SHARES
It was 1851, when the German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich obtained millions of axillary temperatures from some 25,000 patients in Leipzig. He established the standard for normal human body temperature of 37°C or 98.6 °F.
Fast forward some decades later and we find ourselves in a very interesting situation. A funny one if you ask me; as the world around us grows hotter as the days pass, we grow colder.
A group of researchers hypothesised that the difference in temperature between the 19th century and now can provide important physiological cues to changes in human health and our continuance.
Why specifically temperature you might ask – because body temperature is a marker for metabolism. For example, some link it to both longevity (higher metabolic rate, shorter life span) and body size (lower metabolism, greater body mass).
What has caused Body Temperature to Drop?
Dr. Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine, health research, and policy, and the senior author of the study says “the environment that we’re living in has changed, including the temperature in our homes, our contact with microorganisms, and the food that we have access to.”
Furthermore, she believes, the average metabolic rate, which indicates how much energy our bodies use, has declined. This could be due to a decline in inflammation. Inflammation invokes the body’s reaction producing all kinds of proteins and cytokines. These ramp up your metabolism, raising the body temperature. In particular, modern vaccines and antibiotics have played major roles in reducing attacks on the immune system. Thus this results in much less tissue inflammation in the population.
In addition, another theory is the use of air conditioning and heating which enable us to stay in a comfortable temperature zone hence, not requiring us to use energy to maintain the same body temperature.
The Cooling of Mankind
Research findings demonstrate that the average body temperature is around 36.6°C for men. Now lower than the approximate 37.16°C in the early 1800s, about 200 years ago. All in all, the average body temperature has decreased by 0.03 degrees Centigrade, or about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit, with every passing of each decade.
All these may mean that us human beings do not just remain in a static physiological form but we are actually changing!
Further Reference:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229715-humans-are-cooling-down-so-average-body-temperature-is-no-longer-37c/#ixzz6B6Ka1zc
by Yashwini Ravindranath
Born & raised in Malaysia, Yashwini earned her M.D. studying in Moscow's Russian National Research Medical University. With an affiliation towards research, all things coffee and the startup ecosystem, she now contributes articles to GetDocSays View all articles by Yashwini Ravindranath.
