[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] The Average Human Body Temperature ISN’T 98.6°F Anymore

[arnold peterson]

i got this from Stanford, lower and varies by sex, age, and time of day.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/09/body-temperature.html

On Wed, Jan 7, 2026 at 4:04 PM Robert Primak via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us>
wrote:

> *The Average Human Body Temperature ISN’T 98.6°F Anymore*
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Scf7ZJcPUY
> Seeker. Dec 11, 2020.
>
> 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 years-long
> 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.
>
> The conclusion is that over the past 150 years, resting metabolic rates
> seem to have been dropping. Reductions in chronic inflammation may be a
> factor. Less chronic infection is only one part of the picture, apparently.
>
> How the body temperatures have been measured was considered, but could be
> controlled by using the same clinical measuring instruments.
>
> (36.8 C = 98.2 F.)
>
> -- Bob Primak
>
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