Normal body temperature can vary from individual to individual. However, despite this variation, the average basal body temperature of humans has mysteriously dropped since the 1860s. A recent study points to the gut microbiome as a possible contributor to regulating body temperature, both in healthy individuals and during life-threatening infections.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Robert Dickson, M.D., at the University of Michigan Medical School, utilized health records from patients admitted to the hospital with sepsis and conducted experiments on mice to investigate the relationship between the gut bacteria composition, temperature changes, and health outcomes.
Sepsis, the body’s response to a life-threatening infection, can cause drastic changes in body temperature, the trajectory of which is linked to mortality. Previous work has demonstrated that hospitalized patients with sepsis vary widely in their temperature responses, and this variation predicts their survival.
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