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>The decrease in average body temperature in the United States could be explained by a reduction in metabolic rate, or the amount of energy being used. The auth

• jriri93 7y ago
  Which is a relatively recent thing. How does that explain the trend going back as far as the article calls out? Without facts to back it, you’re projecting an emotional bias. Either anon commenter is a self loathing obese person or pointlessly finds obese people disgusting. Either way you’ve shown your opinions aren’t worth much
  • swebs 7y ago
    You can be sedentary and not obese, as long as you don't consume more calories than you spend.
• Ericson2314 7y ago
  Constant inflammation seems bad though? Isn't that one of the hypothesized downsides of too little fibre -> gut bacteria mildly but chronically attack instestinal wall?
• keymone 7y ago
  Hmm.. I find it hard to reconcile with the fact that obesity is so widespread I the US. Isn’t obesity linked to inflammation through (at least partially) insulin, which is quite inflammatory? Don’t have medical education, so maybe somebody could chime in.
  • hwillis 7y ago
    This study is comparing now to the early 1900s, when Aspirin was just starting to take off. Selection bias probably plays a very large part; they may have been able to measure temperatures but I doubt they were rigorous about taking representative cross-sections in 1910. Additionally the bias towards obesity has roughly switched- wealthier people were more likely to be obese in the 1900s, and now poorer people are more likely to be obese. Given that the people involved are in their 20s I would guess that obesity plays less of a role than you'd expect. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Adult_male_obesity_in_the_United_States.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#/...
• yk 7y ago
  That seems pretty straight forward to measure, you just take the temperature of people who exercise regularly (say three times a week) and compare that to people who work physically demanding jobs, and to people who work in office jobs, and don't exercise. (I would almost expect, that the study authors know of something like that, and would have mentioned it, if it were the case.)
  • swsieber 7y ago
    I would have expected it to be explicitly mentioned if considered.
  • dangerboysteve 7y ago
    I imagine apple has this data already with their apple watch data collections.
    • LeSaucy 7y ago
      There is no body temperature measurements in Apple Health from the Apple Watch, but that would definitely be an interesting data point were it available.
      • jjeaff 7y ago
        Yes, but also a potential privacy concern since if you have temperature data for a female, you could use it to pinpoint when ovulation may be occurring. I can only imagine that due to some of the recent privacy issues with cycle tracker apps that information might already be exploited for some nefarious advertising campaign.
  • NeuNeurosis 7y ago
    While we don't consider that sedentary, compared to the physical nature of the majority of jobs and lives these people would still be considered sedentary. I think a better comparison would be people who are doing long distance through hikes since their time under tension is extensive and the large distances they travel each while under load would be more respective of per-industrial lifestyles.
• nugget 7y ago
  Body temperature tends to decrease because of a deficiency in thyroid hormone also. Many of the synthetic chemicals used to treat modern day home goods seem to impact this system. I'd be curious whether there is any correlation there.
  • mordymoop 7y ago
    We also eat less animal thyroid.
    • elric 7y ago
      Are you referring to the actual organ? How was that eaten? And which animals? I enjoy weird foods, but I can't say I've ever seen thyroid on a menu.
      • kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
        The generic term in sweetbread, though it covers a variety of organs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread
        • diag 7y ago
          That would be thymus, not thyroid. Those are pretty different glands.
        • phonypc 7y ago
          The thymus is not the thyroid gland, if that's the connection you're trying to make. AFAIK the thyroid gland is not deliberately consumed unless as medicine.
• tempsy 7y ago
  Low inflammation is a good thing, and never heard of a correlation between being sedentary and low inflammation.
  • naravara 7y ago
    If anything I've heard the correlation goes the other way. Regular exercise reduces inflammation markers across the board. Some people suggest it even helps alleviate allergy symptoms all else being equal.
    • soperj 7y ago
      I've exercised my entire life, regularly at a high level, and my allergy to cats developed when I was 10 and has only gotten progressively worse over the years. Started with just itchy eyes and skin and is now into full blown allergy induced asthma. I tell almost immediately when I'm in a house that has had a cat in the last few years. It's terrible. One data point and all...
      • RandomTisk 7y ago
        Most people can build up a tolerance. I grew up with cats close to home and never noticed any allergy as a kid. When I got my own indoor cat though, I noticed itching and then flu-like symptoms that got progressively worse. Allergy medication completely relieved all symptoms, and rather than get rid of fluffy I took allergy meds daily for about 2 weeks, then every second ord third day for another month. Now I'm pretty much free of symptoms, but I occasionally pop a pill if the roof my mouth or hands start to itch for any reason.
        • soperj 7y ago
          I dated a girl for a while who owned a cat. I built up a tolerance to her cat (because she'd have the dander on her clothes), but it didn't help with any other cats. I was also still allergic to her cat, but it was at the point where a claritin would help. Mostly it's within half an hour I can barely breath, so it's hard to build up any sort of tolerance, even with allergy meds. Now it's easier for me to avoid cats entirely.
• adaisadais 7y ago
  Could this also possibly do to an increasing rate of global temperatures? One would think we would simply evolve towards a lower body temp in order to survive in a warm world.
  • ryanmercer 7y ago
    You're being downvoted but I can certainly see why someone might make this mental leap. Instead of downvoting you and driving along without comment let's think about this. CO2 levels for example can negatively impact cognitive function [1], perhaps this could have some impact on energy expenditure in the brain which might reduce body temperature some. Bodies will absolutely adjust to temperature changes as well (to some extent). Plausible but probably not a large percentage of a body temperature. I could see people being exposed to higher CO2 levels though due to the fact there are more and more indoor jobs, and less due to climate change. Even with HVAC systems, a quick Google query makes it seem that CO2 levels are generally higher in offices than outside [2] [3] [4] [5]. And while we're on that brain line of thinking... perhaps the increased consumption of television and mindless scrolling of social media feeds also results in far lower cognitive engagement which also decreases energy expenditure shrugs. Also worth looking at I suspect. For me I immediately thought of the thermic effect of food. Legumes, many spices, nuts, seeds etc all tend to have higher thermic effects. Perhaps eating a highly refined carbohydrate diet has caused a lowering in body temerapture by having lower thermic effects (I don't know, this was just my first mental leap). I suspect there is something here but probably not a major percentage of the difference. [1] = https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1510037 https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1510037 [2] - https://www.businessinsider.com/office-air-co2-levels-making-workers-tired-2017-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/office-air-co2-levels-making... [3] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26273786 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26273786 [4] - https://www.planteriagroup.com/blog/co2-levels-in-offices-are-damaging-uk-productivity/63 https://www.planteriagroup.com/blog/co2-levels-in-offices-ar... [5] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/27/why-your-office-air-could-be-crimping-your-productivity/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
    • hwillis 7y ago
• Spooky23 7y ago
  I’d say the bigger elephant in the room is that thermometers have moved from an accurate standard (Mercury glass thermometers) to a hodge podge of alternatives. Some of these alternatives, like temporal scan thermometers vary dramatically.
• bstar77 7y ago
  As an adult, my body temp has always been low, around 97.2*. I also never get fevers. I'm also very athletic- I bike 3-4 times a week. Maybe there is a correlation with sedentary life, but I don't think it's a factor in my case nor many others.
  • hwillis 7y ago
    People who exercise have lower temperatures during sleep, similar or higher temperatures otherwise, and the same maximum temperature, which occurs during the evening. http://www.altmedrev.com/archive/publications/11/4/278.pdf http://www.altmedrev.com/archive/publications/11/4/278.pdf
• hwillis 7y ago
  > A sedentary lifestyle with minimal exercise has become the norm. The people being studied were in their 20s- obesity has increased 4-5x among children since 1980, but it's still only 20-25% for people in their 20s. Since then we've gotten gym class and advil- they had barely gotten aspirin. Selection bias probably plays a very large part. They may have been able to measure temperatures but I doubt they were rigorous about taking representative cross-sections in 1910. Additionally the bias towards obesity has roughly switched- wealthier people were more likely to be obese in the 1900s, and now poorer people are more likely to be obese. That said, muscle mass correlates almost directly with energy consumption. Muscles literally require energy to stay limp. Rigor mortis is caused by the supply of energy being cut off. The majority of the body's energy requirement is spent just keeping your muscles in working order- not even moving.
• chiefalchemist 7y ago
  My first reaction was to agree. However, if exercise ultimately makes the body more efficient, wouldn't that drop your body temp as your heart is beating less. That aside, the brain burns a significant percentage of calories burned. Perhaps on whole we are thinking less?
  • hwillis 7y ago
    People who exercise have lower temperatures during sleep, similar or higher temperatures otherwise, and the same maximum temperature, which occurs during the evening. http://www.altmedrev.com/archive/publications/11/4/278.pdf http://www.altmedrev.com/archive/publications/11/4/278.pdf
    • chiefalchemist 7y ago
      So it's a wash then. Correct? Which leaves the possibility of less it being a brain issue. Lower temps means less calories burned. There are many ways to accomplish that. Whatever happen to HN being a space where a legit "what if?" was explored, not knocked?
      • hwillis 7y ago
        It's almost certainly not a wash, unless all of the people in the records are having their temperatures taken while they sleep. People who are physically fit will tend to have very slightly higher body temperatures (less than what was found in the OP) when measured.
• koheripbal 7y ago
  Additionally, adipose tissue (fat) is slightly colder than internal tissue. The more fat content you have, the lower your average body temperature.
• ljm 7y ago
  Isn't the real elephant in the room obesity? And a culture around lifestyle and low-quality food that actively promotes it? If you're sitting on your ass all day and then going out to drink a gallon of HFCS-infused coke (free refills) and a low-budget meal that could satisfy a starving family, of course you're gonna get to this point. My personal thought with the US is "why does everything have to be so big?"
• readhn 7y ago
  > Let's not ignore the elephant in the room. A sedentary lifestyle with minimal exercise has become the norm. Huh? fitness industry is booming! Gym attendance is near all time highs! More and more people are eating healthier and switch to healthier and more active lifestyle.
  • gbear605 7y ago
    Assuming this wasn’t satirical, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. The rates of intentional exercise - going to a gym and working out - are certainly on the rise, but the actual rate of exercise is more lower than it was a hundred years ago. The job market has switched in large part to sedentary jobs from active jobs. And diets are much less healthy today than they were then because the only diets available (to anyone other than the rich) were relatively healthy. It’s hard to become overweight without the presence of junk food. Not impossible, certainly, but hard.
• JamesBarney 7y ago
  Sure I guess people in the 1800's who worked on farms were far less sedentary but my parents, and my grandparents and my great grandparents all worked jobs fairly similar to mine and drove to work. And none of them went to the gym like my generation (born in the 80's).
  • Broken_Hippo 7y ago
    I think that by the time we get to great grandparents, they did get more exercise. Sure, they might have been able to afford a single car, but lots of living had more activity. Housework, for example, took way more work while our great grandparents were young adults and children. Cars themselves were harder to drive with no power steering or brakes (and the early power-assists were very poor by today's standards). Office jobs had a lot more 'work' by their very nature simply because everything was on paper - there is a lot of little back and forth walking, bending, and lifting there. As children, they would have played outside lots and helped around the house (since house chores were more work). I think there were a lot of these little things that mean that yes, our 'sedentary' grandparents and great-grandparents were a lot more active just because of how life was.