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The planet may be warming, but a recent study indicates that mankind is going the other direction.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have established that people's bodies are now typically cooler than the textbook figure of 37C, first established by German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in 1868.
The study shows that modern-day men have a body temperature 0.58C lower than their 19th century counterparts, while women's are 0.32C lower.
This decrease has been attributed to "changes in our environment over the past 200 years, which have in turn driven physiological changes". However, the study acknowledges that establishing cause and effect remains "inherently unprovable".
The rate of decline is about 0.03°C per birth decade. Body temperature is a marker for metabolic rate and could partially explain changes in human health and longevity over time.
Journal Reference:
Myroslava Protsiv, Catherine Ley, Joanna Lankester, Trevor Hastie, Julie Parsonnet. Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the Industrial Revolution, (DOI: doi:10.7554/eLife.49555)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @05:35AM (3 children)
Things like this are a big part of the reason I tend to always obsess over unforeseen consequences. The activities we engage in, the foodstuffs (let alone pharmaceuticals) we consume, and many other topics are things we still do not really understand.
The standard test for the safety of a product is it not causing grievous harm to you in a short period of time - 6 months on the high end. But this standard for safety is a complete joke. By that standard, cigarettes are perfectly safe. But more importantly than that, there are factors that may not immediately harm us but can affect us, or even our children, in ways that are nearly imperceptible on a micro-level. Lowered testosterone, lowered fertility, lowered IQ, [apparently] lowered body temps, and a million other things are all happening at once. Why? Where are these effects coming from? We can create a billion hypotheses but, as this paper mentions, it's practically impossible to definitively pin down cause and effect on these things. And in fact in some cases there may not even be a cause. Species, including ourselves, are constantly evolving over time in ways we have very limited control over anything other than dysgenic factors.
The whole point of this is that if something seems like a bad idea to you, then don't do it - even if people insist it is safe. As an example, some folks tend to pop a tylenol/paracetamol at the slightest discomfort. Yet I find it disconcerting how we are still discovering new things about the effects of these drugs. And so I do not take pain killers in general, even though I've had a major back surgery which means pretty substantial pain flare ups are a regular part of life. I also tend to try to avoid meat loaded with antiobiotics and other artificial hormones. It's not hard - buy meats that aren't farm raised, such as venison or wild boar. Just so happens these meats are not only absurdly delicious but also surprisingly cheap. I also find it much more ethical than our commercial ranching systems.
All in all - come up with your own ethos, after taking into consideration the breadth (or lack thereof) of knowledge on a topic. And then stick to it. The more folks sticking to precisely prescribed behavior, the more damaging it is as we continue to get such prescriptions completely wrong. Remember it wasn't long ago that leaded fuel exhaust was, according to science and the government, perfectly safe for you.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 20 2020, @06:55AM (2 children)
Thalidomide, anyone?
This photo gallery is worth perusing.
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/thalidomide?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=thalidomide [gettyimages.com]
I started school with a pretty little girl, Susan, who had half a right arm, and less than half her left arm. I didn't know enough to ask her how or why that happened, but it seems reasonable that she was a thalidomide victim. Mama took bad drugs while she was pregnant.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @07:41AM (1 child)
Also explains Runaway's half a dick. Mourning sickness was the least of his mother's worries.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 20 2020, @01:00PM
You heard the lady wrong. It's not "half a dick", it's "half a mule's dick". Next time you're driving along, and see a mule with his dick hanging to the ground, you just think about me.