See also:
Injury
Sleep Deprivation
Illness
Dehydration
Hunger
Cold

I'm sure we've all lived long enough to know that heat can be bad. During our lifetimes we've touched hot baking pans, stepped into scalding hot bathwater, stood a little too close to the campfire, and (most commonly), worked, played, or just sat out in the blazing summer sun.
So, tell us what heat is like. What effect does it have on you? Did it make you sweat, or just shrivel up? Did you enjoy it, or were you absolutely miserable?

I enjoy warmth--I can't stand hotness though...I'm extremely sensitive to heat. Right now my hair is grown out several inches, during the Summer, that could mean that playing Ultimate Frisbee or some other sport will make me feel like fainting.

I also have some sort of problem where temperature change (especially if it's me getting hotter) causes a rash to break out all over me, usually mostly whatever part of my body is working, joints, legs, shoulders, etc, but almost no part of my body is left out. When the rash is coming on, I feel something like needles are being stuck into my back, head, or wherever the rash is coming (most frequently feel the pinpricks on my back). Usually I end up scratching the rash until I numb the skin there and don't feel the burn/sting of it anymore, and the rash disappears usually within an hour.

*nods with interest*

I'm the kind of person who enjoys the cold more than the heat. Even if I get cold easily, at least I can keep putting on blankets or I can wear an extra jacket or two. With the heat, however, I have this kind of allergy that--if it gets too hot--will make me very uncomfortable. It gets frustrating because I can't run (it makes me too hot) and I dearly love to run.

I didn't know what it was at first until I visited the doctor and he told me that my skin was reacting due to the intense heat. And since we live in the Philippines, heat is something we experience maybe 60% of the time in a year.

Thankfully, even if it is just as hot (or maybe even hotter) this year, it's not bothering me as much anymore. Sometimes I feel as if it's unbearable, but I think sometimes it's got an effect in my mind, partly because I'm afraid that it will trigger all my allergies again (but, praise God! that hasn't happened in a couple or so years).

We were once in the Lakes, and it was such a hot summer. I went walking in a t-shirt that had straps instead of sleeves. My shoulders came out in blisters, the sun just burned all my shoulders, back and neck; they took over a week to disappear, and my shoulders and neck were really tanned after that. The awful thing was, that my sister has a habit of hitting me on the shoulders, when we laugh together etc. Anyhow, she kept doing it, and it was so painful. She'd just forget and she slowly broke them all up accidentally.

A couple years ago, I was heating up a pasta TV dinner for lunch. I decided to sit in the living room, which we do on occasion. I carefully got the TV dinner out of the microwave with a hot pad.

When I sat down in the chair, something happened. A very small amount of sauce fell on my right knee. I froze for a moment, then wiped it off. My knee was a bit tingly the rest of the day, but it was okay after that.

Or so I thought.

Well, a couple days later, I got a small blister where the sauce had been. It grew bigger, until it was a raised blister about the size of a quarter with pus inside.

It was there for about three weeks. One day my parents, one of my friends, and I went to the zoo. The blister was slightly painful and annoying because the hem of my long shorts rubbed against it.

Toward the end of the day, I was getting discouraged because I didn't want to pop the blister but I wanted it to heal. On the drive back to our house, the blister burst. I had to use a napkin to gently pat my knee off.

The small part of skin where the burn had been was light pink. It healed slowly. The scar faded. But now I'm very careful eating any kind of pasta TV dinner.

Ooh, Elanor, that sounds like a nasty sunburn.

And Elly, it was kind of strange, the way the blister took so long to develop, wasn't it?

I don't think I have.

Ooh, that does not sound nice! I've heard of people being sorta allergic to heat like that. Thank goodness it hasn't happened again for a while.

I'm very sensitive to heat, but I don't think I've actually gotten heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Although one time, it was very close. I felt rather dizzy, and had stopped sweating a lot. And for some reason, I didn't feel like drinking water. Someone told me I was looking pale, and so I had to go inside. It took me a while to cool down enough so I didn't feel a tad weak. I try to avoid situations that involve high heat for long periods now.

*Raises hand weakly* I have, once we were at the lake, a nice day, fairly hot out not much though, but as the day wore on, I didn't drink anything, or eat for that matter. I ended up getting heat stroke, I was in +30C all day. I was confused and dizzy, I didn't want to drink anything, but my Mom made me. I felt really weak. I ended up getting sick. I didn't feel good for the next few days, but I bounced back quickly.

I prefer warmer weather because I don't have to layer up, but I'm also used to the harsh Minnesota winters. ^^

Last summer the hottest weather we had was 115 degrees Fahrenheit (or 46.1111 celcius) with heat index/humidity. I was moving wood to campsites that afternoon and the worst part was the feeling of my own sweat coating my body. It also made me very sluggish. All I wanted to do was jump into a pool.

I find that hot weather keeps me drinking a lot more water. : 3

~Calen

What's weird (for me) is, I don't think my body's self-cooling system works properly.
I sweat, yes, and it cools my skin to the point where it's frigid to the touch! But I feel no cooler, in fact I feel hotter, I suppose because having skin of a lower temp makes the air feel hotter, so I sweat MORE, which makes my skin COLDER!!! It takes a very long time to warm my skin and stop sweating.

I really like these threads by the way very informative, interesting, and I like posting my own stories of my experiences. they were a good idea, Aemi