If you live in the UK, it’s time to take off your sunscreen as a heatwave will hit us this weekend and next week.
With some parts of the UK expected to bask in temperatures as low as 33°C, you may be worried about staying cool.
A quick Google search for “how to stay cool in a heat wave” will reveal a host of weird and wonderful measures, like drinking hot tea, eating spicy food, and even licking your wrists.
But do any of these methods really work?
Before the heatwave, MailOnline explored the science behind these crazy cooling methods to help separate fact from fiction.
While it may be tempting to grab a cold drink to cool off, surprisingly hot drinks like tea and coffee can actually be more effective.
1. For hot tea
While it may be tempting to grab a cold drink to cool off, surprisingly hot drinks like tea and coffee can actually be more effective.
A 2012 study by University of Ottawa researchers looked at the effect of drinking hot beverages on body temperature.
The results showed that a hot beverage can cool you down, but only in dry conditions.
Speaking to Smithsonian Magazine, Dr. “Drinking a hot beverage means less heat is stored in your body as the extra sweat produced when you drink the hot beverage can evaporate,” said Ollie Jay, one of the study’s authors.
If you eat a hot drink, you sweat more. If sweat can evaporate, it cools you more than offsets the extra heat of the fluid to the body.
While sweating can be embarrassing, it’s a necessary bodily function to keep us cool.
As sweat evaporates from the skin’s surface, it converts water from liquid to steam, removing excess heat.
However, this cooling effect is less effective in humid conditions, so drinking hot beverages will not help you cool down.
Dr. Jay explained: “If you wear a lot of clothes or sweat a lot on a very hot and humid day, if it starts dripping onto the floor and doesn’t evaporate on the surface of your skin, drinking a hot beverage is a bad thing.
“The hot drink still adds some heat to the body, so if the sweat doesn’t help evaporation, choose a cold drink.”
2. Eat spicy foods
This week, instead of buying ice cream, you can choose spicy curry.
The “bitterness” you feel in your mouth when you eat spicy foods is caused by capsaicin, a chemical found in hot peppers.
This is usually followed by a similar sensation of heat in the rest of the body, causing you to sweat.
Yale Professor of American Scientific Inscription Barry Green explains: ‘Spicy foods stimulate skin receptors that normally respond to heat.
The “bitterness” you feel in your mouth when you eat spicy foods is caused by capsaicin, a chemical found in hot peppers. This is usually followed by a similar sensation of heat in the rest of the body, causing you to sweat.
“The central nervous system tells the sensory system everything that is going on.
“Thus, the pattern of pain and warm nerve fiber activity induce both sensations and physical responses to heat, including vasodilation, sweating, and hot flashes.”
As we see when drinking hot beverages, sweating is one of the most important ways to help regulate temperature, as is tea and curry!
3. Lick your wrists
It’s a tactic used by various creatures in the animal kingdom, including kangaroos and monkeys.
As gross as it sounds, licking your wrists also cools people off.
The wrists contain pulse points, which are areas where you can feel the pulse because the blood vessels are close to the skin surface.
By licking your wrists, you use saliva to mimic the effects of sweat that cools the skin’s surface.
This slows blood flow and prevents the body from overheating.
If you don’t like the idea of licking your wrists, you can also pour water on your wrists for a similar effect.
4. Unplug magazines
While most of us know that large, powerful electronic devices such as TVs and computers generate a lot of heat, you may not consider unplugging smaller appliances.
Lamps, kettles, irons, and even chargers can generate a lot of heat when used heavily.
In 2020, ZDNet researchers are testing a wireless charger and using a thermal imager to examine how hot it is both inside and outside.
They found that when an iPhone 11 Pro Max is placed on the wireless charger, the device reaches 32°C and the ambient air reaches 20°C.
“If you want the charging to be cooler, remove all cases, don’t charge the phone in direct sunlight, and store the pad on a hard surface (not a blanket or anything that might cover the air vents)” they advised.
While most of us know that large and powerful electronic devices like TVs and computers generate a lot of heat, you might not consider unplugging smaller devices like chargers.
5. Discard the drink
It may be tempting to head to the nearest pub garden during a heatwave, but if you do, try to scatter the alcohol.
Alcohol is a diuretic that makes you urinate more and can leave you seriously dehydrated.
“Alcohol makes us urinate more and more, and the fluid leaving our bodies at that rate can lead to dehydration if not replaced,” explains Drink Mindful.
“If we choose to drink alcohol, it is important to replace the fluids we lose with drinking water.
“The effects of dehydration include thirst, lightheadedness, lightheadedness and fatigue, mouth and lips, and dark yellow, strong-smelling pee.”
Alcohol also causes the blood vessels in the skin to dilate, making you feel warmer.
It may seem counterintuitive, but research shows that you don’t have to open all the windows to keep your home cool.
6. Do not open all windows
It may seem counterintuitive, but research shows that you don’t have to open all the windows to keep your home cool.
The heated air rises, so the sunny rooms upstairs are warmer than the shade downstairs, creating a pressure difference.
Opening windows in these rooms creates a strategic breeze that draws fresh air from below and pushes warm air out of the house from the sunny rooms upstairs.
The idea of cooler breathing may sound ridiculous, but experienced yoga pros swear by a technique called shitali pranayama.
7. Turn your tongue and breathe
The idea of cooler breathing may sound ridiculous, but experienced yoga pros swear by a technique called shitali pranayama.
Speak to Science Live Meera Watts, founder of Siddhi Yoga, about how the technique can cool your body in minutes.
“Start with a relaxed stance with your back straight and your hands on your knees,” she explains.
‘Remove the tongue and fold the sides into a U shape. In this position of the tube you need to inhale through the tongue and exhale through the nostrils.
To feel the cooling sensation, repeat 5-8 times, which should take no more than a few minutes.
Source: Daily Mail
I am Anne Johnson and I work as an author at the Fashion Vibes. My main area of expertise is beauty related news, but I also have experience in covering other types of stories like entertainment, lifestyle, and health topics. With my years of experience in writing for various publications, I have built strong relationships with many industry insiders. My passion for journalism has enabled me to stay on top of the latest trends and changes in the world of beauty.
