PERSONAL COOLING
When trying to stay comfortable in summer a great place to start is with your body. Click the tips below for more information about how your body deals with temperature and how to make that work in your favour.
Acclimatisation occurs over a period of about two weeks in healthy people. The process is faster in response to heat, but slower in the cold.
Your physical condition, age, and other factors also affect how your body copes with heat and cold. For example lean people tolerate heat better than obese people.
As a person ages the body’s response to temperature change (i.e. sweating in high temperatures and shivering in low temperatures) is delayed and reduced.
When it comes to the colour of your clothes, white is good if you’re out in direct sunlight a lot – it will reflect the heat better than any other colour. So wear lightweight, lightcoloured, loose clothing that covers as much of your skin as possible when outside in the sun. But if you’re spending time in the shade or indoors, black or dark short sleeved clothing is more effective as it radiates out heat into your environment, cooling you down.
Dampening your clothes can also help. In order for the water to evaporate (changing its state from a liquid to a gas) there needs to be an input of heat energy. This energy will come from the heat of your body, which produces a cooling effect to your skin, lowering your body temperature. If you use a fan as well, the air blowing over your skin speeds up the process of evaporation, helping you to feel even cooler.