Rethinking Body Temperature: 98.6 F is Not Normal
Normal body temperature has declined and is specific to you, researchers have found
I’m miserable: I have shaking chills, sore throat, a splitting headache, and the room is spinning, so I call my physician’s office for help and to hopefully be evaluated. I speak with the gatekeeper nurse, who asks the inevitable question: What is your temperature?
When I tell her it’s 98.6 F, she is not impressed.
I explain, exasperated, that since my baseline temp is 97.4 F, that 98.6 F is actually a fever for me. But it doesn’t matter. Game over. I haven’t reached the threshold, and apparently, I’m not sick. Or not sick enough.
Doctors have been using body temperature as an indicator of illness for 200 years, and elevated body temp has, ever since, been a key factor in determining access to healthcare and intervention. Yet, to decide if you have a fever, your temperature must first be compared to an established baseline, a one-size-fits-all model.
But who determined that 98.6 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) is normal body temperature, and that 100.4 F (38 C) means fever? Is this really true for everyone?
No, it’s not, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine finds. Baseline body temperature…
