by Rose Rohloff |
| A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article https://lnkd.in/e9awgQT 1/24/2020 posted wrote: "Nearly 150 years ago, a German physician analyzed a million temperatures from 25,000 patients and concluded that normal human body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That standard has been published in numerous medical texts and helped generations of parents judge the gravity of a child’s illness. But at least two dozen modern studies have concluded the number is too high. Or was it? In a new study, researchers from Stanford University argue that Wunderlich’s number was correct at the time but is no longer accurate because the human body has changed. Today, they say, the average normal human-body temperature is closer to 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit." | Championing your own health is about understanding your healthy baselines. Just as individuals have a variable "healthy" baseline for their blood pressure and heart rate, why would an individual not have an individualized, normal baseline for their temperature? And, temperatures are now measured using different methods: forehead-ear-mouth-rectal, producing deviations based upon how the temperature is obtained. It is important to understand, compare what mechanism was used to take the temperature. Is your normal 98 degrees, while another may run 97 degrees? Is the person normally running 97 degrees now have a temp of 99 along with malaise, dehydration because they are fighting a virus or bacteria? Assessment/vital sign numbers provide more information for clinicians (Doctor, PA, Nurse, etc.) when provided in context of associations, trends, baselines and influencing factors. |
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