How to Keep Cool ideas?

[mercalia]

douse head and tea shirt in water?

and stay near a fan or source of moving air

[kylecycler]

I mis-read the title - I thought, write them down before you forget them!

I've got an old shower on the wall at the bottom of the bath that I never use as a shower - I prefer a bath (I mean, why stand when you can lie down?) - but it's handy for rinsing stuff in the bath. In hot weather, though, especially after getting home on the bike, I kneel down with my head over the bath and use the shower head to run cold water over my head for about two or three minutes. Brings your body temperature down a lot faster than just waiting to cool down, I think (and you don't even have to take your clothes off!).

[sabrutat]

As a roofer in Texas for a decade, I learned pretty quickly the best ways to deal with the ridiculous temperatures. There's no real secret: drink lots of iced water, keep dowsing a neckerchief around your neck, and try to stay in a breeze to facilitate evaporation, which is what actually cools you down. Staying in the shade, if possible, goes without saying.

On particularly hot days (in the sun on a tar-papered roof it could get as high as 70 degrees C) I would go through two gallons of water and still be dehydrated when I got home. Don't wait until you're thirsty.

[Tangled Metal]

You can buy something called a cobber. It's a neckerchief that contains a type of crystals that absorb water. You put it in water then around your neck and the crystals release water causing them to cool down. I've never tried them but I believe they came from Australia. You can also get wide brimmed hats with these crystals in the head band.

I think overall it's a case of anything you can do to take heat out of your body. My preference post hot ride is cold water to the head, face and neck. Let it evaporate instead of drying it with a towel.

One more thing, don't just drink water but include electrolytes. Not sure if a myth but I heard too much water can wash out salts from your cells which has the potential to be serious. The story I heard was an ultra runner collapsed on the train home from an event and died in hospital because he'd drunk too much water without taking on salts or electrolytes. Not sure if true but plain water never seemed to quench my thirst when walking in hot.conditions. One time I drank 9 litres another it was 7.5 litres. I still ended up with major dehydration headache which only went after I'd eaten something and drunk a drink with something in it.

[[XAP]Bob]

How's about this:

[mercalia]

How's about this:

but how do you get out?

[53x13]

How's about this:

but how do you get out?

How do you get in!

[[XAP]Bob]

How's about this:

but how do you get out?

How do you get in!

using a kiddy slide behind the bin

[mjr]

One more thing, don't just drink water but include electrolytes. [...]One time I drank 9 litres another it was 7.5 litres. I still ended up with major dehydration headache which only went after I'd eaten something and drunk a drink with something in it.

In other words, eat as well as drink! It's possible to die from hyponatraemia (low salts) but I think it's one every few years from exercise in the more developed countries.

You don't need fancy pills unless you're doing something pretty extreme and most sports tabs result in drinks with a lower salt concentration than the human body, so surely drinking it is likely to lower your concentration further? If you really think you're suffering, maybe eat some bread dipped in oil, vinegar and salt, mediterranean-style. It's for the good of your health!

[Psamathe]

...If you really think you're suffering, maybe eat some bread dipped in oil, vinegar and salt, mediterranean-style. It's for the good of your health! :)

I'd always understood that salt is just sodium based salts but you lose Potassium based salts as well when you sweat and the Potassium based ones are rather important. But maybe that is just an old wives tale and I've no idea where I got that info from ... and you can read anything on the internet (from truth to complete garbage). But if there is any truth in the potassium loss thing then maybe add a banana to the list ?

Ian

[sabrutat]

One more thing, don't just drink water but include electrolytes. Not sure if a myth but I heard too much water can wash out salts from your cells which has the potential to be serious. The story I heard was an ultra runner collapsed on the train home from an event and died in hospital because he'd drunk too much water without taking on salts or electrolytes. Not sure if true but plain water never seemed to quench my thirst when walking in hot.conditions. One time I drank 9 litres another it was 7.5 litres. I still ended up with major dehydration headache which only went after I'd eaten something and drunk a drink with something in it.

I'd have to see some concrete science on this to believe it; I suspect it could be marketing influence from companies like Gatorade. I never noticed any difference when I tried out sports drinks instead of plain water, aside from a lightening of my wallet. A curious thing that did happen, though, at least for me, is loss of appetite; I would often have to force myself to eat lunch, as when I didn't, I would start to go down with heat exhaustion in the afternoons.

[mjr]

But if there is any truth in the potassium loss thing then maybe add a banana to the list ?

Not sure about loss of it, but there's plenty of dietary sources of potassium, including yogurt, sweet potatoes, many beans, most fish and orange or carrot juices.

[sabrutat]

But if there is any truth in the potassium loss thing then maybe add a banana to the list ?

Not sure about loss of it, but there's plenty of dietary sources of potassium, including yogurt, sweet potatoes, many beans, most fish and orange or carrot juices.

We would carry potassium tablets in the truck specifically in case we got cramps, and we often had bananas around. If they didn't work, and they certainly appeared to, we'd have figured it out through simple trial and error decades ago.

[Tangled Metal]

We use a low sodium salt which AFAIK replaces a lot of the sodium with potassium. I still use.very sparingly though.

If water works for you then great but in my case I was being very active through the hottest part of a very hot day when I drank 9 litres. At the end of the activity I pretty much downed a nearly 2 full 1 litre sigg bottles. I still felt thirsty which at the time I was not aware of hyponatraema.

We're not talking of replacing a 500ml bottle of water with Gatorade but a potentially more serious level of dehydration and issue with needing salt intake. Marketing isn't relevant here, not least because I've not bought any commercial electrolyte drink for over 15 years. I make my own up based around a fruit juice.

In my example it was a situation where I had no access to a shop, run out of food and only had access to water at the end of the walk (water fountain in visitor centre). Hard to sort out your salt intake when you've only.got water to hand. Lesson learnt, I take more food and add juice with salt added instead of just water.

[sabrutat]

I understand you're talking about heavy activity in extreme heat, that's what I'm talking about too. The difference is you're referencing one day of it, I'm referencing ten years.

I'm not disagreeing that salt is required, but the need is more than likely exaggerated by sports drinks companies. It's in their interest to sell more product. In my experience, on the days I would only drink water and not eat, I would sometimes start to go down in the afternoons. Replacing my daily two gallons of water with two gallons of Gatorade made no difference at all, apart from costing me $15. The key was lunch, and potassium.