Thermometers and Body Temperature

I take my temperature often, both during hot soaks, and at other times dealing with my Low body Temperature Problems. Part of it is biofeedback training, trying to teach myself to adjust my body temperature and metabolism; and part has been in experiments related to the use of external tones, lights, and magnetic fields to improve metabolism and brain function. (Yea Olde Buddhist Monk techniques, now done up with little more than modern terminology. This stuff it is thousands of years old, cross cultural, etc.)

Think about it for a moment, how does the body regulate temperature? Level one, is by regulating blood circulation to the skin. Level two, is by sweating. In my own experience, I have found that I can easily show 8 degrees of difference between in-mouth temperature and colder skin temperature.

Excitement, room temperature variations, even thinking about your mother in-law, all those things have a major impact on blood circulation to the skin, and not in a uniform manner. Several years ago at the Whole Earth Expo in San Francisco, there were a bunch who were doing something very much like psychotherapy by watching the fluctuations in skin temperature in their subjects as they said various words. (The next year, they expanded their booth from a single to a quad! They were raking it in!)

There is also a whole brand of faith healing which appears to use near subliminal detection of changes in skin temperature as a core part of their therapy. I almost burst out laughing as they said there was also "a more distant spiritual component" out about the location of the downdraft from the convection cell created by their warm victim. That does not mean their techniques don't work, only that they don't know what they are talking about. Lots of things work for reasons unknown to the people working them. After all, do you know the details about flame propagation in the pistons of your automobile? But that does not stop you from driving it to work.

Thermometer Types

Ear / IR Thermometers

Electronic Oral Thermometers

Glass Thermometers

Other Thermometers

Since regular thermometers are not made to clinical standards, I check their accuracy by using a rubber band to hold the bulb next to the bulb of a clinical glass thermometer, immersing the set in a glass of water, then slowly heating the glass to see how closely they track the clinical thermometer. Some do well, others do poorly; I guess it just depends on who calibrated them.

One other problem is that many of these are made in China, and Chinese wire insulation technology is just crap! The insulation breaks down in less than half a year of daily use. But indoor/outdoor thermometers are cheap and more convenient than looking at a clinical thermometer in your mouth cross eyed.

Conclusion