人体的正常体温是多少？

近一个世纪以来，人体的标准体温被公认为98.6华氏度=37.0摄氏度。而最新的多个研究表明，对现代人来说这个标准体温似乎有些高。研究认为人体的标准体温应调整为97.5华氏度≈36.39摄氏度。

98.6 Degrees Fahrenheit Isn’t the Average Anymore

The Wall Street Journal

Nearly 150 years ago, a German physician analyzed a million temperatures from 25,000 patients and concluded that normal human-body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

That standard has been published in numerous medical texts and helped generations of parents judge the gravity of a child’s illness.

gravity

熟词僻义，表示“严重性”，可以替换seriousness，举个🌰：

I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation.

我认为你没有明白局势的严重性。

常用含义表示“（尤指地球的）重力，引力，地心引力”，英文解释为：the force that attracts objects towards one another, especially the force that makes things fall to the ground. 如：the laws of gravity 万有引力定律，物理课上学的g=9.8还是g=10你还记得吗？

在「波音CEO致歉声明」中就提到了：All of us feel the immense gravity of these events across our company and recognize the devastation of the families and friends of the loved ones who perished. 全体波音员工都因此深感悲痛，也能够体会到深爱的人逝去给家人及朋友们所造成的情感创伤。

But at least two dozen modern studies have concluded the number is too high. The findings have prompted speculation that the pioneering analysis published in 1869 by Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich was flawed.

flawed

表示“有瑕疵的；有错误的；有缺点的”，英文解释为“not perfect, or containing mistakes”举个🌰：

Diamonds are still valuable, even when they are flawed.

钻石即使有瑕疵，也仍然很贵重。

Or was it?

In a new study, researchers from Stanford University argue that Wunderlich’s number was correct at the time but is no longer accurate because the human body has changed. Today, they say, the average normal human-body temperature is closer to 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

“That would be a huge drop for a population,” said Philip Mackowiak, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and editor of the book “Fever: Basic Mechanisms and Management.”

Body temperature is a crude proxy for metabolic rate, and if it has fallen, it could offer a clue about other physiological changes that have occurred over time.

metabolic

metabolic /ˌmɛtəˈbɒlɪk/ 表示“新陈代谢的”，英文解释为“Metabolic means relating to a person's or animal's metabolism.”举个🌰：

People who have inherited a low metabolic rate will gain weight.

因遗传而新陈代谢速度慢的人会发胖。

proxy

表示“（测算用的）代替物，指标”，英文解释为“something that you use to represent sth else that you are trying to measure or calculate”举个🌰：

The number of patients on a doctor's list was seen as a good proxy for assessing how hard they work.

医生诊单上的病人数被看作是衡量他们工作努力程度的可靠指标。

“People are taller, fatter and live longer, and we don’t really understand why all those things have happened,” said Julie Parsonnet, who specializes in infectious diseases at Stanford and is senior author of the paper. “Temperature is linked to all those things. The question is which is driving the others.”

“现代人身高更高，更肥胖，加上寿命更长，体温因而产生变化。”

To test their hypothesis that today’s normal body temperature is lower than in the past, Dr. Parsonnet and her research partners analyzed 677,423 temperatures collected from 189,338 individuals over a span of 157 years.

The readings were recorded in the pension records of Civil War veterans from the start of the war through 1940; in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1971 through 1974; and in the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment from 2007 through 2017.

reading

表示“读数（一件测量设备所显示的数字或量值）”，英文解释为“the number or amount that a piece of measuring equipment shows”，如：a thermometer reading 温度计读数。

Overall, temperatures of the Civil War veterans were higher than measurements taken in the 1970s, and, in turn, those measurements were higher than those collected in the 2000s.

“Two things impressed me,” Dr. Parsonnet said. “The magnitude of the change and that temperature has continued to decline at the same rate.”

斯坦福大学传染病学专家帕索奈（Julie Parsonnet）与其研究团队分析了从古到今157年内近19万人的体温变化。团队从疾病控制与预防中心、史丹福大学等渠道，收集了南北战争至2017年的数据，分析后发现内战老兵平均体温较1970年代所收集的体温为高，而1970年代收集的平均体温又高于2000年代，证实现代人体温正逐步下降。——星岛日报

A complicating factor for the comparisons is that the Wunderlich and Stanford data used different methods and instruments.

Human temperature can be measured in the mouth, armpit, ear or rectum. Ear and rectal temperatures tend to be half a degree higher than oral temperature. Axillary temperature, taken in the armpit, tends to be one degree lower.

armpit

昨天在家办公的坏处：眼不见，“晋升”不念一文中刚出现过，作名词，表示“腋窝”，英文解释为“Your armpits are the areas of your body under your arms where your arms join your shoulders.” 下文还出现的axillary temperature 腋下温度，axillary /ækˈsɪlərɪ/ 可以作形容词，指腋窝的; 靠近腋窝的：of, relating to, or near the armpit.

rectum

rectum 作名词，表示“直肠”，英文解释为“Someone's rectum is the bottom end of the tube down which waste food passes out of their body.”

rectal作形容词，直肠的：relating to the rectum (= the last section of the large bowel)

Wunderlich preferred the axillary method but used a thermometer that was calibrated higher than normal, according to Dr. Mackowiak, who critiqued the work in the Journal of the American Medicine Association in 1992. (He recommended abandoning Wunderlich’s standard.)

The methods used in Dr. Parsonnet’s data vary. The Civil War records could have included a mixture of axillary and oral temperatures taken with mercury thermometers—the researcher couldn’t tell for sure. The precision of the instruments is also unknown. The 1970s measurements used readings from oral mercury thermometers exclusively. And the data from the 2000s used digital oral instruments.

温度计

mercury thermometer 水银温度计

clinical thermometer：a device used for measuring the body temperature of a person or animal 体温计，体温表

thermometer /θəˈmɒmɪtə/

Age, time of day, physical activity and other factors, which the researchers couldn’t always account for, also affect body temperature. Still, Dr. Parsonnet is convinced of the validity of the aggregated data.

“Wunderlich did a brilliant job,” Dr. Parsonnet said, “but people who walked into his office had tuberculosis, they had dysentery, they had bone infections that had festered their entire lives, they were exposed to infectious diseases we’ve never seen.”

病

· tuberculosis /tjʊˌbɜːkjʊˈləʊsɪs/ Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease that affects someone's lungs and other parts of their body. The abbreviation is also used. 肺结核

· dysentery /ˈdɪsəntrɪ/ Dysentery is an infection in a person's intestines that causes them to pass a lot of waste, in which blood and mucus are mixed with the person's faeces. 痢疾

fester

1）表示“（争论或不快的感觉）加剧，恶化”，英文解释为“If an argument or bad feeling festers, it continues so that feelings of hate or lack of satisfaction increase.”举个🌰：

Resentments are starting to fester.

仇恨正开始逐步加深。

2）表示“（伤口）化脓，溃烂”，英文解释为“If a cut or other injury festers, it becomes infected and produces pus.”举个🌰：

The wound is festering.

伤口在化脓。

For his study, he did try to measure the temperatures of healthy people, she said, but even so, life expectancy at the time was 38 years, and chronic infections such as gum disease and syphilis afflicted large portions of the population. Dr. Parsonnet suspects inflammation caused by those and other persistent maladies explains the temperature documented by Wunderlich and that a population-level change in inflammation is the most plausible explanation for a decrease in temperature.

gum

表示“牙龈；齿龈；牙床”，英文解释为“either of the firm areas of flesh in the mouth to which the teeth are attached”，如：gum disease 牙龈病。

afflict

表示“使痛苦；使苦恼；折磨”，英文解释为“If a problem or illness afflicts a person or thing, they suffer from it.”举个🌰：

It is an illness that afflicts women less than men.

患这种疾病的女性少于男性。

inflammation

表示“炎（症）”，英文解释为“a red, painful, and often swollen area in or on a part of your body”，如：an inflammation of the eye/toe/ear 眼睛/脚趾/耳朵发炎。

malady

malady /ˈmælədɪ/ 1）表示“病，疾病”，英文解释为“a disease”举个🌰：

All the rose bushes seem to be suffering from the same mysterious malady.

所有的玫瑰丛似乎都得了同一种怪病。

2）表示“（系统或组织内部的）问题，弊病”，英文解释为“a problem within a system or organization”举个🌰：

Apathy is one of the maladies of modern society.

冷漠是现代社会的弊病之一。

Although he doubts the quality of data, Dr. Mackowiak finds this hypothesis persuasive.

“The conclusion is the average temperature of Americans has dropped over that time,” Dr. Mackowiak said. “If that observation is real, her explanation is very reasonable.”

Given the accumulation of evidence, Frank Rühli, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, who peer-reviewed the Stanford study, suggested the medical establishment should respond.

“Medical norms and guidelines and thresholds for interventions need to be adjusted,” Dr. Rühli said. “That is the major issue.”

This is important for researchers and physicians who need to make decisions about when and how to treat patients. But for most of us, a thermometer reading matters less than how we feel. “If you’re sick, you’re sick,” Dr. Parsonnet said, “regardless of your temperature.”

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