Six Misconceptions About Cooling Off the Heat in Summer

The weather is hot in summer, and people like to stay in air-conditioned rooms to avoid the heat; they like to use cold water when washing their feet, thinking that this will keep them cool; they also often eat things that reduce heat, such as bitter melon and mung bean soup, to prevent heatstroke and cool down. However, these methods of preventing heatstroke and reducing body temperature are actually misunderstandings that people have in their daily lives. They do not prevent heatstroke or reduce body temperature, and may even lead to the occurrence of other diseases. Let’s take a look at the experts’ interpretation of six misunderstandings about cooling off in summer.

Myth 1: Preventing heatstroke and cooling down by eating "bitter" food in summer

1. Health tips: Eat bitter food in moderation, too much is harmful to your body.

2. Misconception: When the temperature rises, bitter foods will become popular on the table. In fact, these bitter foods are mostly suitable for relieving the fire of the liver, gallbladder, and gastrointestinal tract. If you have symptoms such as sore throat, bad breath, red eyes, etc., you can eat some "bitter" food appropriately; but it is not suitable for symptoms of heart fire such as mouth sores.

3. Experts suggest: Eat bitter food in moderation. Eating too much or eating food that is too bitter may damage the spleen and stomach and cause side effects such as nausea and vomiting.

Myth 2: Washing your feet with cold water in summer is cool

1. Health tip: Washing your feet with cold water can easily cause illness.

2. Interpretation of misunderstanding: When it comes to washing feet with hot water, many citizens think that it is something they do in winter. In summer, washing feet with cold water is the most comfortable and can cool the whole body. But in fact, the sweat glands on the soles of the human body are more developed. People sweat a lot in the summer. Washing feet with cold water will cause the already expanded pores to suddenly close and become blocked. Doing this frequently will not only make your feet cold, but will also lead to sweating dysfunction over time.

3. Experts suggest: Summer heat is often accompanied by humidity, and the spleen is most afraid of humidity. When humidity is blocked in the spleen and stomach, symptoms such as loss of appetite, drowsiness, and lack of energy will appear. In summer, the human body's yang energy is the strongest. Soaking feet in warm water can better stimulate the meridians, invigorate the functions of the body's internal organs, help eliminate heat and dampness, prevent heat colds, invigorate the spirit, increase appetite, and promote sleep.

Myth 3: Light-colored clothes are cool

1. Health tips: White clothes are harmful to the skin, red clothes are the most sun-protective.

2. Misconception: In summer, many people like to wear white or light-colored clothes because they think they will keep cool. In fact, white or too light colors will reflect ultraviolet rays and easily damage the skin. Red is the color that absorbs the most ultraviolet rays in sunlight. Black absorbs heat the fastest, but also dissipates heat the fastest.

3. Experts suggest: Wearing black clothes indoors or on cloudy days will take advantage of its fast heat dissipation function, which can quickly dissipate heat from the surface of the skin and make people feel a lot cooler.

Myth 4: Drinking more mung bean soup or herbal tea can quench your thirst

1. Health tips: People who are afraid of cold should not drink mung bean soup and herbal tea.

2. Interpretation of misunderstanding: In order to prevent heatstroke and reduce temperature, many citizens like to drink mung bean soup, and they also cook a small pot of it at home every day. However, experts say that although mung bean soup is good, you should not drink too much of it, and it should not be drunk as water.

3. Expert advice: From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, people with a cold constitution should not drink too much mung bean soup, otherwise it will aggravate the symptoms and even cause other diseases. Especially girls who are menstruating should not drink mung bean soup to avoid harming the body and causing dysmenorrhea. In addition, many people like to eat and drink a lot of cold dishes, cold food, watermelon, iced beer, cold drinks, etc. Chinese medicine experts point out that in the scorching hot summer, the human body is actually in a state of external heat and internal coldness. If you eat and drink too much, it can easily cause gastrointestinal dysfunction.

Myth 5: Sweating more in summer can help you lose weight

1. Health tips: Sweating evaporates water, not burns fat.

2. Misconception: The weather is hot and you sweat profusely after just a little walking. You may feel secretly happy and wonder if your fat is burning. But the truth is: there are about 3 million sweat glands distributed in the human body. When heat causes blood vessels to dilate, water in the blood transfers the heat to the surface of the skin, where it evaporates in sweat. Sweating in summer is just a physiological phenomenon of the body regulating temperature.

3. Experts suggest: Losing weight in summer should still be a combination of diet and exercise, and pathological factors should be eliminated first. Only through scientific diet and regular exercise, and long-term persistence, can you lose weight successfully.

Myth 6: Using air conditioning for long periods of time to cool down

1. Health tips: The indoor temperature should not be lower than 27℃.

2. Interpretation of misunderstanding: In the eyes of experts, staying in an air-conditioned room for too long can cause body aches, mental fatigue, and loss of appetite. Sometimes, nose bleeding, colds, fevers, and even bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. may occur due to excessive dryness of the nasal cavity.

3. Experts recommend: The indoor temperature should not be lower than 27℃, and the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor should not exceed 8℃. Do not close the air-conditioned room for a long time and ventilate it frequently.