Would you be willing to have a hot drink in order to cool yourself down? Sounds contradictory, right? However, as opposed to popular belief; drinking a hot drink can actually help you cool down in arid areas.
As it happens, in some arid parts of the world; people actually do cool off by drinking hot beverages. This age-old tradition is not without any evidence, though. According to a study that was published in 2012, subjects were asked to exercise on a stationary bike and then drink water whose temperature varied from near freezing to up to 50 degrees Celsius.
After seventy-five minutes, the researchers took measurements of the body temperatures of the participants. The team of researchers discovered that heat storage was lowest when the participants had consumed the warmest water. It must be noted, however, that the team of researchers conducting the experiment created conditions where the sweat was allowed to evaporate from the bodies of the participants fully. In such conditions, the participants who were using the stationary bike had lost quite a significant amount of their body heat by means of evaporative cooling.
So, why is it that the hot beverages helped in dropping the body temperature? It is because these hot beverages stimulate sweating. This means that even if your body is feeling warmer, the brain has been given the signal to sweat more, thus causing a temperature drop in your overall body temperature. However, before you rush towards the hot drink for cooling yourself down, bear in mind; this effect only takes place when you are in a place where the sweating can happen easily such as an arid area.
This means that if you are in a very humid area, a hot drink will only increase your body temperature and not lower it. Check out the video by SciShow detailing this particular phenomenon and be sure to share it with your friends and family members.
