【冷血化】人間の「平熱」は１世紀前に比べて下がった！？１８７１年の平熱は「３７度」

【冷血化】人間の「平熱」は１世紀前に比べて下がった！？１８７１年の平熱は「３７度」

2020/01/15

タイム誌
https://time.com/5764051/normal-body-temperature-has-changed/

'Normal' Human Body Temperature Has Changed in the Last Century

BY ALICE PARK

JANUARY 14, 2020
Whether you have a stomachache, a wrist sprain or a chronic disease, one of the first things doctors and nurses will do at an appointment is take your temperature. A normal temperature means your body is humming along the way it should. A higher temperature means you have a fever, and shows your body could be fighting an infection.

And since 1871, “normal” has meant 98.6°F (37°C). That number was determined by a German physician, based on millions of readings from 25,000 German patients, taken by sticking thermometers under their arms. When doctors in the U.S. and Europe repeated the experiment in local populations, they came up with the same number, so it stuck.

But in a paper published last week in eLife, researchers at Stanford University reported that the normal human body temperature has dropped since that time. And that means the standards that doctors have been using to define normal temperature and fever might need to be reworked.
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