It sounds like a pretty simple question, but it’s incredibly important: what’s your temperature? Is your basal body temperature right for your thyroid. Whether in celsius or fahrenheit, I will help break it down for you today.
We’ll even consider the normal basal body temperature for your thyroid, and if that’s the right way of going about it all.
Specifically, I want to discuss whether or not it has any use when it comes to predicting thyroid disease.
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For over a century, the relationship between basal body temperature and thyroid disease has been known and well-documented.
One of the earliest mentions of it was an 1888 compilation of case reports of those suffering from myxedema. Which was a late consequence of severe hypothyroidism.
Many different symptoms and metrics were tracked, in hundreds of patients over many years. Included in that tracking was basal body temperature.
The authors discussed what was an unusually low temperature in nearly all of those with myxedema.
In the years that followed, it became known that a lack of thyroid hormone was the cause of this condition. And, that the oral use of desiccated thyroid could remedy it.
From this logic, we get the work of Broda Otto Barnes.
He took the idea of basal body temperature and thyroid disease one step further. Dr. Barnes suggested that the use of basal body temperature could help with diagnosing thyroid disease.
Ultimately, he determined the optimal dosage for those who were on replacement therapy.
What I appreciated about Dr. Barnes was his tenacity to find a solution. He saw that the tests of the day simply were not cutting it. Then ventured forth to try and figure out a new way to help people with thyroid disease.
He was incredibly compassionate, and legitimately wanted to help his patients. While his methods might not have worked, as we will learn, you have to admire someone for trying to do the right thing.
Over the course of his research, Barnes saw that many blood tests were proposed to track thyroid disease. But, they really were not very accurate.
Keep in mind, that this was during a time where we did not have TSH, free T3 or free T4. Believe it or not, due to the unreliability of testing during that time, cholesterol levels were thought to be relevant for thyroid testing.
It’s a good thing that we know so much about thyroid testing today (Read: How to test your thyroid, the definitive guide).
In the very distant past, however, they would measure basal metabolic rate. This is what we might understand as basal body temperature. This was done by taking your temperature in your:
Bottom Line: The truth is that, at the extremes of thyroid function, your thyroid does cause changes in body temperature. If you are very hyperthyroid, like during a hyperthyroid storm, your temperature may run higher. In the extremes on the opposite end, your temperature may run lower.
After doing some serious thinking about this, Barnes would ultimately argue that between those extreme temperatures was a strong indicator for overall thyroid status.
He developed a range between 97.8 to 98.2ºF, where a healthy person should always be. It’s pretty easy to see that this is a small range – 0.4ºF does not leave much room for error.
For Barnes, it came down to this, the:
Bottom Line: What this essentially meant was that if your temperature was low, Barnes would encourage taking thyroid medication. Your overall temperature became the arbiter of your thyroid status. Basically, you would take more and more medication until you were within that optimal, and very slim, temperature range.
How was that idea borne out, and is it accurate to tie body temperature and thyroid status together?
These are the questions that we need answers to, and that can help give us a better read on our health.
Where’s your temperature supposed to be? You might have heard of the 98.6ºF. While this might seem like a legend to some, it actually came from a large number of data points in the 1900’s.
The initial argument was that, for a big population, this would simply be the average temperature. Not the optimal temperature, by any means.
Bottom Line: A recent study showed that the average temperature has gone down from the initial findings way back when, but they also found that healthy people can have varying temperatures of all kinds. People can be just about anywhere, and have no problems at all.
Well, it means that the range he was trying to rely on (97.8 to 98.2ºF) is not indicative of good or bad health, necessarily.
It means the range is way broader for healthy people, and a slim range like this does not work. It would mean that around 98% of the population would need to be put on thyroid medication of some kind.
The short answer is no.
The long answer is that although your thyroid is a key player in regulating metabolism and temperature, there are a cascade of other hormones and messenger molecules at work.
Like we discovered before, even healthy and fit people do not fall within the optimal range. Does this mean that they should go on thyroid medication? Not at all.
The internal factors at work influencing your temperature include:
Basal body temperature is governed by so many internal and external factors, and not just the thyroid gland itself.
In this way, we cannot tie any recommendations for how you should treat your thyroid to your temperature alone. When it comes to external factors, we can also understand that:
Bottom Line: All of these factors play an important role in your basal body temperature, so why would we ever just attribute it to the function of your thyroid? While testing might not have been as nuanced in the past, where an answer was needed and people needed to be helped, today we can have a much more nuanced understanding of these factors and how your thyroid works alongside them.
The next question we might be wondering is, “does your thyroid have a role to play in the linear status of that range?”
In a group of trauma patients, one study recorded their axillary temperatures with thyroid scores from current accurate tests.
What they found was that almost everyone was outside of Barnes’ “optimal” range for thyroid patients. Those that had thyroid abnormalities, there was also no relationship between that and their blood pressure.
In other words, is it safe to take more thyroid medication until your temperature goes up to 98.2ºF?
The simple answer is no, that it is unfortunately not true. With hyperthyroidism, there is one version that we know as thyrotoxic storm.
This is so bad for you, and is an emergency room situation that is not good for you.
What we know about it, though, is that in some cases a fever will show up during a hyperthyroid storm. But, it is not that when your thyroid dose gets higher that you make a steady track up to hyperthyroid storm.
Bottom Line: If your temperature is going up, up, up, it is most likely not due to you being thyrotoxic. Except in some incredibly serious situations where you might need to go to the hospital.
What we need to know is that basal body temperature was a useful thing in history, and that it is a helpful thing to track fertility and your menstrual cycle.
You can see shifts in that, but we know that it is not a good tool to track changes in your thyroid.
Please know that your temperature is important, but that not everyone has a high one. If you are not in Barnes’ optimal range, I would not worry about your long-term health – this is just the way you are. You cannot rely on it alone to see if your thyroid dose is safe enough.
What we know, with our present knowledge, is that basal body temperature cannot be safely relied upon to prevent hyperthyroid effects of thyroid therapy.
The problem is that hypothyroidism is a highly prevalent condition, and that many who would benefit from treatment remain undiagnosed – can you just imagine how many people back in the day went undiagnosed?
The best way to find out if someone has a thyroid condition is to test, don’t guess, and by considering these key variables:
Understanding the root cause of your illness, this is the stage where you might be able to rule out other symptoms so that you can gain a clear understanding of how your health is changing and what other factors might be at play.
Symptoms are always important, and being able to recognize them is just as important. While testing can give you a clear picture of your health, acknowledging and understanding your symptoms can help you understand how these things make you feel.
There are plenty of tests that you can consider, such as:
This is all about figuring out the structural health of your thyroid. For your health, you need to understand the physical mass, size, and health of your thyroid by feeling it. This can be done by:
What we know today is that we do not have to rely on our basal body temperature to give us a good idea of our thyroid’s health, and we also do not have to rely on a range of temperature that can be virtually impossible for even perfectly healthy people to fall within.
What we have now are reliable blood tests, examinations, and other methods that can really give us a fuller picture of our health.
Bottom Line: In my opinion, one of the greatest gifts that Barnes has left us is a healthy skepticism toward medical progress and a respect for the insights of those who have gone before us. If he did not question testing of the thyroid, we might not be at the point we are at today, and for that we can thank him.
Want to learn about a test that can give you a clearer picture about the performance of your thyroid?
We talked today about how you can avoid your basal body temperature as a significant indicator of your thyroid health. Instead, you should turn your attention to learning more about your thyroid with the Thyroid Quiz right now (Click Here). This quiz will give you a great starting point, and can help guarantee your health in the future.
Learn more about your thyroid today, and get on the path to feeling better – without having to worry about your temperature.
P.S. Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you now:
1. Schedule a Thyroid Second Opinion with me, Dr. C, Click Here for Details
2. Need a Personalized Supplement? Check out My Thyroid Specific Formulations
3. Download and use my Favorite Recipes Cookbook Here
4. Check out my podcast Medical Myths, Legends, and Fairytales Here
Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet, The Metabolism Reset Diet and The Thyroid Reset Diet.
Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, diabetes, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.
