During heatwaves, everyone has plenty of tips on how to keep cool. But which tips and facts stand up to scientific scrutiny on the hottest days of the year? We look at the evidence for whether you should:
1) Stick to cold rather than hot drinks
Drinking plenty of liquid is the right thing to do during a heatwave: it's essential to stay hydrated to protect the kidneys. But there is debate over whether that drink should be ice-cold or hot.
2) Get a fan
The breeze of a fan feels like welcome relief. Fans don't cool the air. They move it around, with the aim of creating a breeze to increase the efficiency of the body's normal methods of keeping cool via convection of heat from the skin and evaporation of sweat from the skin.
3) Only older people need worry about the impact on their health
The temperatures at which the body works best fall within a narrow range - 36 to 37.5C (96.8 to 99.5F). Thermoreceptors throughout the skin, deep tissues and organs can immediately detect an increase of as little as 1C.
4) Open all the windows
Opening the windows is the first thing most of us do when it's hot. But during the day, this can backfire.
5) Drink beer
In the 1958 film Ice Cold in Alex, Sir John Mills' character looks forward to escaping the desert and drinking an ice-cold beer. When he eventually arrives, he sits at the bar and is served a glass of lager. Downing it, he famously says: "Worth waiting for."
