It can be difficult to get through hot summers. The high temperatures can easily get on our nerves. There are many ways to seek a temporary relief, like eating cold food, staying in air conditioning, wearing relaxed clothing, and spending time in the water. But too much of these cool things can also bring discomfort. The following are some tips to keep healthy and cool in the summer:

Avoid eating too many cold foods

In the summer, the blood vessels beneath the skin expand so as to emit more heat inside the body to cool down. But when you eat too many cold things, blood vessels in the stomach and intestines contract, and even less blood flows into these organs, increasing the chances of stomach discomforts like stomachaches and diarrhea.

Tips:

1. Those suffering from acute or chronic gastritis or enteritis should not eat too much cold food, as they not only exacerbate the pain but also inhibits an appetite.

2. Avoid eating cold things after intense exercise, or immediately before and after meals. Don't eat cold and hot things together.

3. Eating too many cold things at once could dilute your gastric acid, which could affect your digestion.

4. Keep cold food in cool and sanitary conditions. E-coli can even survive when the temperature falls below zero Celsius. Make sure the cold food is fresh and clean before eating them.

Take care sitting in an air-conditioned room.

The air in an air-conditioned room often doesn't have enough negative ions, which makes it easy for one to get tired, difficult to concentrate and hard to work efficiently. Low temperatures can also easily lead to backache, arthralgia, or pain in the joint and dry throat.

To avoid these discomforts, pay attention to the following tips.

1. Decrease the difference between the outdoor temperature and indoor temperature. Try not to sit directly under the air conditioner.

2. If you sit in an air-conditioned room all day long, wear a jacket. You can also cover your knees with a blanket and get up to take a walk every other hour to keep your blood circulating.

3. Keep the office windows open to let fresh air in to cut down on the growth of harmful microbes.

4. Do some outdoor exercises everyday to increase blood circulation in your body. This will also help your body adapt to the temperature differences between indoors and outdoors.

5. Have a proper diet. Increase your intake of ginger and pepper, which stimulate your appetite and prevents you from catching a cold.

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