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According to Yahoo! Health, body temperature is a measurement of the body's ability to "generate and get rid of heat." This definition is key to understanding why temperatures in the 90s can be downright uncomfortable. Think of your body as a steam engine. Under normal temperatures, it generates more heat than it needs. It's generally agreed that room temperature (68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit) allows the body to dissipate "waste heat" with the least amount of effort. How so, you ask? Because heat naturally transfers from warmer to cooler environments. Room temperature lets nature do its thing with minimal effort on our part, but when the ambient temperature rises, it takes more energy to get rid of excess body heat. When the outside temperature approaches our body temperature, there's no natural convection cooling mechanism at work. The body has to work incredibly hard to dissipate heat, which it does through the lovely and aromatic act of sweating.
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