In fact, our body temperature is influenced by many factors, including age, sex, time of day and activity level, and female physiological period. The body temperature is lower in the morning and higher in the afternoon, with a difference of about 0.5℃. After eating and exercising, the body temperature will be higher, and the change will generally not exceed 65438 0℃. Babies have high body temperature, while the elderly have low body temperature. During ovulation and pregnancy, body temperature will be higher, about 0.6℃. Low temperature leads to low body temperature, and high temperature leads to high body temperature, generally not exceeding 0.5℃.
As we all know, the body temperature of a healthy person is 36.7℃, but in fact, research a century and a half ago showed that 37℃ is the normal body temperature. What happened?
The story begins with 185 1. Karl Wunderlich, a German doctor, collected the temperature data of 25,000 people and determined that the normal temperature was 37℃.
1992, Philip McCoviack, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in the United States, expressed disbelief in this result. So he recruited 148 healthy subjects and measured their sublingual temperature with an electronic thermometer 1-4 times a day for three days. He found that the average body temperature of normal people is 36.8℃.
You may think that this result is only 0.2℃, which will not affect our daily life. In fact, there is a lot of science behind body temperature, even 0.2℃ will have a huge impact on the body. The seemingly simple body temperature is actually not simple.
Researchers at Stanford University in the United States began to measure human body temperature in 2000, and compared it with the temperature records of soldiers during the civil war in19th century. People are surprised to find that the body temperature of modern men has dropped by 0.58℃, while that of modern women has dropped by 0.32℃. Basically, every 10 year, the average body temperature will drop by 0.03℃. /kloc-the average body temperature of people in the 0/9th century was 37℃, but now it has dropped to 36.6℃.
Solid hammer, comrades, we're getting cold. But why on earth is this?
Compared with the past, our living environment has changed greatly. Now with air conditioning, the indoor temperature is very pleasant, and the human body does not need to sweat or tremble to keep out the cold. At the same time, modern people are sedentary, seldom exercise, with low metabolism and less natural heat production. Then we are now eating in a healthier environment, and there are fewer opportunities to contact microorganisms, so the training time of the "immune army" in the body will be greatly reduced. Even if you are inflamed and sick, there will be antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, and the chance of fever will be greatly reduced.
Hypothermia is actually the result of our adaptation to the environment. So what effect will the decrease of average body temperature have on us?
Body temperature is the expression of basal metabolism, which is closely related to life span and body shape. Longevity is a hot topic. Many studies show that only 23%-33% of the dependent variables of life span are attributed to genetic factors, and the rest are determined by environmental and behavioral factors.
Among the important environmental factors known to affect life span, temperature is included. Most of the existing evidence shows that lowering body temperature can prolong life. Then some researchers lowered the body temperature of mice and found that their life expectancy was 20% longer than that of the control group, equivalent to 7-8 years of human life. This is because the lower body temperature slows down the metabolism of the body and reduces the production of free radicals, so the life span is longer.
What is exciting is that the same result has been found in humans.
In 2002, in the longitudinal study of aging in Baltimore, USA, men whose body temperature was below the median showed a higher survival rate during the 25-year follow-up. For the baby, the cold extrauterine environment leads to the enhancement of brown adipose tissue, thus increasing the activity of uncoupling protein, reducing active oxygen, reducing fat and inflammation, which has a beneficial effect on longevity.
To sum up, human body temperature drops and life expectancy may be longer.
Finally, popular science is a little knowledge that people often misunderstand.
We often say "Brother, have a drink to warm up". In fact, drinking alcohol can lead to hypothermia, and alcohol can inhibit shivering, making it impossible for the human body to generate heat. Alcohol can also cause blood vessels to dilate, allowing blood to transfer to the skin, resulting in the loss of a lot of heat on the skin surface. At the same time, alcohol will also inhibit the senses, so that you can't feel the cold and continue to stay in the cold wind to catch cold.
So drinking won't warm you up, which is an illusion.