The average body temperature has dropped last decades as well as for various reasons related to changes in the atmosphere, the progress of science and the healing of various diseases for which earlier there were no treatments, it now forms close to 36.6.
From 1851 to the present
The limit of 37 degrees as the average normal temperature of the human body was determined in 1851 by the pioneer German doctor Karl Reinhold 'August Wunderlich.
He had then examined 25,000 people and found that the body temperature ranged from 36.2 to 37.5.
The years have passed and for various reasons that we will list below the average body temperature has dropped and is now close to 36.6.
New American study
The researchers, led by Professor Julie Parsonett of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who made the relevant publication in the journal eLife, analyzed longitudinal data from 677,423 temperature readings, from American Civil War soldiers to modern humans, covering a period of 157 years. (1860-2017).
It was established, according to the APE, that the average body temperature decreases by 0.03 degrees Celsius per decade.
Men born in the early 19th century had a body temperature 0.59 degrees higher than men today.
Why is the average temperature falling?
But why can the human temperature drop gradually? The most likely explanation given by scientists is that microbiologically we are very different from what we once were.
Parsonett lists a number of reasons for the decrease in average temperature.
"We are different compared to the past. The environment where we live has changed, the temperatures in our homes, our contact with microorganisms and our food."
average body temperature
Modern humans, he says, get infections less often thanks to vaccines and antibiotics, resulting in less active immune systems and less inflammation in the body's tissues.
In 1851, at the time of Wunderlich where the medium had been studied life expectancy it was only 38 years old, people had various chronic diseases without treatment (tuberculosis, syphilis, periodontitis, etc.), as a result of which the average body temperature rose.
It will continue to decline
According to the researchers, the decline does not seem to be stopping. "There will be a limit, but we don't know what it will be," Parsonett said.
It is noted that the temperature of a healthy body fluctuates up to 0.2 degrees during the day depending on the weather, physical activity, diet, exposure to the sun, hydration, etc.
Older people have on average a lower body temperature than younger people, while women have a higher body temperature than men.
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