Channel: Strong Medicine

Category: Education

Description: A discussion of the origin of the myth that normal body temperature is 98.6, as well as a discussion of what temperature we should use to define the presence of a fever. Select References (Sorry, some of these are behind a paywall): Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich and the evolution of clinical thermometry: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8011836 Normal oral, rectal, tympanic and axillary body temperature in adult men and women: a systematic literature review: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12000664 Individual differences in normal body temperature: longitudinal big data analysis of patient records: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29237616 Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the industrial revolution: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31908267 Using Smartphone Crowdsourcing to Redefine Normal and Febrile Temperatures in Adults: Results from the Feverprints Study: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6258625 (I didn't include discussion of this study specifically, but it's still interesting - and not paywalled!) #fever #COVID #COVID19