As I rushed to an appointment one afternoon in New York City, my skin and hair seemed to be burning from the intense sunlight. Sweat builds up under my sunglasses, and my T-shirt and shorts stick to my wet skin. I am miserable.
I should be used to the heat. I grew up in southern India, where the temperature regularly exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. But I have abandoned all the tricks and techniques I used before.
To begin with, I walk outside around 3 pm In India, I rarely go out between 11 am and 4 pm, or if I do I am fully equipped to face the day. I usually carry an umbrella, like women in Victorian England carried a parasol, to protect my head and face. And I wore a salwar kameez, a tunic and loose bottom made of thin, fuzzy cotton.
It turns out that these methods, used throughout South Asia, are rooted in solid science, though I didn’t realize it at the time. As climate change sends temperatures soaring around the world, people who aren’t used to coping with the heat could stand to adopt some strategies from regions that have faced hot weather for generations.
covering up
In New York, I always carry an umbrella when it rains, and rarely wear a hat except on the beach. “But in a situation where you’re out in direct sun, having something to protect you from direct sun radiation is important,” said Dr. Jill Tirabassi, a sports medicine expert at the University at Buffalo.
Also, wearing skimpy clothing in an attempt to stay cool (or get a tan) exposes you to dangerous solar radiation. A better option is to cover up. “You really want to have breathable layers that help transfer your heat,” says Dr. Tirabassi.
People in hot regions, including African deserts, also wear thin and loose clothing, in bright colors that reflect the sun’s rays, which enter the air and facilitate the evaporation of sweat, instead which trap heat as darker colors do. Clothes made of thin cotton, linen or bamboo are the most breathable, and synthetic fabrics, such as polyester and nylon, the least.
“Having sweat evaporate is a really important way to cool your body when you’re moving or exercising,” says Dr. Tirabassi.
Really wet
A habit I picked up after observing the locals during the summer in France is splashing water on my face. It can also cool the skin — as long as it’s not too humid — when the water evaporates.
“It kind of mimics what the body does when it sweats,” says Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, an emergency medicine physician and director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University.
“Having a layer of cold water or rain on your skin actually speeds up your body’s ability to release heat,” he says.
Cool, damp cloths will accomplish the same goal. In northern India, men often wrap a wet scarf or towel around their neck or head, said Sanjiv Phansalkar, a rural development expert at the nonprofit VikasAnvesh Foundation.
In Nagpur, the hometown of Dr. Phansalkar, “anyone who goes out on the street in summer without a cloth covering their head and ears will be immediately stopped by a stranger and do so,” he said.
said Dr. Sorensen that this practice has a scientific meaning: The neck is full of blood vessels, which expand at high temperatures. Dilated vessels carry warmer blood from the core of the body to the skin, where the heat is lost to the air. In fact, when people come to emergency rooms with heat illness, doctors often apply ice and a cold towel to the neck to quickly bring down their body temperature, he said.
Hydrating with fruits and vegetables
Sweating is the body’s natural cooling mechanism, but the moisture lost must be replaced immediately. That can be done by drinking water, eating watery vegetables and fruits like cucumbers, watermelon and mangoes, or liquids like soups — yes, soups. People in the tropics often eat hot soups, to cool off by sweating.
“Everyone knows hydration, hydration, hydration, but what we miss is that hydration doesn’t mean just drinking water,” says Dr. Asim Shah, a professor of community and family medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who studied the effects of heat. He said water should be combined with electrolytes, electrical minerals like sodium, calcium and potassium that are needed for nerve and muscle function and maintaining pH levels.
When I was growing up in India, bottled water wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. Coconuts, piled high in roadside stalls, offer a cheap, safe and tasty alternative. The vendors will use a small machete to cut off the top of the coconut. When I’ve had my fill of cold, sweet water, I’ll crack open the coconut and eat its moist white meat.
Coconut water is more beneficial than plain water because it has electrolytes. (Most brands of bottled coconut water keep them, but some include unwanted added sugar or artificial flavors.)
Doctors usually warn against drinking alcohol in the heat because it is a diuretic and can lead to dehydration. If you drink, margaritas are a good option because the salt on the side can replenish sodium lost in sweat, says Dr. Sorensen, whose family is from Ecuador.
Smarter schedules
The best way to protect yourself from the sun is to avoid it as much as possible. In different cultures, that means scheduling work for hours when daylight is less intense.
Many people in southern India, and especially those who toil outside, start their work day around 4 am and work until noon. The afternoon often includes sleep. Then work resumes at 4 or 5 pm for a few hours.
“There was a completely different rhythm of life,” recalls Krishna AchutaRao, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi who grew up in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The work is less common today than it was in his childhood, he said, as Western rhythms and office life have taken over Indian cities.
Some countries in Central and South America and some in Europe, Asia and Africa follow a similar schedule, with a nap in the hottest part of the afternoon. As unrelenting heat grips Europe, countries like Germany, which once scoffed at the idea, are now also considering taking a midday break.
Naturally cool homes
Few Indian households have air conditioning; traditional homes manage to stay cool using other techniques.
A basic strategy is to open the windows early in the day and close them before it starts to get hot. Heavy, dark curtains block light and heat from entering the home, and ceiling fans circulate cold air trapped inside. My family’s house has curtains made of khus, a native Indian grass, which we sprinkle with water every two hours. The curtains changed the hot gusts of air into cool and fragrant breezes.
Many traditional Indian homes have verandas, high ceilings and mud walls that keep the interior cool. New Orleans, where Dr. AchutaRao for nine years, is famous for its shotgun houses — linear buildings where a bullet fired through the front door can go out the back door without hitting anything in the way — which allows the air that flows freely. As heat rises, high ceilings and ceiling fans also keep areas cool.
Not having such simple strategies in place can make milder temperatures unbearable. Dr. remembered AchutaRao was in Oxford, England, when it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, lower than the triple-digit temperatures he was used to. But there is no ceiling fan, and the windows can let in light but don’t open wide enough for a breeze.
That temperature was “a typical day in India, but it felt worse,” recalled Dr. Achuta Rao.
He lamented that some of these older strategies may have become useless – for example, early mornings are often so hot today that even waking up at 4 am may not always offer a comfortable start to the day.
The rapid pace of climate change requires solutions that can keep homes and bodies cool even as the mercury continues to rise, he added.
“You’re no longer adjusting to one hot day or a few hot days, you’re looking at weeks upon weeks of having to deal with it,” said Dr. Achuta Rao. “This is the cultural shift that people need to make in their heads.”