According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the summer of 2024 is also predicted to be very hot. It seems that we have to prepare for a hot summer this year. When talking about heat, heat stroke is a hot topic. Last year, about 90,000 people suffered from heat stroke. This year, it is predicted that this number will exceed that. However, if you are prepared for heat stroke, you can overturn this prediction. This time, we have refined the wisdom to reduce heat stroke. The effort to gradually get the body used to the heat is called “heat acclimatization”. Starting heat acclimatization early and preparing for the summer heat will make the body less susceptible to heat stroke.
To improve heat acclimatization, it is effective to improve sweating function to facilitate body temperature regulation during hot seasons. To prevent heat stroke, it is important to make it easier to sweat and improve the body’s thermoregulation function. Exercise is an effective countermeasure. If you increase your exercise when it starts to get hot, and continue even when it’s a little hot, your thermoregulation function will improve. Even low-intensity exercise has a certain effect. A 3-minute brisk walk is an easy exercise menu for heat acclimatization. Walk 3 minutes briskly 5 times a day, 4 times a week or more for 4 weeks. Repeat this when commuting to work or school or taking a walk. In particular, it takes older people longer to acclimatize to the heat than younger people. It seems that it is better for older people to start these exercise prescriptions early and work on them carefully.
When you feel that you are sweating, you have already sweated a lot. Sweat that evaporates and is invisible to the eye is called effective sweating. This sweat works to cool your body temperature. Visible sweat is ineffective sweating. This ineffective sweating does not have much effect on cooling the body, even though it is sweat. Only effective sweating is sweat that has a cooling effect that prevents heat stroke. To make this effect more effective, it is a good idea to create an opening and closing of air in the space of your clothes. The muumu’u, the traditional Hawaiian costume, has air inlets and outlets. This traditional costume has an open waist, allowing air to flow from the feet up to the neck. This air passage increases airflow between the skin and the clothing, expanding the area over which sweat can escape, for an effective cooling effect. Not only Hawaiian muumu’u, but also Indian saris and the thobes worn by Arab men all incorporate mechanisms that create airflow from the feet to the neck, effectively dissipating heat. These traditional costumes can be said to be the crystallization of the wisdom of their people.
