You must have come across instances where your friends or family members would have casually held your hand while posing for a picture at a get-together and commented on how it was really hot to the touch.
Yes, you guessed it right. This is indeed a condition of body heat, which is experienced commonly by many people, be it during the blazing hot summers or chilly winters.
The normal temperature of the human body is 98.60 F or 370 C. However, due to certain external environmental factors, improper diet, hygiene practices and underlying medical ailments, a state arises where excessive heat is absorbed by a person, leading to a rise in body temperature. This is called heat stress.
The most common causes of heat stress include lack of adequate fluid intake i.e. dehydration, working or spending extended periods of time in confined spaces or air-conditioned surroundings which are often poorly ventilated and prolonged exposure to direct sunlight, particularly around noon. In addition, eating very spicy food, not showering immediately after a workout and suffering from disorders like hyperthyroidism, arthritis also contributes to extreme heating up of the body.
Heat stress often interferes with your ability to perform daily activities, as it leads to symptoms of fatigue, dizziness, nausea and headaches. In certain cases, it can also result in acute signs of muscle cramps, severe exhaustion and heart problems. In such severe occurrences, it is advised to take immediate steps and seek prompt medical care, to bring down the body temperature to the normal range.
On the other hand, in minor instances of your body heating up, you can adopt some simple yet highly effective home remedies, to reduce the heat in your body and bring a soothing, cooling effect to your system.
Home Remedies To Cool Down Your System During Heat Stress:
Tender Coconut Water
This natural drink revitalizes your body as it has an inherent cooling effect. Besides, it replenishes the system with essential vitamins, trace minerals and electrolytes that are lost during heat, sweat and stress conditions of the body. Having one glass of tender coconut water efficiently soothes the internal organs as well, especially during scorching summers.
Aloe Vera Gel
After showering, applying the gel extracted from the aloe vera plant brings out an immediate calming effect to the worn-out tissues on the skin cells of an overheated body. The inner layers of aloe vera consist mainly of water and few vital vitamins and minerals, which leave a comforting effect on the deeper layers of skin as well.
Peppermint Leaves
The menthol in peppermint produces a chilling effect on the cells of the body, assisting in lowering the elevated body temperatures. Simply add a few peppermint leaves while sipping a cup of hot tea or cold lemonade, and you can be assured of an instant chilling feel in your body.
Chilled Buttermilk
This age-old homemade drink straight out of your grandmother’s kitchen features right on top of the list of cooling foods. Buttermilk is packed with probiotics, which function to stimulate digestion in a heated stomach. Enjoy a glass of chilled buttermilk garnished with some coriander leaves to pacify your body in situations of heat stress.
Cold Shower
As soon as you are back home from work or the gym, take a shower in cold water. This helps to remove all the sweat sticking on to you, which contributes to increasing heat in the body. Moreover, immersing your feet in cold water filled with ice cubes for merely ten minutes will appease a tremendously heated body.
Hydrating Diet
Consciously incorporate cooling fruits like watermelons, pomegranates, and strawberries with your breakfast to calm your body cells from heat stress. For lunch and dinner, have fresh vegetable salads with cucumber, as well as a bowl of yogurt, as they supply essential anti-inflammatory compounds to assuage the internal organs in your overly hot system.
Regular Exercise
Needless to say, performing simple breathing exercises can help to regulate sweating in your body, and effectively lower your temperature. Moreover, a mere fifteen minutes of meditation and yoga every day can promote a pacifying effect in your heated body cells and nerves, to boost your physical and mental health.
Useful Tips On How To Reduce Body Heat:
Wear Comfortable Clothes
Being dressed in tight-fitting attires, whether you are traveling, busy at work or just lazing in your home, generates surplus heat in the body tissues. Don convenient apparel, in light-weight, breathable, natural fabrics like linen, and cotton and avoid wearing skinny denim jeans, synthetic nylon, or rayon clothing, to stay cool and calm.
Apply Cold Compress
The extremities of the body, namely, the feet, toes, fingers, and hands are all highly sensitive to temperature changes. In addition to certain pressure points such as the neck, wrists, chest, face, and temples, where the veins run near the external surface of the skin. Placing them in chilled water or in contact with an ice pack induces coldness, lowering heat stress.
Sip On Iced Tea
At the end of a long day spent outdoors, particularly exposed to sunlight for prolonged periods, the body is exhausted and worn out, besides generating undue amounts of heat. Drinking a glass of iced tea, with some lemon and honey, not only instantly refreshes the body and energizes the mind, but also decreases inherent heat in the system.
Sitali Yoga/ Cooling Breath
This pranayama is a type of breathing technique that helps to cool the system, hydrate the body, and pacify pitta imbalance. You just have to curl the sides of your tongue and breathe in via mouth. Begin with three minutes of Sitali breath, then go back to normal breathing and repeat three minutes of Sitali breath. Start gradually with a 10-minute practice daily. This breathing technique will eventually help cool down the body and the mind and pacify pitta dosha.
Here's How To Do It:
Sit down in a calm and relaxed posture.
Pull out the tongue and then roll the edges. If you find it hard to roll with your tongue, you can use your lips.
Inhale slowly via the mouth.
Exhale through the nose.
Do these steps for 5 minutes and repeat for 2-3 times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Reduce My Body Heat?
If the symptoms are mild drink water and clear beverages. Avoid strenuous activity as it may lead to heat stroke. If symptoms do not subside, seek medical help.
What Foods Cool Down Your Body?
Water is one of the best remedies to bring down body heat. Avoiding direct sunlight and a balanced diet also play a key role. Moreover, sweating takes away necessary salts and minerals from the body and to replace them, the safest way is through a balanced diet.
Why Do I Feel So Much Body Heat?
Sudden exposure to direct sun, strenuous activity, underlying health conditions, or hormonal changes can be a reason that the body begins to show symptoms of heat.
What Stops Body Heat?
Drinking ample fluids, staying hydrated, and eating foods that keep the body cool during summer is an ideal way to avoid heat-related health illnesses.
What Are The Tips To Reduce Body Heat?
Wearing comfortable clothing, a diet that keeps the body hydrated and does not induce heat, and keeping the body away from direct rays of summer sun specifically if you are prone to heat-related illness are some effective ways to combat body heat. Unless prescribed by the doctor, never do self-medication.
Conclusion:
The above basic care tips will soothe your body cells at high temperatures, monitor your levels of sweat to ensure too much of essential fluids are not drained, and hence prevent you from feeling tired or even fainting.
Although, when you sense that your body temperature is not subsiding for a long time even after taking appropriate cooling measures, it is recommended to consult your doctor or physician at once, especially if you are above the age of 65, below the age of 5, or have an underlying medical condition.
References:
Cooling Techniques for Hyperthermia, Deena D. Wasserman; Julie A. Creech; Megan Healy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459311/
Body Temperature and Energy Expenditure During and After Yoga Breathing Practices Traditionally Described as Cooling
Shirley Telles,corresponding authorA,D,E,F Kumar Gandharva,B,C,F Sachin Kumar Sharma,D,E,F Ram Kumar Gupta,D,E,F and Acharya BalkrishnaA,G
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6977599/
