Drinking hot drinks can actually cool you down in a heatwave

This very unexpected drink will actually cool you down during a heatwave
There's no denying that the UK is hot right now and according to the weather forecast, it's only going to get hotter. With many sleepless, sticky nights ahead and with work from home feeling more like melt at home, we're willing to try anything that'll help keep us cool during the heatwave. But, whilst this trick to make your fan feel colder makes a whole lotta sense, one heatwave hack we've come across is entirely unexpected. In fact, studies have found that drinking hot drinks can actually make you feel cooler. Yep, hot drinks! So, whats the deal?
According to a study carried out at the University of Ottawa, drinking a hot drink when it's warm outside can cool you down – so long as you're not already sweating, that is. That's because drinking hot beverages triggers your body's sweat response (without raising your core temperature too much). The sweat then cools on the surface of your skin which in turn reduces the feeling that you're too warm.
Explaining how it all works Ollie Jay, a researcher who worked on the study, said: "If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate."
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The expert went on, "What we found is that when you ingest a hot drink, you actually have a disproportionate increase in the amount that you sweat... the hot drink is hotter than your body temperature, so you are adding heat to the body, but the amount that you increase your sweating by — if that can all evaporate — more than compensates for the the added heat to the body from the fluid."
But, don't be fooled into thinking a hot drink on a hot day will solve all your problems, as the hack only works in certain circumstances. "On a very hot and humid day, if you’re wearing a lot of clothing, or if you’re having so much sweat that it starts to drip on the ground and doesn’t evaporate from the skin’s surface, then drinking a hot drink is a bad thing," Jay adds. "The hot drink still does add a little heat to the body, so if the sweat’s not going to assist in evaporation, go for a cold drink."