Heat sensitivity/intolerance
So it is 80 degrees fahrenheit here today which usually would not be an issue for me but today I was too hot and sweaty. I am perimenopausal (49 years old) and I knew that could mess with heat tolerance. What I had not realized until today is that heat intolerance is also a side effect of many blood pressure medicines, antidepressants and allergy meds. And I am on all of those now.
I have just ordered some gadget that is a fan that goes around my neck and can be recharged via USB which seemed worth trying. And of course I will drink plenty of water, and try to stay in air conditioning whenever I can. Any other advice on how to deal with increased sensitivity to heat / higher heat intolerance? It is still early enough in the summer that the worst summer heat here is yet to come, so having some more tips might help me. Thanks!
One factor to consider is that the temperature on its own doesn't tell how hot it feels. Humidity, sunshine and wind speed also play significant roles. That's why systems like, e.g. the Heat Index, or Humidex exist to align the raw temperature values more with the felt temperature.
Here is for example a Humidex online calc, if you want to play around with your local weather numbers.
That is a good point, and yes it is humid here in the DC area
I also live in a relatively humid environment and I've been considering getting a dehumidifier just to feel cooler, but don't have a job currently so not sure if I want to spend the money. But it would be worth looking into if you want to feel a bit more cool inside your house. Of course that won't help outside but the only thing that can help there is moving which is a totally different challenge.
Also worth noting that there might be some de-humidification from your A/C so getting a device that tells you the humidity in the room would likely be useful to determine the effectiveness of that. There's also potential side effects of removing humidity from the air, a simple example would be you could be more likely to develop dry mouth or sore throat etc.
I’d like to piggyback on that comment and point out that the AC function that can lower the humidity in a room is DRY mode. It can truly make a difference in cooling your space on a hot and humid day.
Now don’t quote me on this but I believe that when there is more moisture in the air, the more heat gets trapped … or something along those lines. Kinda like a greenhouse effect.
Try out for yourself if you got an AC with DRY mode.
Unsurprisingly, the army has a large vested interest in preventing and treating heat injuries, and has a bunch of resources, many of which are publicly available.
https://phc.amedd.army.mil/PHC%20Resource%20Library/cphe-heat-ehip-guide.pdf
If you Google "army heat injury prevention" you'll get a wealth of resources, same for cold weather injury prevention.
Edit: spelling is hard.
So they make ice jackets and hats, originally for multiple sclerosis patients, since MS patients experience much more severe symptoms when it is hot. There are other strategies also. Here are some suggestions from the MS society. https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Living-Well-With-MS/Diet-Exercise-Healthy-Behaviors/Heat-Temperature-Sensitivity#:~:text=Strategies%20for%20easing%20the%20effects%20of%20heat,-Stay%20in%20an&text=Use%20cooling%20products%20such%20as,lightweight%2C%20loose%2C%20breathable%20clothing.
That goes to show you how different we all are-- I would never describe 78 as "perfect." My idea of perfect is more around 68-ish. 78, while not hot, is still too warm for me. I start getting annoyed when it's above 75, to be honest.
80F (26C) would be considered a very mild day in my neck of the woods, and what many would consider peak winter weather. The lowest we get is 17C, and even then just for a few days and at specific times, like between midnight and 3am. That's when we take the coats out of the closet and pretend we're Europeans on a windy night. I doubt any local would ever feel too hot on 26C.
So do what we do? Take a lot of showers, light clothes, stay in the shadow, keep a bottle with cold water near you (with some ice cubes for good measure), use hats, sunglasses (may not help with heat itself but will make it feel less overwhelming), and sunblock. Every once in a while wet your wrists and the back of your neck by the sink. You can do the same with alcohol instead of water. Drink carbonate water, won't make you cooler but will feel cooler.
Cut your hair short or put it in a bun.
Eat foods rich in water such as watermelon as well as juices and coconut water.
If you're taking antidepressants it is possible that you're experiencing some anxiety too and that will make you sweat. Meditation can help in that case, or even if you're not experiencing anxiety.
Where are you from? As someone who hates hot weather and prefers temperatures below 70F (21C), I don't know if I could tolerate living in a place like that. Right now it's 75F (24C) where I am and I have the air conditioner on because it bothers me.
That being said, it's a very humid 75. Maybe if it weren't so muggy it wouldn't bother me so much.
It's definitely cultural. You probably grew up learning to better tolerate colder temperatures because you where in a colder climate. In hotter climates, like where I live, it's the opposite.
21C is too cold for most people I know. Even with high humidity.
If it's 21C with wind, I wear a light jacket.
This is probably true. I don't come from a place that's that cold though-- we have cold winters (or at least we used to; this winter was freakishly warm and the only winter I remember in my lifetime where we didn't have more than a dusting of snow) but also warm summers with the occasional heatwave. I was always better at handling the cold than the warmth. I would get yelled at by my mom when I was a kid because I would want to go out in shorts and a t-shirt in 45F (7-8C) degree weather. Now I'm a bit more sane and wear jeans and a hoodie, but I won't break out the winter jacket until it's below freezing.
There's something about being out in the cool air that feels so freeing and refreshing to me. Maybe I should move to Canada.
Yeah, that's really cold for my people. If we got a 15C day in my city, I'm pretty sure some people would die. Most of us never experienced those temperatures before. Our bodies are not prepared. We wouldn't know what to do, some wouldn't have what to wear. The first time I saw sub-16C temperatures was quite a shock.
Last time my SO experienced 9C she was literally screaming and cursing all the gods as if the cold was a personal offense to her. And she was wearing like 300 layers lol
When I took some undergrad courses I had a class with a bunch of students from West Africa and they pretty much acted like that whenever it snowed. I thought it was funny until the weather got hot and they acted like the weather was great while I felt miserable. Guess they got the last laugh.
Oh yes, 80 fahernheit is also not all that hot here as well which is why I was surprised by how much it affected me.
Thanks for several good ideas. Yes, I have cut my hair short recently. And I restarted meditating yesterday because my anxiety has been high but it takes a while for meditation to start to help so I need to keep it up. Good idea about watermelon, too, I will go to buy it soon.
A few more: keep an ice cube in your mouth (but don't crush it, it's bad for your teeth). Get one of those safari hats that also protect the back of your neck and part of your upper back. Avoid unnecessary movement and simply do things slower (the crocodile strategy lol). If there's no AC in the room, put a bunch of ice in front of a fan.
Avoid anything even remotely physical between 11:00 and 15:00 -- adjust your schedule for that. If possible, do productive stuff until later in the (cooler...) night so you can start later the next day as well. Sleep through the heat.
You learn to survive when you grow up poor in a hot place :P
Watermelon does contain water but it’s also a diuretic, so it’s not going to help anyone stay hydrated. It is good to eat if you’re experiencing any fluid retention, tho.
That's not really true - the hydrating part. It's a common myth, mostly for coffee and tea which are also diuretics, but the reality is that the diuretic effect of watermelon pales in comparison to the amount of water in the titular watermelon, ditto with coffee and tea. In all cases, you gained far more water than you're going to additionally pee.
Get an undercut! Just shave the bottom 1-2inches off the back of your head above your neck. It is staggering how much cooler you will feel. I shaved off half my hair a year ago and I was amazed at how much cooler and less sweaty I was, as well as how much neck/shoulder pain I was carrying around that suddenly vanished.
When my mom was going through menopause she bought a cooling gaiter to wear around her neck. I think it was Columbia maybe? I'm not sure on the brand, but it has some kind of cooling technology that reacts when you start sweating to cool you off a lot. My mom loved it. Maybe you could look in to something like that?
You could also try Biofreeze. It's actually supposed to be for pain relief, but in my experience it didn't do anything for the pain but immediately made me so cold I was uncomfortable.
For night time: I take a clean bed sheet, and give it a spritz with clean water from a clean water spray bottle, then fold it up and put it in the freezer. This comes in handy at 3am when I'm cooking in bed trying to sleep.
Running cold water over my wrists helps me feel cooler, but I don't know how effective it is.
When it's hot at night and there's no AC, I freeze a bottle of water during the day, then wrap it in a towel and keep it near my torso when I go to bed. Such a relief, and a large enough bottle stays frozen a most of the night so I don't wake up. Just another idea :)
This might sound mean but, is it possible to lose some weight? Body fat does affect body temperature regulation. I'm from the tropics and on the leaner side and have no problem with 30-35°C heat index. Going into the 20°s I'd be the first to shiver while my peers are still comfortable.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30454605/
Well, I am 5’7” and currently weigh 141lbs which is well within normal for my height but I am calorie counting and my goal weight is 135lbs — somehow though I doubt that loosing those last 6lbs will make that much difference in how well I handle heat but I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Also has an impact on diabetes which also makes you feel hotter. I've lost over 100lbs and not only has the weight loss been great, I feel cold at temps that used to make me sweat like a whore in church.
It is possible you are a diabetic. Before my diagnosis, 75F was like a sauna for me. Now 85F doesn't phase me after getting it under control. Just got my latest A1C of 5.7. Slightly higher than regular, but better than 11.8 when I was diagnosed.
Please talk to your doctor, or, if you have a friend with a meter, take a reading. Diabetes can fuck you up in so many ways.
This year I had many medical tests done, and thus am confident that I am not diabetic luckily. Good thought though to get checkup done - in my case though I have been overanalyzed by doctors this year so far and it was established that I am not diabetic, that my heart is strong, that my brain looks fine on a CT scan and an EEG showed no concerns either. The only issues they found were high blood pressure (now on meds for it), high cholesterol (now reduced a lot through combination of statin and nutritional improvements and exercise and weight loss - though I was never overweight technically but now I am about 10lbs less than in early April), depression and anxiety, mild sleep apnea (now on CPAP), plus as I said I am perimenopausal which may actually be related to almost everything else.
Whew. Good. You can make your own ice packs with 50/50 water and rubbing alcohol. Make a few and you can swap them out all day long!
Ice packs for your neck and some on your wrists helps a little, if you can sit still lol, it's not the end all .
I saw an add for bracelets that are actually mini ice cubes (plastic filled with water) that could be a little help outside.
Living in a humid climate most of my life and recently coming to the age of menopause like you are, I pretty much just do not go out in the heat of the day. So for me that's noonish to 5:00 . Having shade makes a huge difference, I carry an umbrella if I'll be out in the sun a long time. A hat could do too I guess.
I unapologetically use fans too. Idk why this brings so much criticism,but get ready for opinions haha.
Fellow victim of DC-area weather here to commiserate with you. For me the heat alone isn't a problem, but it's the heat with the DC humidity... In my experience there is no relief other than swimming pools (or alternatively cool/cold showers) and low-humidity, air conditioned buildings. Nothing else helps me. Ugh. DC summers... well, at least the mosquitos aren't bad yet (knock on wood).
Yup, the mosquitos not being bad yet is certainly a plus :). And you are right the humidity really makes the problem much worse.
I live in a tropical country. I'm curious what you guys think our weather is here. currently we have
89 F
Precipitation: 48%
Humidity: 70%
Wind: 16 km/h
For me. this is just a normal day where I am not sweating even with light exertion. but definitely, there are times where even in the shade and not moving I would be covered in sweat.
80 F is considered a cozy temperature for me, and I would choose to drink warm drinks over iced drinks. and 65 F will be the time that I would choose a hot steaming drink or soup for maximum comfort (with jackets or warm clothes)
Also tropical here. Totally agree, 80f is comfortable weather and a gift from the Gods. 65f is peak winter, time to get the coats from the closet, make a fire, and get some fondue lol.
I'm nowhere near menopause but I do have hormonal issues and they are such a bitch. I can only say that I empathize and perhaps there are options with regards to taking medications to adjust your body's hormone levels? I hear doctors are very apprehensive about giving it to women "just because" they're going through menopause, but from what I've heard and read, it can fix almost every side effect that arises for women your age. I believe it's just another one of those misogynistic-health-system things, but I'm no expert...
I am very intolerant to heat as a side effect of my antidepressants and there are a few things that help me.
Keeping my house cool is the most important. Aside from AC I use a reflective foil on my windows that get direct sunlight, it helps a lot and if you use AC it has an easier time keeping temperatures bearable and saves a lot of power consumption.
Another important one is to always have a cold drink within reach. I always have a bottle of water in the fridge, and another next to me, swapping them as needed. It is important to drink enough liquids when it is warm anyway and keeping it within reach really helps, and I just prefer it being nice and cold. On the road a thermos can help (it can be used to keep liquids cool instead of warm, which is awesome after say, a long drive).
Because of the heat intolerance I also tend to sweat a lot, my psychiatrist always emphasizes that this makes it important to eat enough salt, as it helps your body regulate fluids. Salt unfortunately also increases blood pressure, so managing salt levels consciously and in consultation with medical professionals is important.
Light and breathable clothing is also nice but honestly at home I tend to wear nothing but my underwear if it is warm outside.
Humidity also makes life a lot more difficult, a lot of AC units have a setting to remove moisture from the air. Running that occasionally can very much be worth it.
If you have any control over your schedule it can be worth trying to incorporate a siesta of sorts, taking a nap or otherwise trying to do as little as possible during the hottest part of the day. This can be difficult with kids and/or work but if you have the option it can help a lot.
My heat intolerance has been quite bad the past year, everything above 70F is uncomfortable and this year has been particularly warm but so far I'm managing. Hope some of these help.
I don't have a lot in common with the details in your post, as I'm a 32 year old male and not on any medications, but I'm also super intolerant of heat and uncomfortable and sweaty at similar temperatures. Nothing specific to add, just here to empathize with it. I'm sick and tired of summers in the climate I live in and people telling me that it's not hot enough to complain about (and fair enough, compared to where they live) is like salt in the wound. I just want long cold snowy winters and short mild summers that never go above like 70 F at most.