How to Cool Down body Temperature

If you are wondering how to cool down body temperature during the summer heat waves, then you’ll want to read on. Because as summer heats up, so do we, but there are a lot of great techniques to keeping cool, and we’ve got them all.

We’ll discuss not only how to cool down body temperature but what foods are cooling to the body and how does sweat cool the body.

How To Cool Down Body Temperature

Drink Plenty of Fluids

Hydration is key to keeping your body cool. However, when your body is dehydrated, it has to work extra hard to function, generating heat.

Find Someplace with Cooler Air

Crank up the AC or go to the movies or a shopping mall to get out of the heat. Check out these AC reviews if you need to buy one for your home.

Apply Cold to Neck and Pulse Points

Get a rag wet and put it in the freezer for thirty minutes, and wrap it around the back of your neck, wrist, ankles, or inside of the knees. 

Your pulse points are spots on your body where blood is moving close to the skin. Applying cold to these places will help cool your blood down as it travels throughout your body.

Go Swimming

It’s great exercise and cooling to your body; as you submerge yourself in water, you aid your body in the cool-down process.

Wear Lighter, Breathable Clothing

Lighter, loose-fitting clothes with breathable fabrics like cotton are best for hot weather. Also, consider lighter colors as black absorbs sunlight and is hotter than white.

Try to Move Less

Your body generates heat when moving, so unless you are in a pool or a fountain, minimize your movements. If you’re exercising on hot days, it’s best to do it early in the morning or later in the evenings after temperatures have cooled down. 

How Does Sweat Cool the Body?

The body’s preferred temperature is 98.6°F. When your body temp begins to rise above that, it will counteract that by sweating.

Sweat is secreted through our pores, and with it is secreted heat. As our sweat evaporates off our skin, the heat from our body evaporates with it.

How to Cool Down Your Body

Try these techniques if you need to cool your body down quickly.

• Cold footbath will cool you off in no time.
• Coconut water is great for replenishing electrolytes.
• Make peppermint iced tea; the menthol in peppermint has a cooling effect on your body.
• Sit in front of an AC unit like the Blast Portable AC to cool down your body.

What Foods are Cooling to the Body?

Choose Foods Rich in Water

Foods with high water content are cooling to the body not because they are cooler, but because of the metabolic effect they have on our bodies. Water-rich foods are hydrating our cells which helps them perform better, work less hard, and therefore put out less energy and heat.

Coconut, strawberries, pineapple, peaches, oranges, bell peppers, celery, zucchini, watermelon, blackberries, celery, mushrooms, lettuce, and melons are all foods that are rich in water.

Foods and Drinks That are High in Electrolytes

When you’re sweating, you are losing electrolytes, so it’s important to choose food and drink that can replenish them. 

Peanuts, almonds, beans, potatoes, broccoli, avocados, birch water, kale, coconut water, bananas, spinach, limes, and sports drinks are all great for replacing electrolytes.

Room Temperature Food and Drink is Best

Although you may be craving that tall glass of ice water, you may want to think twice on an extra hot day. Extremely cold foods or drinks can actually shock your body into feeling cold, and it will try to warm up its internal temperature. So keep the ice cubes on your skin and out of your glass!

Spicy Foods

Spicy foods contain a little something called capsaicin. This chemical tricks the brain into thinking that your body temperature is rising. These false signals trigger your body’s cooling system, and you start to sweat.

The more you sweat, the more heat evaporates from your skin, the cooler you feel. 

Try out these spicy foods on a hot day: Hot peppers and jalapenos, spicy curries, wasabi with a little sushi on the side, garlic, sriracha, and General Tso’s chicken.

How Does Sweating Help Cool the Body?

Sweating helps cool the body through a process called thermoregulation.

Thermoregulation helps your body maintain its core internal temperature. All thermoregulation processes are designed to keep your body in a state of equilibrium, otherwise known as homeostasis.

The average person’s body should be somewhere between 98 (37°C) and 100 (37.8°C) degrees Fahrenheit. However, if your body gets to an extreme temperature, such as overheating, it can be very serious. For instance, if your body temperature goes as high as 107.6°F (42 °C), you may experience brain damage or even death.

Therefore, when your body gets hot, it begins to ‘sweat’ by releasing droplets of water onto your skin that then evaporate.

Your body also does something called vasodilation. Vasodilation is when your blood vessels directly under the skin’s surface get wider. This helps take your blood away from your core which is overheating, and puts it close to your skin where it is cooler. Your body then releases this heat through radiation.

How Does Sweating Cool the Body Physics?

Sweat dripping off our skin isn’t quite enough to help us cool down on its own. The sweat has to evaporate for it to be an effective process for cooling down.

The physics of this process is called “heat of vaporization.” It requires energy (heat) to evaporate sweat from your skin. This excess heat is converted into vapor which leaves your boy and helps you cool down.

Final Thoughts

We all love summer, but once those temperatures reach the double digits, sometimes all we can think about is cooling off. 

There are plenty of great options to help with that, too, from staying inside in the air conditioning, eating spicy foods, to applying cold compresses to our pulse points.

No matter how you choose to cool down your body temperature down just remember to drink plenty of fluids and stay safe!