I hear there's a bit of a heatwave in the UK right now. As someone from the UK who's been living in South Africa for almost a decade, some things I do to deal with the heat:
* Feet in a bowl of cold water
* Ice pack wrapped in a damp tea towel (especially good under your feet in bed at night)
* Damp tea towel around neck
* Spray bottle to spritz self with water
Keep your 'hot' zones cool; armpits, under boobs, crotch, back of knees. Having cool feet and neck helps immensely too.
(Cont) OH! If you've got a fan on while you sleep, try not to have it pointing at your face. When your body is struggling to cool down, everything's a bit less effective. Irritation (such as from a cold breeze) of the CN7 facial nerve can cause Bell's Palsy, which is NO FUN (I speak from experience). This is why a lot of people who get Bell's Palsy are those who ride in convertibles with the top down.
Point the fan at your feet, try to keep your face free from having extended breezes upon it.
@WelshPixie Hmm. Wonder if Mom's Sixth Nerve Palsy (CN6, logically) has anything to do with her ownership of various convertibles through the years (though none within ~ 20 years of the onset).
@gamehawk I wonder :o Though I think the palsy that you get from irritation is a more sudden-onset kinda thing.
@WelshPixie wonder if this is why the korean myth of fan death started?
@riking I haven't heard of that!
Noëlle the 8-Bit🏳️🌈🎄
@WelshPixie Swamp coolers are useful, too, if you can afford the humidity. Put ice cubes in a bowl, set a fan to blow over the top of the bowl. Take advantage of water's high vaporization enthalpy. :)
@WelshPixie
An old coach of mine taught to hold our wrists under cold water (I guess ice does the trick, too.) I donʼt really mind 40°C nowadays (although I prefer cooler, around 19°C) but when Iʼm hot I use this method with success.
@gergely I do that to stop my eyes from burning from onions :D
@WelshPixie heat like this also makes people who have eczema more likely to break out in those hot zones. Keeping them cool and drying them well will also go long ways to making you feel better. :)
@WelshPixie It's also good to run cold water over wrists and inside of the lower arms. Where the veins are. They'll transport the cooled blood right into the body.
@WelshPixie I cool those areas when I shower, too really cool myself down.
(Cont) If you can, take a brief cold shower every few hours and really focus on those 'hot' zones to cool them down.
There have been days where I've had to spend two hours in a cold bath with a book to keep cool enough to not get a migraine. Drought & water restrictions here mean baths are out of the question now so I've had to ramp up all the other things.
Ooh, also, suck on ice cubes. :)