Summer is a warm and colorful season but it can hide a challenge for our body. Cope with these changes is easy and feasible, here are some tips.

Summertime changes

Summer is a very pleasant season: after a long and cold winter, we can eventually enjoy outdoor life and some relaxful holidays. We have more light and our days are longer which means more time to hike the mountains or swimming in the see or simply enjoy life. However, this is only one side of the “summertime coin”.

In fact summertime, along with sun and warm, brings few important changes, like increased:

  • temperature
  • duration of daytime

Summer and Sweating

In summertime, when the environmental temperature rises, we all usually sweat: our sweat glands secrete a liquid whose composition is mainly characterized by water and salts.

Sweating is an important way adopted by our body to control our own temperature. In other words our body secretes water to cool down. This regulatory mechanism is also called “perspiration”.

We can sweat thanks to specific glands that can be divided into:

  • eccrine glands whose sweat is odorless
  • apocrine glands, located in the hair follicle of scalp, armpits and groin whose sweat has a distinct odor and may be a cause of unpleasant smells.

Therefore sweating is a very important physiological process but if it goes to an extensive amount it can cause dehydration that is to say, an excessive loss of water and salts, like sodium, potassium and magnesium.

Some of the signs of dehydration are:

  • thirst
  • dark-yellow and smelling urine
  • dizziness
  • tireness
  • dry mouth, lips and eyes
  • cramps

If you feel that you are sweating too much just change a bit your lifestyle, here are some tips:

  • wear light clothes so that your body can breathe, cotton or linen might be more useful than synthetic fabrics
  • drink a lot of water even if you are not thirsty
  • avoid food allowing an increased rate of sweating
  • refill your plate with fresh fruits and vegetables, proteins and whole grain

Summer and Biological Rhythm

The other challenge of summertime is the longer exposure to sunlight. As we all of us already experienced, twice a year during spring, several Countries go through clock changes called Daylight Saving Time, when we shift the clock 1 hour forward. The reason at the basis of this choice is the aim to have a better management of the energy.

Shifting the time of 1 hour is not just a matter of enery saving, but it has also an impact on our wellbeing.

What does it happen to our body when days become longer?

All living beings have biological rhythms which can be divided into:

  • circadian rhythms: about 24 hours period of time
  • ultradian rhythms: less of 24 hours period of time
  • infradian rhythms: more than 24 hours period of time

The sunlight is very important as controller of our internal circadian rhythm: the intensity, duration and timing of sunlight exposure can alter our rhythms resulting in several changes.

Our internal clocks in fact can influence:

  • sleep activity
  • feelings of tiredness
  • feeding and drinking
  • many other functions

Therefore, if you want to face the coming summertime and just enjoy it without feeling disturbed by the clock shift and the increased exposure to sunlight, simply get ready during spring and adjust your habits in advance. This will allow your body to adapt to the new light exposure, especially if you live in a Country where the sunlight changes are marked.

Can a dietary supplement help?

As we already said in summertime it is important to adjust a bit our lifestyle habits:

  • drink high amounts of water and eat fresh fruit and vegetables to fulfill the loss of water and salts affected by sweating
  • get ready to the Daylight Saving Time moment allowing our body to get used to a longer sunlight exposure.

A healthy lifestyle is all you need to fully enjoy summertime, however keep in mind that you can give yourself the right support with appropriate dietary supplements to: