close
close
Is the average body temperature 98.6? Here is what is to know

Is the average body temperature 98.6? Here is what is to know

by

play

Maybe our body temperature is not 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit – or at least not.

A woman found herself with the sick feeling, put it on Tikok. Coving the investigations that today's frequent average body temperature of today is actually 97.9, she considered: “Should we adapt our idealization when a fever actually occurs? I have a normal body temperature of 97.6, but I feel terrible, but my temperature is only 99.1.”

In her video at the end of January, more than 400,000 views and 1,600 comments were quickly triggered. Many users also tend to share their temperature less than 98.6.

So why do we think 98.6 degrees as healthy and when are we actually sick?

The answer is of crucial importance, especially in the middle of the winter disease season, since the flu, covid-19 and colds circulate.

Where did number 98.6 come from?

According to Dr. Julie Parsonnet, the George Deforest Professor of Medicine and Epidemiologist at Stanford Medicine, was based on 98.6 degrees in the mid -19th century on millions of temperature readings of 25,000 people from a German doctor. In Leipzig, Dr. Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich opened up what he thought was normal, and then examined differences between men and women, age and time of the day.

Research, although it was not faulty, was based about 170 years ago on people's life, said Parsonnet, who has written a study on body temperatures since the Wunderlich study.

“We are not the same people as in the mid -19th century,” she said to USA Today.

When temperatures examined, life expectancy was in the late 30, about half as long as the Americans live today, said Parsonnet. People had no access to regular health care, antibiotics or an appropriate standard of living. Disease and death from tuberculosis, pneumonia, Ruhr and syphilis were common, said Parsonnet.

Overall, people dealt with constant inflammation and put our immune system in Overdrive to ward off pathogens, which increased our body temperature.

In her study, Parsonnet analyzed over 677,000 body temperatures, orally, from three different cohort populations in the USA, which extended almost 160 years. The researchers found that the body temperature has decreased over time. Since then, dozens of other studies have found lower temperatures.

What is our actual body temperature?

In a follow-up study, Parsonnet and researchers found average body temperatures in the range of 97.2 degrees to 98.4 degrees. The “normal” temperature is closer to 97.9 degrees. A study from 2017 using records of more than 35,000 patients also showed an average temperature at almost 97.9 degrees.

Women have higher temperatures than men and older people are usually colder. Other factors determine body temperature, e.g. B. the time of day (cooler earlier a day) (the larger, the greater, colder how the heat spreads) and weight (heavier is warmer).

Parsonnet developed a personalized calculator to determine our normal body temperature by gender, age, weight, size and time of day.

How do we know if we are sick?

In view of our temperature range, it is difficult to say if someone is sick if you only go with body temperature. As a rule, a temperature of over 100 degrees is considered a fever, but this may not be the case for everyone.

“It is important to know who they are,” said Dr. Heidi Zapata, specialist for infectious diseases in the Yale School of Medicine, who studies the immune system, compared to USA today. “If you think something is wrong, you should continue to research. Go to (a doctor) and see what's going on. “

Someone can really be sick and have no high temperature, added Zapata. For example, older people often have no high temperatures, even if they are sick. But fever is usually a tellty sign that someone has an infection.

Finally, Wunderlich wrote in 1871: “A normal temperature does not necessarily show health, but everyone whose temperature either exceeds or does not exceed the normal range are unhealthy.”

People should check a number of their symptoms, especially since the flu has reached record levels of hospital stays.

When someone feels sick, they try to stay at home, according to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases. People should stay up to date via vaccines, practice good hygiene, improve air quality indoors and get treatment to reduce the risk of serious complications. If people have to leave their home, you should test to look for illnesses, a mask (e.g. N95) and to carry social distance.

Related posts:

Where can you see Lakers vs. Mavericks: TV channel, live stream for Luka Dončić's showdown vs. d...

Weather Tracker: The temperatures have record highs in South America | Extreme weather

Assembly republicans reveal invoices to combat gas prices and control tips for tips