THYROID DEFICIENCY: A SIMPLE HOME TEST

Some years ago, seeking a better index of thyroid function, I began to use and still use a simple temperature test. It costs nothing. It requires only an ordinary thermometer. Any patient can self-administer the test at home in ten minutes—and, in fact, the test is best carried out at home. The test must be done in a certain way but it is a very simple procedure. Details about the test have been published in the medical literature. Not all doctors by any means are using it yet, but more and more are. (Later in this book, you will find specific instructions for carrying out the test if you wish to do so, along with a full explanation of the basis for the test.)

It is a test for basal—or, at-rest—temperature which differs from the everyday oral and rectal temperature reading in that the entire body must be completely at rest. There is a definite range for normal basal temperature. Below that range, low thyroid function is indicated.

The temperature test has checked out against the basal metabolism and other thyroid tests and has revealed hypothyroidism when the other tests have done so and when they have failed to do so. And when patients with low basal temperature have had thyroid treatment, their symptoms have disappeared as their basal temperature has climbed.

In thousands of patients, use of the basal temperature test to detect hypothyroidism and then to correct it— starting with very small doses of thyroid medication and increasing them, if necessary, until retesting has shown the temperature rising—has led to gratifying results.

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