Posting this because I saw on social media this article was getting a lot of shit, curious what people will think of it here.
I personally think the article is fine and will most likely use the cold socks technique next few days, I didn’t know it (I only knew of it as a hangover cure, heard it from a very wise man 😉 ).
Maybe I’m more OK with the article because I’m personally sick of the >30C days and it is also scaring me a little, I fkn hope this isn’t going to be the normal summer for us going forward (last year floods, now this extreme heat & lack of rain), even though it will likely be.
Talked to my sister today: she’s on the verge of depression because of the hot weather (mind you: she has never, ever had mental health issues before). Her body can’t deal well with the extreme heat, in such a way that it has great impact on her mental well-being. For some people the heat really causes much more and bigger problems than just some extra sweat or a night with less sleep.
I never minded the heat that much. Until I started working a physical job in a place with no AC.
One tip to cool down at home: Get a fan and a spray bottle that can spray a fine mist. Point fan at yourself, spray water on your body. Cools you down a lot faster than just the fan or just the water.
I definitely notice I have less energy when it’s hotter. Not just because of the heat during the day, but also because I don’t sleep as well or as much at night. And feeling slower and less energized for several days a week does make me less active and therefor also restless and discouraged. Especially because it has been going on for over a month now. And it’s mad how much better I feel on the colder days in between. I really look forward to autumn.
It doesn’t help that my apartment is a heat trap. On that one day it was 40 degrees, I had a couple of moments where I had to calm myself down so as not to go into a panic because it was so overwhelmingly hot and I knew it wasn’t going to start to cool down inside until one am.
Cooling the neck is counterproductive and potentially dangerous. Cooling around the neck cools the blood right before entering the brain, giving a false reading for the brain of the actual temp, leading brain to think “hey this is fine, I’m cool”, while cooking itself. Cool the palms of feet and hands, and face instead.
I measure blood pressure and heart rate in the morning, in the afternoon and before going to be. And record the result and some other parameters, not relevant at this for this discussion, in a spreadsheet. I used a lot of spreadsheets when I was working in IT. I think I’m addicted to pivot tables.
My heart rate during the day is somewhat higher when it’s 30°+ outside. And significantly higher during the night. When it’s really cold outside, in winter, HR goes up too. HR is at its lowest when temperatures outside are between 20°C and 24°C.
There is no noticeable change in BP values when it’s ‘hot’, nor when it’s cold for that matter.
My cardiologist looks at me with a frown when I tell him about my data. He clearly doesn’t believe me.
I am definitely more irritable when it’s hot, I can deal with hot days when it still cools down at night – but those days where it’s 30+C and then it doesn’t drop below 25 at night are the goddamn worst and my patience is a lot shorter on those days.
I already took some measures to keep the temperature in my new place reasonable even on extreme days (tarps for the “lichtkoepels”, keeping all the shutters down, etc) but if it starts being whole weeks of 30°c it just becomes inescapable.
A/C is definitely getting installed here alongside solar panels once budget allows, and if I didnt already have my little mobile airco, loud as it is, i’d probably go nuts.
No energy during summer because of the heat. No energy during winter because of the dark days and I’d rather hibernate. At least we still have spring and autumn to try and be productive.
8 comments
Posting this because I saw on social media this article was getting a lot of shit, curious what people will think of it here.
I personally think the article is fine and will most likely use the cold socks technique next few days, I didn’t know it (I only knew of it as a hangover cure, heard it from a very wise man 😉 ).
Maybe I’m more OK with the article because I’m personally sick of the >30C days and it is also scaring me a little, I fkn hope this isn’t going to be the normal summer for us going forward (last year floods, now this extreme heat & lack of rain), even though it will likely be.
Talked to my sister today: she’s on the verge of depression because of the hot weather (mind you: she has never, ever had mental health issues before). Her body can’t deal well with the extreme heat, in such a way that it has great impact on her mental well-being. For some people the heat really causes much more and bigger problems than just some extra sweat or a night with less sleep.
I never minded the heat that much. Until I started working a physical job in a place with no AC.
One tip to cool down at home: Get a fan and a spray bottle that can spray a fine mist. Point fan at yourself, spray water on your body. Cools you down a lot faster than just the fan or just the water.
I definitely notice I have less energy when it’s hotter. Not just because of the heat during the day, but also because I don’t sleep as well or as much at night. And feeling slower and less energized for several days a week does make me less active and therefor also restless and discouraged. Especially because it has been going on for over a month now. And it’s mad how much better I feel on the colder days in between. I really look forward to autumn.
It doesn’t help that my apartment is a heat trap. On that one day it was 40 degrees, I had a couple of moments where I had to calm myself down so as not to go into a panic because it was so overwhelmingly hot and I knew it wasn’t going to start to cool down inside until one am.
Cooling the neck is counterproductive and potentially dangerous. Cooling around the neck cools the blood right before entering the brain, giving a false reading for the brain of the actual temp, leading brain to think “hey this is fine, I’m cool”, while cooking itself. Cool the palms of feet and hands, and face instead.
I measure blood pressure and heart rate in the morning, in the afternoon and before going to be. And record the result and some other parameters, not relevant at this for this discussion, in a spreadsheet. I used a lot of spreadsheets when I was working in IT. I think I’m addicted to pivot tables.
My heart rate during the day is somewhat higher when it’s 30°+ outside. And significantly higher during the night. When it’s really cold outside, in winter, HR goes up too. HR is at its lowest when temperatures outside are between 20°C and 24°C.
There is no noticeable change in BP values when it’s ‘hot’, nor when it’s cold for that matter.
My cardiologist looks at me with a frown when I tell him about my data. He clearly doesn’t believe me.
I am definitely more irritable when it’s hot, I can deal with hot days when it still cools down at night – but those days where it’s 30+C and then it doesn’t drop below 25 at night are the goddamn worst and my patience is a lot shorter on those days.
I already took some measures to keep the temperature in my new place reasonable even on extreme days (tarps for the “lichtkoepels”, keeping all the shutters down, etc) but if it starts being whole weeks of 30°c it just becomes inescapable.
A/C is definitely getting installed here alongside solar panels once budget allows, and if I didnt already have my little mobile airco, loud as it is, i’d probably go nuts.
No energy during summer because of the heat. No energy during winter because of the dark days and I’d rather hibernate. At least we still have spring and autumn to try and be productive.