What really is the normal body temperature?
We know that the human body is homeothermic, basically that our organism permanently works to
adjust its own temperature when external temperatures are too high or low.
Yet while it has been accepted since 1868 that the normal body temperature is 37°C, new evidence
has arisen to challenge that. A study published this summer in the Journal of General Internal
Medicine, based on a sample of 5,038 patients, reports a normal temperature rather of 36.5°C.
Though this may not be radically different, it actually pushes the fever threshold to 37.5°C, a
threshold that has previously been much debated in studies and has a real-life impact on how
treatments are delivered in many hospitals. More studies are, however, needed before any real
paradigm shift could take place.