Are you huffing and puffing, starting to sweat and you haven’t really done much apart from walk to the bike park or hang the washing out? The world is warming up and the past 13 months have been the hottest on record.
Don’t wait until you are overheated before you try and work out how to cool down.
- Use a weather app on your phone and plan your day. Don’t just look at the daily temperature but also the hourly one and plan your day around them.
- Stay hydrated. The body cools down by sweating. When moisture on the skin evaporates it takes heat with it so you need to replace these fluids by drinking plenty of water and water-rich foods (e.g. apples, oranges, cucumbers, watermelon, strawberries). It’s recommended that you drink 2.5 to 3.5 litres per day and even more if you spend alot of time outdoors and are sweating more than usual. Always have water with you and try to make sure you are able to get refills.
- Look for air-conditioned environments like shopping malls, supermarkets and cafes.
- No aircoat home? Use a fan. A fan can blow heat away from your body and keep you cool but not if the surrounding air is hot. Wet your skin with a spray bottle or wet wipe – the fan helps to speed up evaporative heat loss (i.e. sweating).
- Take breaks especially if you are outside. You sweat anyway doing physical work and then you are also being heated from the outside.
- Wear, loose, lightweight clothing which allows air to get to your skin.
- Anytime you are outside use a sun block and wear a hat.
DIY cooldowns
- Eat or drink something cold.
- Cool off with a shower or bath.
- Dunk a cotton tea towel in water and place it around your head, body neck for example.
Apply ice or cold packs.