The Average Human Body Temperature ISN’T 98.6°F Anymore

The average human body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius, or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit... right? Well, new studies have uncovered that the average human body temperature is actually lower than that...and it’s dropping.

In 1851 a German doctor named Carl Wunderlich conducted a yearslong study. He went room to room in his hospital with a thermometer, taking the temperatures of some 25,000 different patients to try and pin down the average human body temperature. And he did, seventeen years later, when he published a paper with that well-known metric of 37 degrees! He also gave us the first quantitative measurement for determining if someone has a fever. 38 degrees and above. And then for the next 140 years, we just accepted this number as correct.

Despite the fact that Dr. Wunderlich collected this data using a comically large, foot-long thermometer that had to be held in a patient’s armpit for 20 minutes. Because believe it or not, portable thermometers small enough fit under your tongue weren’t invented until 1866.

So it wasn’t until the 1990s that another doctor decided to revisit this question using more modern equipment. And he found that yeah, the average human body temperature is ACTUALLY around 36.8 degrees Celsius.

#bodytemperature #temperature #science #seeker #elements

Read More:

The 98.6℉ Myth: Why Everything You Think You Know About Body Temperature Is a Lie
"The average body temperature isn't actually 98.6℉—a fact that we've known for more than 25 years. The myth originated in the 19th century with a single doctor, and despite evidence to the contrary, it's persisted ever since."

"...in the process of altering our surroundings, we have also altered ourselves, says senior author Julie Parsonnet of Stanford. 'We’ve changed in height, weight—and we’re colder,” she says. “I don’t really know what [the new measurements] mean in terms of health, but they’re telling us something.'"

7 Ways To Tell You Have A Fever If You Don't Have A Thermometer
"Here are seven ways to tell if you have a fever, even if there's no thermometer in sight."

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[johnnytarponds]

Yeah, here in Canada, it’s widely understood that the unfevered human is 36.6. I’ve never even heard of 37 actually.

[laurum]

I've known my whole life that the average temperature is 36.6(C) and when I measured myself for fun I usually measured that or under.

[massimookissed]

Nobody questioned that Dr Wunderlich measured a huge sample of *PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL* ?

[ironmorda]

I don't understand. We were always told its 36.6. It was never 37.

[drumcondra]

For a 40 years I’ve been told that the normal temperature is 36.6

[StainlessPot]

As a kid I've always been told that 36.5 (C) is normal. That was 20 years ago.

[adampickard]

I was taught average temp was 36.5 plus or minus .5 degrees celsius

[randomstuff-cuof]

Here in latvia and surely in Soviet times too the accepted average is 36.6c (although 37 is kinda regarded as an upper limit and anything even slightly above 37 is illness)

[teitake]

I'm 40 and as long as I can remember, the conversation in Japan has been 36.5 C.

[yayayayya]

Well. After a bajillion comments. You finally switched to metric.

[aantony]

Always knew it was 36.6, and mine and the temperature of everyone I know is around that when healthy.

[agustinalima]

“No matter how dorky you may feel like you are...humans ARE getting cooler over time” underrated phrase

[liuton]

My average body temp is 35, 6°C
For me 37°C is already a fever.

[kugelblitz]

Actually normal temperature is 36.6°C, otherwise you go home.

[seandee]

I've been taught it's 36.5 since the elementary school days. 36.5 was easy to remember for obvious reasons.

[MakeMeThinkAgain]

My temp varies up to 2 degrees over the course of the day. But here's what gets me, if you tell a doctor your normal morning temp is 96F but today it was 99F they will insist that you do not have a fever. Why your body is 3 degrees hotter than normal is a question they don't seem to have any curiosity about.

[A]

Average temperature is 36.6. That’s what I have been told for over 50 years.

[Roll]

I was always told 98.6, but have measured around 97.6 or so most of the time.

[orchdork]

If only doctors got the memo. None of them believe me when I tell them that new research disproved the 98.6° average.

As someone who often runs low grade fevers (99.5-100.3), this lower average suggests that my fevers may not be so low grade after all. I experience them as regular fevers, but because they are below 100.5°, doctors take them less seriously.

[isaBeast]

So the song "sadder, badder, cooler" is literally correct