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RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

The planet may be warming, but a recent study indicates that mankind is going the other direction. [independent.co.uk]

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: Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the Industrial Revolution, (DOI: doi:10.7554/eLife.49555 [doi.org])

Original Submission