Decreasing Core Body Temperature

[scottsman]

Due to the climate that I live in I tend to sweat 1 or 2 hours after I have finished any sort of outdoor physical activity(running, soccer, etc.) Even after I have a shower whether it be cold, warm, hot and I dry off I will still be sweating. It takes about 3 hours for me to feel like my temperature has gone back to normal.

Is there a safe way to rapidly cool my body temperature after returning from exercising? Long cold shower? Or does anyone have any strategies that they use?

[SkinnyPupp]

Ice packs (or even pouring cold water) on your wrists help, if you don't want to soak your head. That is where your blood is really close to the skin, so it is easy to cool it off there. Obviously your head would be even better though.

I find that taking TOO long of a cold shower in humid weather tends to have the opposite effect.. In essence, you are cooling your skin off, then going out in the heat. Well you know what happens to cold drinks when they sit out in the heat.. Condensation! This happens to our bodies too if they are superficially cold.

[DragonChi]

Rapid cooling is counter intuitive, cooling at a moderate rate would result in better results. This is because when your tissue comes in contact with temperature too cold, your blood vessels contract, reducing blood flow that aids in heat transfer. As I recall the temperature was roughly 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or approximately 15.56 degrees Celsius.

In one of the popular science episodes, they feature a device for cooling down your core temperature rapidly. It was one of the superhuman episodes.

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