Your ‘Normal’ Body Temperature Is No Longer 98.6

When I was younger I learned that average body temperature was considered 98.6 F, and anything higher than that you were "running a fever".

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. -WSJ

Over the last couple of years, however, I noticed at my wife's doctor's appointments her temperature would always be around 97.6 and the nurse would never say anything like they would if it was OVER 98.6.

Well, according to a new research, apparently the human body has changed over the years, and the new average is about one degree lower.

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. -WSJ

Human temperatures can be taken orally, rectally, by ear, or under armpit.