When you hear the phrase “Take your temperature”, you usually associate it with being sick and looking for a fever.
But your temperature can also be a clue of your metabolic health. As a hypothyroid patient, taking your temperature can be an important aspect in three other ways:
1) diagnosing hypothyroid
2) dosing with natural desiccated thyroid
3) assessing your adrenal status
Generally, the average temperature of an adult with a healthy thyroid and a healthy metabolism is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.0 degrees Celsius, and that occurs around mid-afternoon or 3 pm. So if you take your mid-afternoon temp and find it in low 98’s or even in the 97’s, you have been given a strong clue that you may be hypothyroid. And a few report their mid-afternoon temp being in the 96’s. BRRRR.
Another temperature clue is to take it before you rise from your bed in the morning. Dr. Broda Barnes, a doctor who paid attention to clinical presentation and prescribed Armour, found that a healthy before-rising morning basal temp should be between 97.8 – 98.2. If it’s higher, you may be hyperthyroid, and if it’s lower, you are most likely hypothyroid. He also recommended under-the-arm temperature testing, but patients have found oral to be just as effective.
Additionally, once you are on natural desiccated thyroid like Armour, and are consistently raising your doses, you will see your temps climb to healthy levels with increasing feel-good symptoms to match. In many patients, reaching 98.6 can happen before you are even on your optimal amount of Armour.
But what if you are seeing your temperature all over the map, such as one temp one day, and a temp one-half to two degrees lower at the exact same time the next day?? That could be a sign that you have low-functioning adrenals, a common condition with hypothyroid patients, which means you aren’t producing enough cortisol. And for some folks, it takes supplementing with low-dose Hydrocortisone or other adrenal support products to bring that stability in the temperature back.
Dr. Rind has an excellent temperature graph you can use to understand temps:
http://www.drrind.com/therapies/metabolic-temperature-graph
WHAT KIND OF THERMOMETER SHOULD YOU USE? Though Dr. Rind above doesn’t recommend the old-fashion oral mercury thermometers, we as thyroid patients have found them quite useful and accurate as compared to most digital thermometers, which tend to be off up to a degree one direction or the other. Yes, some digitals are definitely better than others. But when in doubt, use your Mercury, or any fluid-filled thermometer, which in modern times, replaces the older mercury thermometers. It’s also important to leave it under your tongue long enough, i.e. several minutes.
WHAT IF YOUR TEMP IS NORMAL OR HIGH, YET YOU HAVE HYPOTHYROID SYMPTOMS? This is a clue that you may have an antibodies attack on your thyroid, called Hashimotos Disease, making it wise to do the two antibodies tests to confirm or rule out Hashi’s.
So TAKE YOUR TEMP!!
P.S. If you are a menstruating woman, keep in mind that your normal morning temperature may be at its lowest from day one of your period to day 14 of your cycle, then up to a degree higher after ovulation until you start your period again.
