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October 7, 2004
Normal temperature
Q: I am a frequent blood donor. Each time I donate blood, they take my temperature. It never fails that my reading starts at 91 F (32.7 C) and, after blasting my ears in Roto-Rooter fashion, they get a reading of 95F (35 C). At the blood centre, the standing joke is “here comes the corpse”. Please define ‘normal’ temperature.
A: There is no such thing as a ‘normal’ temperature. There’s a normal range for body temperature, but singling out one number — i.e., 98.6 F (37 C) — as having the designation of ‘normal’ is a piece of medical lore that is fantasy.
Body temperature fluctuates 1 to 2 degrees F (0.5 to 1 C) from 98.6. It reaches a high point between 4 pm and 6 pm and a low point in the early morning hours. It also changes depending on what kind of activity a person happens to be doing. Exercising, for example, raises body temperature. Sitting in a freezer lowers it.
I must admit that 95 F (35 C) is abnormally low. It stretches credibility. I take it you feel fine. That argues against the low temperature having any significance. Furthermore, the blood bank does not exclude you from being a donor — another piece of evidence that this temperature is not a sign of illness.
You are getting a body temperature reading from a probe that’s inserted in the ear canal and records the temperature of the eardrum. You say they have trouble getting the probe into your ear canal. I bet there is some anatomic quirk in the canal that prevents an accurate reading.
Have your oral or rectal temperature taken, and let me know the results. If either of those temperatures is as low as your eardrum temperature, I will have to dance my way around it with a different explanation.
It could be that you just happen to be a very cool person.
Q: I am a 43-year-old male, and I think I might have attention deficit disorder. From childhood I have been a very hyper person. I never was diagnosed as having it, but my son has been, and I see much of me in him. Does this happen to adults and, if it does, how is it treated?
A: Attention deficit disorder doesn’t begin in adults, but it can carry over from childhood into adult life. As many as 50 per cent of children who have the diagnosis will have some persistent attention deficit disorder symptoms in adulthood.
Signs of adult attention deficit disorder include irritability, in attention, disorganisation, a habit of constantly interrupting conversation, frequent change of jobs, habitually being bored and a tendency to put things of for another day.
The fact that your son has the disorder is very significant. Often it runs in families.
Adults are treated with the same medicines children are. Ritalin and Strattera are examples. In addition to medicine, professional counselling provides people with strategies to keep the disorder from disrupting their lives.
Q: Will you kindly tell me the meaning of ‘whole grains’? I hear and see this term used whenever there is a discussion about diet and foods, but I don’t have a good idea of what it means.
A: A grain — e.g., wheat, rice, oat, barley, rye — has three components. The outer shell is the bran. Bran is a good source of fibre. The inner core is composed of endosperms and germ.
Endosperm accounts for 80 per cent of the grain’s interior. It is mostly starch, but it also provides protein and vitamins. The germ, a small part of the inner grain, sprouts when the grain is planted in earth.
Most grains are milled. The endosperm is separated from the bran and germ. The endosperm is then ground into flour.
When a flour product says ‘whole grain’, the bran and germ have been returned to the flour. Or ‘whole grain’ refers to a product that has not been milled.
Brown rice, corn, popcorn, barley and millet are unmilled whole grains.
Dr Donahue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may to write him or request an order form of available health news letters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475
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