The popular tiktok doctor Andrei Lychagin (androlog_msk) told why in Russia and in America the temperature is measured by different methods and which of them is the most accurate.
As they say, for people everything comes from childhood, and in Russia – from the USSR. The tradition of measuring temperature with a mercury thermometer through the armpit has remained in modern Russia since the days of the Soviet Union. At that time, polyclinics did not have enough medical equipment and facilities for emergency disinfection for visitors. In addition, in hospitals, queues of patients were quite often observed, and mercury thermometers made it possible to measure while the doctor was interviewing the patient.
It turns out that the thermometer under the arm is a relic of the Soviet era!
According to Dr. Lychagin, it is precisely such a relic of the Soviet era that has remained with us to this day and is the reason for the massive use of mercury thermometers.
In America, however, the “axillary” method was abandoned in favor of a faster and more accurate – oral method of measuring temperature. The thermometer is placed under the patient’s tongue and after a couple of minutes a conclusion can be drawn about the state of health.
However, this method is not ideal either. The doctor called the rectal measurement method the most accurate and fastest, when a thermometer is inserted into the patient’s rectum.
Commentators very quickly defended the old-fashioned way and began to argue with the author of the video about the queues in Soviet hospitals. In addition, attentive viewers have noticed that the temperature can vary in different parts of the body, depending on many factors. There were, of course, those who found the video funny and instructive.
“Whichever method the patient chooses, it is best,” the doctor noted in his video, “not to get sick, then not a single thermometer is needed!