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The human body always works to remain in homeostasis. One form of homeostasis is thermoregulation. Body temperature varies in every individual, but the average internal temperature is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F). [1] Sufficient stress from extreme external temperature may cause injury or death if it exceeds the ability of the body to thermoregulate.
As in other mammals, human thermoregulation is an important aspect of homeostasis. In thermoregulation, body heat is generated mostly in the deep organs, especially the liver, brain, and heart, and in contraction of skeletal muscles. [1] Humans have been able to adapt to a great diversity of climates, including hot humid and hot arid.
98.6 °F (37.0 °C) is not the normal or average temperature of the human body. That figure comes from an 1860 study, [295] but modern research shows that the average internal temperature is 36.4 °C (97.5 °F), with small fluctuations. [296] [297] [298] The cells in the human body are not outnumbered 10 to 1 by microorganisms. The 10 to 1 ...
Normal human body temperature varies slightly from person to person and by the time of day. Consequently, each type of measurement has a range of normal temperatures. The range for normal human body temperatures, taken orally, is 36.8 ± 0.5 °C (98.2 ± 0.9 °F). [12]
For instance, core body temperature in humans varies during the course of the day (i.e. has a circadian rhythm), with the lowest temperatures occurring at night, and the highest in the afternoons. Other normal temperature variations include those related to the menstrual cycle .
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation.
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below 35.0 °C (95.0 °F) in humans. [48] Symptoms range from shivering and mental confusion, [49] to hallucinations and cardiac arrest. [48] In addition to cold injuries, breathing cold air can cause dehydration, because the air is warmed to body temperature and humidified from body moisture. [15]
In humans, hyperthermia is defined as a temperature greater than 37.5–38.3 °C (99.5–100.9 °F), depending on the reference used, that occurs without a change in the body's temperature set point. [3] [10] The normal human body temperature can be as high as 37.7 °C (99.9 °F) in the late afternoon. [2]