Keepin' Cool in Hot Weather

This has been an unusually hot summer–just a glimpse of the effects of Global Warming. We all need tips on how to keep cool. Here are 10 great tips I found at ABC News  http://abcn.ws/T1ZRaX and Daily Mail (based in the UK) http://bit.ly/TJY4u

1. Stay hydrated by drinking fluids like water or Gatorade.

2. Avoid alcohol, since it can act as a diuretic and lead to dehydration.

3. Wear lightweight, light-colored cotton clothes. Heat is trapped by synthetic fibers, but cotton absorbs perspiration and its evaporation causes you to feel cooler. The light colors reflect the sun's radiation.

4. Eat small meals and eat more often. The larger the meal, the more metabolic heat your body creates breaking down the food. Avoid foods that are high in protein, which increase metabolic heat.

5. Eat spicy food. Although this may be the last thing you fancy in hot weather, curries and chiles can stimulate heat receptors in the mouth, enhance circulation and cause sweating, which cools the body down.

6. Run your wrists under a cold tap for five seconds each every couple of hours. Because a main vein passes through this area, it helps cool the blood.

7. Take a tepid bath or shower just below body temperature, especially before bedtime. Although a cold shower might sound more tempting, your body generates heat afterwards to compensate for the heat loss.

8. Replace your usual body moisturizer with a cooling Aloe Vera After Sun product to use morning and night. This will help lower your skin temperature.

9. Buy a Chillow Pillow, a thin, soft, medical-grade device that pops into your pillow to cool it down.

10. Sit back, close your eyes and picture snow. Research has shown that the body reacts to these daydreams, reducing its overall temperature.

Great tips, indeed. I hope you learned a new thing or two. I did! I’d never heard of a Chillow Pillow or considered replacing my usual moisturizer Aloe Vera After Sun lotion. Other things I didn’t know: that spicy food actually contributes to cooling the body, and that daydreaming of cold places helps keep cool. I especially like that one. (smile)

What do you do to keep cool? If you have any good tips, please share them.

Until next month and wishing you all a keepin’ cool August,

Ann

www.annroth.net