How to Take Your Temperature for a Wilson's Temperature Syndrome Log

Everything on this site comes back to one measurement, and it is easy to take badly. A reading in the morning, under the arm, with a digital thermometer that was dropped last month, will tell you almost nothing about what Dr. Wilson is describing. This guide walks through his method exactly as he wrote it, so that the number you bring to a doctor means what he means by it.

The method, in his words

By mouth with a thermometer

Every 3 hours

3 times a day, starting 3 hours after waking

For several days (not the 3 days prior to the period in women since its higher then) for diagnosis

And regularly during treatment

For each day, add the 3 temperatures together and divide by 3 to get the average.

If your temperature consistently averages below 98.6 and you have symptoms of a slow metabolism then you may be suffering from Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

Written out as a day: if you wake at 7, you read at about 10, 1 and 4. Write down all three, add them, divide by three. Do that for several days and look at the run of daily averages, not any one reading. The handy tools page has the printable chart Dr. Wilson designed for this.

Why daytime, and why three

The timing is not arbitrary. Dr. Wilson wants the readings taken when the temperature should be at its highest and when the symptoms are actually happening:

Body temperatures are normally lower in the morning, higher in the afternoon, and lower again in the evening. So if the temperatures are low during the day when they’re supposed to be at their highest, that’s better evidence that there’s a problem.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

And three readings, rather than one, because he is looking at steadiness as well as level:

One temperature reading a day is not enough to see how widely the temperature is fluctuating, but more than three a day can be too time-consuming.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

This differs from the older Barnes basal test, which the book describes as an underarm reading taken on waking, before rising. Dr. Wilson’s reasons for preferring daytime oral readings are set out in the book chapter What Is Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome?:

I prefer three readings each day which can help one get an idea of the steadiness of the body temperature pattern as well as how high or low the average temperature is. Ideally, the body temperature should be at the proper level and also be steady.

— What Is Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome?, the book

A quicker first look

If several days of logging feels like a lot before you know whether it is worth it, he offers a shortcut:

One approach is for you to take your temperature when you feel your worst and take your temperature when you feel your best and compare the two. With this approach, you will quickly see the correlation between your symptoms and low body temperature.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

Two mistakes that push the reading up

Both are small, both are common, and both come from the same page:

It’s generally a good idea to warm the thermometer against your neck or abdomen before measuring your temperature (especially in cold weather). A cold thermometer can cool your mouth down a little.

Moving the thermometer around in the mouth very much can increase blood flow to the area. That increased blood flow is coming from your heart which is one degree warmer and can increase the temperature reading. Therefore, try not to move the thermometer unnecessarily while taking your temperature. Thermometers normally get their readings within 2-5 minutes.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

Which thermometer

Dr. Wilson’s guidance here is practical rather than brand-loyal. On digital thermometers:

Digital thermometers are very fast and convenient but can easily become inaccurate from:

dropping them from 4 inches or more

low batteries

exposure to water or humidity

When they become inaccurate they can still give a reading, it just won’t be right. There’s no way of knowing whether the reading is correct or not.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

On the alternatives:

We recommend some great new liquid metal thermometers (not mercury). They contain a metal alloy called Galistan. We think they’re better than mercury thermometers ever were. For one thing, they provide accurate readings in only 2 minutes!

Glass Alcohol thermometers are very consistent but frequently don’t hold their readings. They usually contain a red liquid. These thermometers are fine as long as you read them right away.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

And the principle that matters more than the brand:

No matter what thermometer you choose, no matter how new, it may still not be perfectly accurate. There is always some variation among thermometers, some small, some large. The important thing is for patients to be able to see the changes in their temperatures with proper T3 therapy. Therefore it would make sense for patients to try to take their temperatures, in the same way, each time with the same thermometer for comparison’s sake.

— How to Check Your Body Temperature for WTS

(If you end up with a glass thermometer and cannot get it to shake down, the same page has a trick involving a sock. It works.)

Checklist

One thermometer, used the same way every time; warm it first.
By mouth; do not move it; read at 2–5 minutes.
Three readings, three hours apart, the first three hours after waking.
Average each day. Several days. Skip the three days before a period.
Bring the log — not one number — to the conversation with your doctor.

Then read What Is a Low Body Temperature? for what Dr. Wilson makes of the result, and the 53 symptoms he associates with it.

This is a reader’s guide compiled from Dr. Wilson’s published writing; every quotation is his and links to its source. It is not medical advice.