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Average body temperature in the United States and the United Kingdom is cooling and is no longer below the previously established average of 37 degrees Celsius, reports sciencealert.com.
A new study of the chimpanzee tribe living in Bolivia revealed that this trend is not a coincidence or something related to the economic development of the country. It turns out that changes in people’s body temperature also occur in rural and tropical areas, where medical care is minimal and infections abound.
When anthropologists began working with the Chimano tribe in 2002, the average body temperature of adult members of the tribe averaged 37 degrees, a figure that was recorded in Europe two centuries ago. In just sixteen years, the average body temperature has dropped to 36.5 degrees (36.53 degrees for women and 36.57 degrees for men), which means that the temperature drops 0.03 degrees every year.
“In less than two decades, we have seen the same changes in temperature drops as in the United States over two centuries,” said Michael Gurven, an anthropologist at the University of California.
Experts say the results can be trusted. More than 5,500 adults have been analyzed, numerous long-term observations have been made, and many factors that may have influenced the body temperature of a particular individual have been considered.
It didn’t matter how the researchers tried to analyze the results; in all cases, a decrease in body temperature was recorded.
Although the study included low-income people, the results obtained are in broad agreement with the findings of a study conducted in the United States.
The latter found that in economically highly developed countries, people have a body temperature of 1.6 percent. lower (36.4 degrees) than in the pre-industrial period. Only Americans participated in this study, so the reasons why this happens could not be explained.
Anthropologists working with the Chimano tribe have been able to find out more about this topic. The researchers conducted the study and looked at each person’s clinical diagnoses and biomarkers of infection and inflammation, meaning they were able to test for many different factors.
One of the most plausible hypotheses at the moment is that better hygiene, clean water, and greater access to medical care are less likely to infect people and lower their body temperature.
Although some infections that affect chimpanzees are actually directly related to elevated body temperature, a decrease in infections alone does not explain the changes in body temperature.
“Body temperature can also drop due to the constant improvement of medical care, which is less common, even for mild infections. The change in a short time is quite obvious. But although health has improved dramatically in the last twenty years, the infections are still very common in the Bolivian province, “says Gurven. Finally, experts have not been able to find a specific explanation for the process of why the temperature of the human body is dropping, they say the changes are driven by many factors.
It may be that today, with more favorable living conditions, the body no longer needs to fight the attacking infections as intensely as before. The availability of antibiotics, vaccines, and treatments can also cause changes.
In the case of more developed communities, this can be attributed to today’s luxuries like air conditioning or heating, which make it easier for our body to maintain the required internal temperature.
Although changes in body temperature in the chimpanzee tribe respond to weather and climatic conditions, these people still do not use any more advanced technology to help regulate body temperature. It’s true that now it’s easier for them to get clothes and blankets, ”says ethnographer Thomas Kraft.
While there are obvious cultural shifts in the way we heat and cool, and they certainly lead to changes in average body temperature, more is undoubtedly happening. More research should be done with people from all over the world, because only then will it be possible to answer all the necessary questions.
The study is published in the specialized journal Science Advances.
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