Coping with hot weather

Wet towel upon the head and/or a cold bath

Not sure how dietary changes would affect things unless it’s about eating ice ?

 

My wife also drinks hot tea in this weather ..she says it quenches her thirst ? I’m thinking water and ice seems more sensible, but I guess as long as it’s fluids in?

I’ve put a dose of magnesium citrate in my water bottle (I.5l) but apart from that I’ve not really increased how much I drink.

Food wise, avoiding having food that doesn’t need the oven on generally seems a good idea.

I tried those gel pack things you put in the fridge and then under the pillow at night. They are fine when cold but after they lose it, they start to warm up and you need to sling them out the bed. They are quite good just placed on the chest or legs since they are quite light and mouldable, but not a patch on those light weight towel thingies wrapped around the head (not for sleeping ...makes your pillow wet)

 

Always have done, still do. I remember going on holiday with my parents to much hotter climes and the first thing on the agenda was where to get a nice cup of tea.........my dad even took the full kit (ie camping stove, kettle, mugs,t-bags etc ) before the days of electric kettles in every hotel room.

eta:

Spain and Portugal are over fifteen degrees hotter than here this summer.

 

I recently got my windows fixed so that they'll all open. Previously, in this heat, I had to close all the curtains to keep the heat out and sit with the electric lights on in the daytime but now, I've got fantastic ventilation because - importantly - I open the windows at both the back and front of the flat. This creates a huge draught - standing in the hallway is like being in a wind tunnel!

So that's my tip - open the windows not only in the room you're in but on the opposite side of the house to create a through-draught.

 

Dietary, as carbs and significant amounts of protein tend to make me hotter when able I eat more salads, this is not always possible due to the fact that salad comes from outside, and sometimes my body won't chew or swallow salad. My water/fluid consumption rises, from around 3-6 liters a day to, yesterday, 11-12 liters a day.

Blinds, curtains, and windows are drawn/shut all the time. My considerate neighbours ensure this is the case due to their windows being open with music on full blast all day (presumably it needs to be that loud so they can hear it above the noise of everyone else doing the same), and from around 10PM to 5AM everyone in this and, from the sound of it, every other area, having a wild street party/punch ups/catcalling competitions immediately outside my bedroom window (to compliment the parties in neighbouring flats which means that trying to sleep in the living room is also untenable), every night!!

Not that being able to open the windows would make much of a difference, as there is never any wind here, fans also don't help, I used to have several fitted but all they did was make me cook faster.

I also find that increasing the amount of washing (clothes/bedding etc.) and drying/changing etc., along with increasing the amount of washing (personal) helpful in dealing with the heat.

My cat also helps me deal with the heat, apparently food goes bad within 10 minutes of being put out, but must be at room temperature, but not the temperature of any room in my home, as they are all 30C plus, all the time, (so fridging it is not acceptable), or else it is inedible and she will refuse to eat, for days, until she is so ill she can't stand, after having gone through a helpful phase of throwing up for a few days. Because of this she feels the need for constant reassurance and my allocated time for paying attention to her rises from a few minutes a day to several 20 minute long sessions, during which I have to go to her, get down on the floor, as she simply can't be arsed to come to me and will just sit yelling at me to please put her out of her misery.

Obviously I retaliate, at least once a week meat is cooked for her, of varying types depending on her taste at that moment, so that's 2-3 hours with the oven on, followed by washing up, and subsequent cutting off small bits, followed by more washing up and hoovering, as apparently cat's hate plates, and large feeding trays, carpet is the only place cats will eat from, which is puzzling, why don't all the tigers starve, or is this why they are going extinct? It should be noted that I generally don't get any of this meat, it's done for the cat, I can't be bothered with eating it. let alone preparing veg to go with it after cooking it. It's done for the cat as, if she's not eating much cat food, and cat snacks make her ill these days, she has to have something, and apparently a good kicking is now illegal, as it might make her unhappy, and making, or permitting a cat to be, unhappy is currently against the law in the UK.

I find the constant traipsing up and down the stairs to get rid of all the waste cat food and meat, which the heat makes stink so much more, and faster, than normal, particularly helpful in dealing with the heat, as it's both cooler out there and, combined with the washing, the cat related duties, the diet of 46 calories a day (when able), the 30 minutes of sleep a night, and all the extra washing, makes me virtually unconscious a lot of the time, ...........


..........so I simply don't notice the heat.

 

I can't open downstairs windows due to insects of all types swarming in until the house is full of them. I simply can't catch them all, so they usually end up dying between the ceiling-curtains and the glass ceiling in the conservatory, after exhausting me trying to catch them. (I live next to a field where animals - wild and tame - live, which could explain it - except perhaps the bees, wasps, hoverflies, etc.)

I open upstairs ones only - they are usually safe.

 

Amazon UK sell flyscreen you can put up yourself, @MeSci. It doesn't sound very decorative, though.

 

I have them, they weren't really bought to keep flies out, but to keep my rather dim cat from falling out (she used to climb out onto the outside windowsill, sit down to look at the people pointing at a cat on a 3 inch wide sill 40-50 foot up , and then find out she was falling, there having been nothing to sit on, she did this on more than one occasion, so something had to be done).

This is how I know that even with the windows open there is generally no wind/breeze here.

 

For me there is only one solution: airconditioning.
Gets our bedroom down to 20 deg. Celsius.
Would not survive without it.

 

I have AC for the day but at night there's big difference in temperatures. It's hot until 4-5 am, then it suddenly becomes cold. So if I set AC to lower temperatures, I wake up about 4-5 am, and if I raise the temperature a little then I just can't sleep until 4-5 am. So I haven't slept for more than 5-6 hours / night in the summer season, it's really awful.

 

I know there is mesh available - I'm just not sure of my current ability to put it up. I've even got one saved in my ebay account, but that's one that has to be cut to size. I could afford something better now, but my cognitive ability is generally not very good at the moment.

 

They were/are practical scientists

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-hot-drink-on-a-hot-day-can-cool-you-down-1338875/

I believe this is one reason why spicy foods are popular in hot places like Mexico and India?

I read somewhere(?) that to increase the flow of air through a house, it is best to open windows on opposite sides of the house, but also at different heights. So you open the ground floor windows on one side, and the first floor windows on the opposite. I think this has something to do with the unequal pressure inside the house encouraging the cooler air in.

A trick to save time and effort is to use one (or more) of those ice packs for putting in a cool box. You can put them on a towel in front of the fan to soak up the moisture. This way, you get a constantly refreshed cool towel and the benefit of air going over a cold surface and no messing about creating ice cubes.

I've got a mesh fly screen for the bedroom window that stops insects (especially moths) from entering. It was a cut your own job, with strips of Velcro that stick to the PVC window frame. Does the job well.

 

Eating smaller portions and less has been helpful for dysautonomia heat issues. Scroll down to page 21-22 here. concerning diet and temperatures. The diet thing works for me, including taking in lots of salt during hot weather.

"Eating large meals tends to shunt blood towards the gut. This can also worsen orthostatic intolerance and make any dysautonomia patient feel sluggish, tired and worn out, because less blood is delivered to the brain, heart and lungs".

"Sugary and starchy foods may also make tend to make you more symptomatic".

"During eating, you might try elevating your feet to heart level and exercise your legs, to keep your blood from pooling"

 

That depends though. I discovered years ago that 'getting a draft going' was pulling more heat in rather than cooling off. Sometimes it stays cooler by keeping the windows closed and lining them with foil to reflect the heat.