Title: Forget 98.6°F. Humans Are Cooling Off — Here's Why
Headings: Forget 98.6°F. Humans Are Cooling Off — Here’s Why
Health News
Forget 98.6°F. Humans Are Cooling Off — Here’s Why
What’s normal
Why temps are falling

Content: “When healthcare providers give advice to individuals about these medications and environments, their unique normothermic body temperature should be considered,” she said. According to Parsonnet, other reasons for the decline in body temperature over time could be that we’re also using less energy and have a lower metabolic rate than in the past. The reduction may be due to a population-wide decline in inflammation. Generally, inflammation increases our metabolism and raises temperature. Because of improvements in public health, this could be why inflammation has decreased. The ambient temperatures we live in, thanks to heating and air conditioning, could be factors in lower metabolic rates. “I think it’s most likely because we have much less inflammation in our bodies now than we did when the standard was developed in the mid-19th century,” Parsonnet said. “We have less inflammation because we have far fewer chronic infectious diseases like tuberculosis and periodontal disease, far less recurrent infection, shifts in our microbiomes, and we also have learned how to combat inflammation directly through better diets, and also with things like nonsteroidal drugs and statins,” she explained. In general, humans are physiologically different than we were in the past, Parsonnet says.