we’re just different from what we were in the past. The environment that we are living in has changed, including the temperature in our homes, our contact with microorganisms and the food that we have access to. All these things mean that although we think of human beings as if we are monomorphic and have been the same for all of human evolution, we are not the same,” said the senior author, Dr Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine at Stanford.
“We have looked at the US,” said Parsonnet, “and we have to see if this holds true elsewhere. We are evolving physiologically. But what does it really mean? I don’t know. I haven’t figured out exactly how to look at that.”
With input from agencies
WE’RE STEADILY GETTING COOLER
Since 1851, Average Human Body Temperature Has Decreased By 0.05°F Per Birth Decade
Nicholas Bakalar 11.01.2020
We seem to be getting cooler. Since 1851, when the standard was set at 37°centigrade (or celsius), or 98.6°Fahrenheit, the average human body temperature has steadily declined. Researchers studied three databases: 23,710 readings obtained between 1862 and 1930 in veterans of the Civil War; 15,301 records in a national health survey from 1971 to 1975; and 150,280 entries in a Stanford University database from 2007 to 2017. The analysis is in eLife.
The researchers observed that the body temperature of men born in the 2000s is on average 1.06°F lower than that of men born in the early 1800s.
Similarly, researchers observed that the body temperature of women born in the 2000s is on average 0.58°F lower than that of women born in the 1890s. Overall, the average body temperature decreased by 0.03°C, or about 0.05°F, per birth decade.
Differences in measurement techniques and equipment do not explain the effect. The decline was evident even within each database, year by year, and the drop between the two modern databases, when equipment and techniques were presumably the same, was identical.
Why this is happening is unclear, but scientists suggest that improvements in sanitation and improved dental and medical care have reduced chronic inflammation, and the constant temperatures maintained by modern heating and air conditioning have helped lower the resting metabolic rates. Today, a temperature of 97.5°F may be closer to “normal” than the traditional 98.6°F.
“Physiologically, we’re just different from what we were in the past. The environment that we are living in has changed, including the temperature in our homes, our contact with microorganisms and the food that we have access to. All these things mean that although we think of human beings as if we are monomorphic and have been the same for all of human evolution, we are not the same,” said the senior author, Dr Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine at Stanford.
“We have looked at the US,” said Parsonnet, “and we have to see if this holds true elsewhere. We are evolving physiologically. But what does it really mean? I don’t know. I haven’t figured out exactly how to look at that.”
With input from agencies
WE’RE STEADILY GETTING COOLER
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