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Wed, 16 Feb 2000 23:16:06 -0500
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<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

There have been 70 replies to my "low body temperature" (LBT) question
and the "pre-Summary" I posted.

Higher than Normal:  Only 3 people replying said they were usually above
the accepted normal 37 degrees C or 98.6 F.  Another 3 said they
ordinarily were low but that when they got hot because of fever or
exercise they tended to get very, very hot.  Remember, however, that
originally I was asking who tended to have LBT and low values of other
vital signs.  ( Non-USA folks please pardon my lazy retention of the
F-scale values that were used by a large majority of the replies I
received.  I have misplaced the program that would automatically do the
conversions.)

Lower than Normal:  Almost all the remaining replies were from Celiac
list subscribers reporting temperature readings which tended to be low
(their own or some family member's).  Of these, 13 replies reported LBT
without specifying numerically how low; another 17 gave numerical values
of their usual body temp or range; 30 others gave more elaborate
information about temperature variation and relation of temperature to
other vital signs and to health status.  Rarely did replies specify how
temp was taken (device and site).

The usual normal range or average temps were from 92.0 to 98.0.  12 gave
usual temps 96.5 or lower; 7 of these CD-niks reported regularly
measuring 96.0 or below; readings my HMO's encyclopedia says are so low
as to be occasion for hollering "HELP!".  Eight replies fell in the
range from 97.0 to 97.6.

Diagnosed thyroid disorders as cause of LBT were reported in eleven
replies.  One of the the very low temp persons reported a
normally-functioning thyroid.  Four people said they had low WBC and/or
failure of WBC to respond to challenge.

Seven people reported that their health had been endangered one or more
times because providers unacquainted with their body temperature
idiosyncrasy would not recognize that they were suffering from a severe
infection until other symptoms reached an advanced state.  Counting
myself (I have had three avoidable hospitalizations because LBT delayed
treatment), that makes eight.  There's a medical name for certain
infections with no fever or reduced body temperature, Bacteremia, but
the replies here were mainly from people for whom this was not an
unusual occurrence .  Six of the repliers described their typical
response to gluten challenge as including reduction of body temperature
(and some said BP fell as well).

Difficulty of adjusting to environmental temperature change or cold
figured in five replies.  Skinny was the usual skinny on this.  I can
empathize with those who said their cold hand handshakes caused
double-takes or who encounter wise-cracking nurses who ask "Are you sure
you are alive?"

Some of the responders mentioned Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  A recent
experiment at National Jewish compared CFS subjects' core body
temperatures with that of others using tiny swallowed transmitting
temperature sensors concluded:  "Subjects with CFS have normal CBT
despite frequent self-reports of subnormal body temperature and
low-grade fever."  [ Hamilos DL et al.  Core body temperature is normal
in chronic fatigue syndrome.  Biol Psychiatry 1998 Feb15;43(4):
293-302.]  (I did not read the whole article and don't know whether the
experimenters checked on whether there was greater discrepancy between
CBT and orally measured temp for the CFS subjects.).

Some messages mentioned that there were support groups for disorders
other than CD on the web where LBT was a common subject of discussion
including one where LBT was definitive of the condition.  The latter,
Wilson's Syndrome," has been attacked as a quack's cult:
<http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/News/wilson.html> .  It
seems to me there is a hustle associated with Wilson's Stick.

For me, the addiction of orthodox medicine to "factoids" about
temperature is a bit of quackery in its own right.

Two replies liked the humor in my post, this perhaps another
manifestation of a shared disorder.

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