How to Handle Extreme Hot Weather Conditions

The body has to be kept at a temperature between 35.5 to 37.5°C or otherwise, your health and well-being might be affected. Being in an environment at such temperature level will enable your body to function normally. On the other hand, when you are exposed to extreme temperature, you will experience sudden illness such as pyrexia and heat exhaustion and to some serious extent death caused by heat stroke. Minimizing heat exposure can be manipulated through adaptive practices such as hydration, staying under the shade, using fans, or having an air-conditioner at home.

When you are not able to utilize adaptive practices to help control the heat in your environment, you will experience heat-related illness where your body’s natural thermoregulation processes become ineffective in dissipating the body heat that’s building inside. That is why, at the peak of summer where temperatures are raging, let these tips help you cool down even when it’s hot outdoors:

• Watch what you’re eating. There are foods that can speed up your metabolic rate, and when it happens, your body releases more heat. This contributes to the heat that you are feeling from your outside environs. Thus, keep spicy food off your menu because most of it contains the compound capsaicin. Such component is proven to temporarily increase body temperature.

  Additionally, you need to avoid diuretic foods, because in extreme heat, the most important thing you need to do is to retain as much water as possible in your body. This means you need to turn your heads away from coffee, tea, and sodas. Moreover, take it easy on meat. Meats are packed with protein and remember that the body takes a lot of effort in digesting the complex substance into simple molecules, such process could increase body heat.

• Know where your quick-cooling points are. Did you know that by applying an ice pack over your cooling points, you can immediately bring down your body temperature? When the heat becomes unbearable, you can cool down your pulses by applying a cold pack or a damp washcloth on it; if you have none of these things, you can run your wrist under flowing water. What is the rationale regarding this? Well, pulse points are palpable because the blood vessels are close to the skin’s surface and when you are going to apply cold packs, you are also cooling down the blood that flows near the skin.

• Stay out of the sun. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have a self-imposed exile inside the house just to avoid extreme heat. What’s advisable is that you’ll bail out from going to open marketplace where the sun is up and the people are jam-packed. Instead of going to these places, you can spend your time in an air-conditioned environment like malls, restaurants, and movie houses.

• Enjoy the comforts of home. There is certainly no place like home; and the best way to beat the extreme summer heat is to stay indoors as often as you can. If possible, you must avoid doing unnecessary outdoor activities and learn to remain at home and enjoy the pleasures of life while being off the extreme heat. If it’s already expected that extreme heat will come, you must do preventive maintenance of your AC unit so that you won’t experience breakdown during high noon.

  You can also do renovation works, before the summer begins, consider enlarging your windows so air can easily pass through it. However, you can just open the windows early in the morning or late in the afternoon where the heat wave is not present. Additionally, you can attach blinds near the window pane, to keep off heat in the middle of the day. This prevents the window pane from turning your house into a miniature greenhouse.

  These anecdotal techniques are simple to perform, but carry weight in keeping you away from falling victim to extreme heat conditions. If followed religiously, you can definitely battle the effects of heat waves for an extended period of time. No matter how hot it is out there, chances are these logical solutions can keep you cool all summer long.