From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris) Subject: Re: High wakeing temperature - help Date: 13 Apr 1997 Newsgroups: alt.med.allergy,alt.health.cfs,misc.health.alternative In <Frrsbeuler-ya02408000R1304971041510001@news.earthlink.net> Frrsbeuler@earthlink.net (Robert Mantz, Jr) writes: >While testing for an underactive thyroid with the wakeing temperature >test, we discovered that my girlfriend's temp in the morning ranges from >98.9 - 91.1. What would that indicate? Later in the day she goes to 98.5 >- 98.6 > >Thanks > >_BOB Your girlfriend is probably in the last (post ovulatory) phase of her menstrual cycle. The corpus luteum is a small amount of inflammed tissue, almost like a wound, and it raises body temps a bit until it "heals". Try taking her temps in a week or two, and you may find that they are considerably lower. There's a pretty broad range of human normal temperatures even in resting people, by the way. Average for oral temps for mature adults is about 98.4 F if you add up all the big studies (not 98.6), but normal range is a bit more problematic. It's probably anything up to 100 F in younger people, but in the geriatric population, I begin to wonder about hidden infections (a urinary infection, for instance) at any temp above 99. Excercise and activity, of course, change body temp a great deal. Play a good game of basketball and your body temp is very likely to be over 100 F. From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris) Newsgroups: alt.sci.physics,sci.physics Subject: Re: The Standard Kilogram @ Sevres Date: 15 Sep 1999 11:55:27 GMT In <7rkeql$pg9$1@isn.dac.neu.edu> mkagalen@lynx02.dac.neu.edu (Michael Kagalenko) writes: > >Steven B. Harris (sbharris@ix.netcom.com) wrote >]In <jhardis-1309990144210001@dialup18.wap.org> jhardis@tcs.wap.org >](Jonathan E. Hardis) writes: >]>Is 98.6 degrees still considered normal body temperature? >]> >]> - Jonathan >] >] >] Nope. 37.0 > > Nope. Try 36.6 Deg.C > > 37.0 Celsium is elevated. Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Normal body temperature depends on age, time of menstrual cycle in women, phase of diurnal cycle (which in turn is heavily influenced by activity), whether it is taken orally, rectally, or some other way, etc, etc. The mean value for the oral temperature of healthy young adults averaged from several studies, in the largest meta-analysis known to me (JAMA 144:1562, 1950), is: 98.34 F +/- 0.47 S.D. Which is 36.86 +/- 0.26 C Which means that in normal healthy adults, normal oral temperature (+/- 4 S.D.) can be anything from 97 to 100.2 F (36.1 to 37.9 C). Between 38 and 38.5 C (low grade fever to fever) is usually the point at which doctors begin to wonder about infection, though it may be no more than a cold in a child. Doctors do compensate for this in clinical practice. 38 C is not even cause for comment in an otherwise healthy 5 year old. It warrents some worry and workup (particularly a urinalysis) in an elderly woman. Steve Harris |