Although sounds very crazy, but drinking hot may help you cool down faster.
The classical notion suggests that cold drinks help in cooling you down while hot drinks help in warming up the body. The first thing you may require on returning home on a hot sunny day is nothing but icy cold beverages. You might be surprised to know that, sometimes replacing that cold drinks with hot drinks may result in better outcomes. Yes, you heard it right, the hot drinks may help you cool down faster than cold drinks. The principles of thermodynamics, biology, and weather conditions come into play to exert such a response. Let’s discuss how it exactly happens.
The basic principle of evaporation lies in the formation of vapor from liquid and the surface from which the liquid gets evaporated turns cooler. The usual temperature of hot drinks is much higher than the body temperature, despite rising the body temperature, when the evaporation takes place, eventually it decreases the temperature of the skin. Basically, the rate of perspiration is the fundamental factor behind this phenomenon. The amount of cooling also depends on the amount of sweating. Sweating from the vast surface area may lead to a more cooling effect. The sweat reduces the stored heat of the body and increases the heat loss from the body at the same time.
Having said that, another important thing must be considered for applying this method. The weather plays an important role for this trick to be effective. The hot summer day mentioned here is pointing towards the dry hot day and not a humid day. The rate of sweating also depends on the clothes as the sweat needs space to get evaporated. The free surface area it gets to evaporate, the more feeling of cooling you may get. That’s why wearing light cotton dresses is suggested. If you are planning to apply this method with heavy dresses on your body, this might result in disaster, as the evaporation would not take place properly and in turn, it will increase the internal body heat.
Besides, many thermoreceptors reside in the throat and tongue regions. The sweating response you get after eating very spicy food is nothing but the activity of those receptors. As soon as hot drinks reach the throat, the temperature receptors get activated and tell the brain to sweat more. The sweating leads to the cooling of the skin and relieves your uneasiness.
Scientifically, the cooling of the body after having hot drinks occur in the following steps. The temperature sensing receptors perceive the hotness and they send the signal to the brain to start sweating. As the sweat gets evaporated from the skin, it gives an immediate coolingeffect to the body.
If you are not getting the ideal conditions, then don’t worry, stick to the basics, drink cold beverages to satisfy your thirst.
