KEEPING COOL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 November 1924, Page 8

KEEPING COOL.

VALUE OF SEA BATHING. (By a Doctor.) Many people think that the value of sea bathing lies in the sea salt. The sea salt has really very little hygienic value, and sea bathing is beneficial mainly because it is cooling and because the splashing of the sea water stimulates the nerve endings in the skin. When we bathe we expose our whole much-coddled skin to the water, and the cold water stimulates the cutaneous nerves and cools the surface of the body. How stimulating the cool water is we quickly discover, for when we first plunge in it it stimulates the breathing centre till we gasp. But. the main benefit derived from sea bathing depends, a e we have said, on the cooling effect of the sea water. CLOTHES AS A HOTHOUSE. In hot weather or when we shut ourselves into a hothouse within our clothes less heat leaks away, and so, in order that the temperature of the body may not rise to fever heat or even to heat stroke heat, the heart beats more feebly; all the vital processes are diminished, and we feeil a sense of lassitude and weariness, and are disinclined for food and exercise. The fires of the body burn low in order to keep us cool. But when we plunge into the cool water the moving waves quickly abstract heat from the body through the skin, and the heart and vital processes, no longer afraid of producing too much heat, begin to work more vigorously, and the fires of life blaze up fiercely. It has been found that swimming in the sea on a cool day makes the fires of life burn ten times as fast as thfiy burn at rest. . • • Not only do the waves abstract heat, but the' air, too, as it evaporates moisture from the skin or bathing suit, is an . active refrigerating agent. ; V The whole effect 6f. exposure to the moving water and air is to cool the body and to quicken the fires of life burning _in it, so that circulation, and respiration are more active, and there is a feeling of increased energy and vitality. DON’T STAY IN TOO LONG. _ But it must be rioted that it is possible to abstract more heat from the body thari the vital firfis cari restore, and then, the bather feels chilled and tired. The moral is not to stay in the water too long. Each bather can find out, by trial. what length to stay in the water suits hirii best. Numbers of bathers after leaving the sea, like to lie in the sun, hut exposure' of the _ naked or half-naked body, unless it has been previously gradually sufibufned, is riot to be recoriimerided, In moderatiori the sriri rays will do no harm, arid iriay even do good, but to lie" for any length of timfi iri strong sunlight with neck arid head hare is enervating arid weakenirig.