Bolivia's Tsimane people's average body temperature fell half a degree in 16 years

[Judi Lynn]

A new study adds to evidence that 37° Celsius, or 98.6° Fahrenheit, is no longer the norm



Members of an Indigenous Bolivian group known as the Tsimane travel along the Maniqui River in a dugout canoe.

M. GURVEN

By Sujata Gupta

17 HOURS AGO

Indigenous Bolivian Amazon dwellers are helping to bolster recent findings that normal body temperature, around 37° Celsius, or 98.6° Fahrenheit, might not be so normal anymore.

The horticulturist-forager Tsimane people in the South American nation have experienced a half-degree drop, on average, in body temperatures over a decade and a half, anthropologist Michael Gurven and colleagues report October 28 in Science Advances.

The new finding echoes the half-degree drop in average body temperature reported earlier this year in a Stanford University study of three U.S. population cohorts over 157 years. In that research, normal body temperature fell by 0.03° C per decade.

Body temperature serves as a sort of surrogate for basal metabolic rate, or the number of calories required to keep the body working while at rest. Higher rates have been linked to shorter life spans and lower body mass. Body temperature — which also reflects circadian rhythms, immune function, the presence or absence of disease as well as ambient temperature — is affected by age, sex and time of day (SN: 10/2/17).

More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bolivia-indigenous-tsimane-people-average-body-temperature

[Warpy]

1. They're not the only ones

Average human body temperature seems to be falling all over the place.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200113/Study-suggests-average-body-temperature-in-humans-falling.aspx