Spinoff: heat intolerance

[keysfins]

@Jackie Cochran , I read your post on the other thread about riding with chronic pain. I know that heat intolerance is a hallmark of MS. I appreciated the list of things you do to cope with the heat intolerance.

I started to wonder what else might cause heat intolerance, and consulted Dr. Google. According to Dr. Google’s associate, Dr. Wikipedia, heat intolerance is sometimes part of fibromyalgia, which I live with. That could explain a LOT, especially why I have a hard time in Florida in the winter.

Does anyone else deal with this? I can manage much better in Colorado, without the humidity of the tropics.

[tinah]

I seem to be able to handle some heat, not a lot, but I can’t seem to handle direct sunlight. It’s awful, to the point where I’m re-thinking where I want the arena put in because if we move it 100 feet I can be in the shade at least part of the time. I was all ready to blame it on being out of shape and fat, but it was like that before I had kids and was running 12-20 miles a week too.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Yes, the heat, I rode this morning at 9:00 AM and I just lasted 20 minutes at a walk, no trotting. It was getting to be too much for me! I could have ridden the full half-hour without too many problems, but the mare was muttering beneath her breath about my insanity of riding when it is so hot!

I LOVE my long sleeve technical fabric shirt (FITS, white). I LOVE my Kerrits IceFil silicon full seat tights. I LOVE my Moxie ventilated half-chaps. I love my ventilated helmet (Ovation, white.) Beside the technical fabrics, when I feel a breeze I stop for a minute and I drink plenty of water. There is NO SHADE where I ride so my sunglasses help a lot too.

Years ago I tried an ice-vest, it was heavy and while it cooled my torso the rest of my body got HOT. I also found the ice vest to be heavy and tiring to wear. I tried the evaporation cooling vests, but they did not work AT ALL in the high humidity and I ended up hotter when I wore the vest and the evaporative “cooling cap” (as in my skin was HOTTER when I wore the evaporative vest and cap when I took them off.)

The technical fabric shirts and tights work better for me in the high heat and humidity, and with the long sleeves the sun does not heat up my skin. When I use the technical fabric shirt, tights, and the ventilated half chaps I feel cooler that when I wore my ice vest. When I ride in the direct sun I think the sunlight helps evaporate my sweat from the technical fabrics.

The modern technical fabrics made for the heat have helped me the most when I ride in the high heat and humidity.

I just wish that the technical fabric people made a human scalp covering, human face mask and neck covering combination that would help with the sweat on my head, face and neck. That would help me SO MUCH in this brutal heat and humidity!

[rockonxox]

I deal with heat intolerance, but no specific major issue that it correlates to. I grew up on the East Coast and now live in the Midwest and my body just doesn’t do well with the hot hot hot humidity. I have to keep my rides short, take frequent breaks, and if I start to feel dizzy or nauseous know to call it quits and take the next day off as well.

[Jackie_Cochran]

I just remembered something from years ago.

We had a stretch of three years without air-conditioning in our house. Luckily my trailer was back in the woods and a very leafy branch covered the roof over our bedroom. The summers were HOT and HUMID, but I found that it was a lot less of a shock going outside, since it was hot in our trailer.

I had a lot fewer problems with the heat those three summers. In the house I kept cool (somewhat) by having two fans going in our bedroom while wearing a technical fabric shirt. Outside riding I wore my coolest riding tights back then (Kerrits Flo Rise with the Tactel fabric, which I think may be a little bit cooler than the IceFil tights,) my technical long sleeve shirt, and my ventilated Moxie half chaps. The heat did not affect me as badly those three summers, and I lasted longer riding. The heat also did not bring me down as much as it does during the summers where I have air-conditioning in the house. We did have air-conditioning in our vehicles, but I did not spend long enough in the vans to reset my body to the cooler temperatures.

I even got so I ENJOYED the heat for the first time in years. I cannot do this again since my husband would not put up with it since we have central air-conditioning now which works fine. I keep the air-conditioning at 77 F, but the difference between 77 F with low humidity indoors and the heat index values outside is a shock to my system, and I handle the heat a LOT worse than I did those three years without air-conditioning.

[keysfins]

@Jackie Cochran , Interesting observations. Sounds like the CONTRAST is difficult, but going from one “atmosphere” to a similar one, was easier during that time?

[HorsesinHaiti]

Sometimes similar conditions help, sometimes not. I lived in Haiti for 19 years with no AC. Seasons where it was 80s and moderately humid, we coped well. But during the summer rainy season in the 90s + with sauna humidity, people struggled as their bodies never got a chance to get out of heat stress. In really bad conditions, it helps you cope if you can completely cool down for a few hours and let your body rest and repair.

Folks who who were older and/ or dealing with menopause messing with their thermostats had an even rougher time.

[Jackie_Cochran]

@keysfins

@Jackie Cochran , Interesting observations. Sounds like the CONTRAST is difficult, but going from one “atmosphere” to a similar one, was easier during that time?

Yes, it was much less shock to my body. This is something I’ve noticed my whole life since air-conditioning spread around the USA. It has ALWAYS been a shock to my system, the years I do not live in air-conditioning, to go from the ambient outside temperature into air-conditioning. I used to HATE going into stores during the summer because they were so cold, and then I would have to re-adjust to the heat when I went outside again. I successfully avoided having air-conditioning in my apartment/house until we moved into a trailer. I used to LOVE the summer heat, and while the humidity did get to me some it really did not affect my love of summertime!

I have noticed in my life that people tend to over-compare our hot, humid summers to tropical conditions. While I never lived in truly tropical conditions, I did go through the Panama Canal a few times as a child and my family did spend a few weeks one summer in Florida in the Everglades.

However bad the heat and humidity get in North Carolina during the summer, it is nowhere near normal tropical conditions. This year, the summer nights go usually go down to the upper 60s F to the mid 70s F. Yes it is hot, yes it is humid, but believe me it really isn’t “tropical.” I am thankful I do not live in the true tropics, I’ve “tasted” them and I have never dreamed of living there. At least cold winter freezes reduce the springtime fly plagues we can get down here in the South (too bad it does not seem to reduce the gnat population.)

[rubygirl1968]

I used to love summer and the heat but when I went into menopause, forget it! It just makes me miserable. I do wonder how much of it is being in air conditioning all day and then going out vs age and the internal furnace working overtime though.

[Jackie_Cochran]

As I was riding in the heat and humidity on Wednesday I remembered that years ago, back before I bought the technical fabric clothes, fantasizing about having a portable air-conditioner in spite of wearing the ice vest. I would have settled for a dehumidifier for the air I was breathing. I wore that ice vest for years, and every summer I wished for that imagined small, light, personal air-conditioner.

Ever since I got the hot weather technical fabric shirts and tights I stopped having this particular fantasy. The technical fabrics cool me SO MUCH better than the ice vest, because the cooling works all over my body instead of just my torso. When I wear the technical fabrics it does not bother me as much to breathe the hot humid air.

I also realized that I last longer riding during my lessons in the heat. I finally tracked that down to the fact that during my lesson I often talk with my instructor, especially when I have to rest. Even with the humid air, the deeper breathing I have to do so she can hear me helps cool my core body temperature, even with dew points in the 70s F.

I did wimp out yesterday (dew point 75 F). I was worried somewhat about the heat affecting me badly, but the reason I finally decided not to ride was worry about the mare I ride, she is elderly (over 30), and she has compromised lung function (long term nagging, productive cough.) I remembered that the weathermen advise the elderly and people with lung diseases to stay in out of the heat, and I figured that she would find it MUCH harder to cope with the heat than I would.

Now all I need is a technical fabric scalp, face and neck mask for me, and a technical fabric riding sheet for the horse that covers the forehand and neck as well as the hindquarters.

[keysfins]

@Jackie Cochran , you may want to check out Columbia sportswear clothing. Their technical shirts were originally designed for backcountry flats fishing guides in the Florida Keys. I think they may have something like a face and neck “drape”, since so many of the guides try to protect themselves from sun exposure.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Thank you keysfins!