For more than 100 years, 98.6℉ has been considered the norm al hum an body tem perature. B ut recently, a Stanford University research study, based on some 677,000 temperature readings collected from 190,000 people, points out that from 1862 to 2017, the human body temperature fell by 0.054℉ and 0.052℉ per decade for m ales and fem ales, respectively.

   The change in average height and weight is the possible explanation for some of the decline, because nowadays people have better nutrition, medical service, and public health. Most importantly, the effective use of antibiotics and vaccines control many of the inflammatory conditions that can drive up body temperature. The function of inflammation is to eliminate the cause of cell injury and initiate tissue repair. Besides, when people are ill, they usually take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins to fight inflammation, therefore preventing the body from heating up.

   The findings suggest doctors should practice more personalized temperature readings that take all the things that affect body temperature into consideration, such as height, weight, age, time of day and outside temperature.