Normal body temperature is 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When the temperature is higher, we call it fever. However, one study says that what we used to call normal body temperature is no longer normal. In the last 200 years, that normality has dropped to 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Not only that, the body temperature of men as well as women has also decreased. However, that rate is slightly lower than men. The average normal body temperature in women is now 96 degrees Fahrenheit.
A recent study by the School of Medicine at Stanford University in the United States found that we could not maintain the normal temperature of our bodies 180 years or so ago. The normal body temperature has dropped to more than 1 degree Fahrenheit.
The study was published in the latest issue of the international science journal Elife.
One of the members of the research team is Anupam Maji, a professor at Stanford University's School of Medicine. "This drop in the average normal temperature of our body did not happen suddenly," he said. It has come down step by step.
"I can take a casual leave from the office as soon as my body temperature touches 99 degrees Fahrenheit," he joked.
"When the German physician Vanderlich calculated the temperature measurement 180 years ago, our average life expectancy was only 36 years," said the researcher, noting that the younger generation has a higher body temperature than the elderly. From tuberculosis to syphilis and various types of inflammation, deaths often occurred. Records show that the average normal body temperature decreases with age and that the temperature rises with inflammation, which is why the younger generation is warmer than the older generation. The younger generation is more affected by various types of inflammation. As a result, their average body temperature rises.
That temperature is reduced by taking anti-inflammatory drugs (‘anti-pyritic drugs like aspirin’). And that happens frequently in the case of young people. Two hundred years ago there were no such drugs. So its arbitrary use was also impossible. As a result, the average body temperature of a young person at that time was higher than it is now, ”added Professor Anupam Maji.
Professor Maju says, ‘Differences in body temperature are also due to differences in the rates of our various physiological processes and metabolic processes. Those processes increase our body temperature. When you run, exercise, work hard, the rate increases. Earlier people worked much harder. As a result, their metabolic and other physiological processes were much higher. So their average normal body temperature was also higher. But our lives are becoming more and more effortless and comfortable. We are getting cold as a result of machine-based modernity. '
The normal temperature of 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit is the way it came
Sudiptashekhar Das, a prominent hematologist from Calcutta. In this context, he said, "In 1851, the temperature of 25,000 patients was recorded to know the normal temperature of our body." Then his average comes out to 96.8 degrees. That being said, this is the average normal temperature of our body. Which means it's about to be the most delusional time of the year, as well. Again, it may be a little less. However, if you add the two and divide by two, its value will be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 36 degrees Celsius. '
Prominent Kolkata hematologist Shubhashis Chakraborty has responded to the confusion. "We unknowingly forgot the word average," he said. I began to believe that 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is the normal body temperature. This is where we went wrong. Although there has been skepticism among physicians for a long time, isn't the average normal human body temperature really that? '
A study by the Stanford University School of Medicine found that many physicians believe that doubts can be resolved.
Both Sudipta and Shubhashis say, ‘The novelty of recent research at Stanford University is that they keep in mind all the methods of measuring body temperature and all its evolution over the last two centuries. Researchers recorded that temperature from 182 to 1918. For this, the body temperature record of 6 lakh 7 thousand people has been taken. Which is about 26 times the number of samples taken by German doctors 180 years ago (25 thousand). As a result, the results of this study are much more acceptable. '
Researcher Anupam Maji said three important observations have been made in their study. They are-
First, it has been found that the average normal body temperature of a young person at rest is higher than that of an older person (over 50 years of age).
Second, the average normal body temperature of women is slightly higher than that of men.
Third, around noon our average body temperature rises slightly. That is true for both men and women.
Researchers say that if the mercury in the body temperature continues to fall at this rate, and after 14,000 years, our body temperature may be zero! At least mathematical calculations say so.
Nice one