I've been known to feel deathly ill when the reading on the thermometer is … 99.3. To me, it feels like a raging fever, but to doctors, not so much.
Or to your average nine-year-old who knows that you have to have a lot higher than 99.3 to get out of going to school.
Things may be changing now, starting with whether 98.6 really is the benchmark of good health.
Recent research suggests no. A study out of Stanford University on more than 125,000 people found that the norm these days is a cool 97.9 with some people clocking in as low as 97.3 and as high as only 98.2.
So, where did the magic 98.6 metric come from? For that, we have to go back 150 years to Leipzig (LIPE-ZIG) Germany where Dr. Carl Wunderlich (WONDER-LICK) measured the temperatures of 25,000 people with such fervor that he wound up with more than 1 million readings. He averaged them out, and there it was: 98.6.
Dr. Wunderlich had turned the local hospital into a giant temperature-taking laboratory. His subjects held foot-long mercury thermometers in their axilla (fancy word for armpit) for 15 to 20 minutes. This work of his was considered monumental, and one of the first large-scale medical studies – and it cemented 98.6 as normal from that time on.
Until now. 21st century researchers are realizing that we no longer have to cling to the good doctor's 150 year-old findings. Starting with how he came up with them. Sitting still for a quarter of an hour with a super-size thermometer under your arm? Hmm. And as human specimens, we're different today. Back in the mid-19 century, people harbored all manner of untreated infections: tuberculosis, skin infections, dental disease. Given that they didn't have help from yet-to-be-developed antibiotics, their temperatures may have been constantly cranked up to fight off pathogens.
Today, some doctors also suggest that the norm should not necessarily be one number. What if we look at healthy temperature as a range, like we do for heart rate and blood pressure? Women, for example, naturally run a little warmer than men, and thinner, and older people, a little cooler. And you’ve probably noticed that your own temperature moves about, higher later in the day or it changes depending on room temperature.
With these cooler and variable body temps, we’re left with a very important question: what constitutes a fever? The truth is, researchers haven't quite worked it all out yet.
Dr. Wunderlich said anything above 100.4 qualifies as a fever, and, yeah, we still abide by that today. But if your personal baseline is lower? Maybe, reasonably, a couple of degrees above your baseline may be considered a fever - same as about 2° higher than 98.6 brings you to 100.4.
As for what to do, you’ll need to be in charge here. Take your temp for a few days when you feel fine so you get a fix on your baseline - so you’ll have a point of comparison when you don’t feel well. But even if nothing alarming registers on the mercury and you're feeling sick, keep in mind that fever is only one sign of illness so check in with your doctor if you’re not feeling well. I do have a bit more advice: maybe this news that low temps might qualify as a fever is not something you want to share with your school kid just yet.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
