To think there must be something wrong with me because I absolutely can not tolerate the UK heatwaves - anyone else?

I LOVE a good British heatwave! I don’t even mind feeling a bit sweaty. Vitamin D, the smell of barbecues, feeling warm all the way through my bones, sitting out with a cold drink, wearing flip flops, taking the kids out to the beach or park and just feeling the sun on my face rather than sweaty rain pouring down my back or yet another day of grey cloud.

I love getting a bit of a tan and wearing nice floaty dresses. It’s good for the country, it’s good for businesses, it cheers the nation up a bit. LOVE IT!

I'm so glad when I read people saying this, I've avoided going abroad in the summer last few years since I developed heat intolerance but maybe it won't be as bad as I fear!

I always loved the hot weather but I take long term medication now that has hugely reduced my tolerance to heat - I dread heatwaves, it's a constant battle to keep cool.

It's been really eye opening to me because I didn't really have any sense before of how people could struggle in the heat.

I will be staying indoors during the worst, putting up blackout blinds, taking cool showers and flaking in front of a fan.

Solidarity to all those struggling!

I have dysautonomia and the heat absolutely destroys me. Palpitations of 150bpm+, exhaustion, nausea, lightheadedness.

I take medication to control it but there are a few things that help breakthrough symptoms:

Electrolytes are the big one - they help keep your blood volume up, and help you stay hydrated. I try and drink at least one bottle on a morning and one bottle on an evening. Personally I recommend Revival brand. Zero are also quite nice but don't always dissolve as well. Liquid IV aren't actually as good as people claim and they taste like someone added sugar to a fruit shoot.

Running wrists under cold water really helps bring me out of episodes as well and instantly cools me down.

Heat intolerance is often triggered by the vagal nerve so if I get symptomatic at home, I put an ice pack on my chest. The back of the neck works for some people but I find the chest most effective. It sort of "resets" my system.

When I shower I also turn it down to cool/cold for 20 seconds before I get out. I make sure my head is soaked in cold water. There's no science behind this, but I discovered it helped me by accident and just ran with it.

I really hope you find some relief x

Are you drinking enough water? It might be that you need to take an electrolyte sachet. I sweat a lot in hot weather and often feel weak and lethargic. My favourite temperature is around 23-25 degrees.

I am the exact same! Out of interest are you a redhead/very fair skinned? I am so have researched this and it seems we are very sensitive to both hot and cold temps generally. I can never seem to strike the balance in the summer of staying hydrated enough to not feel unwell, vs drinking so much water that makes me feel icky in itself. And sometimes no matter how hydrated I am, a hot temperature alone is enough to make me feel funny. I can’t fathom how people can drink alcohol in the sun either, or just even sun bathe!! 🤣 If there’s a breeze, access to a body of water and some shade I’m absolutely fine, but I will feel unwell with any exertion or vigorous activity. I’ve just accepted it now!

I love it OP. But I also don't have the illness you describe that sounds miserable.

I'm happy as it means no chilblains for a few months! My raynauds will bugger off till October when my toes start to burn again.

I don't tolerate it well either and never have. I'm very pale-skinned and burn very easily despite sun lotion.

Luckily the house we have now always seems to remain quite cool in heatwaves but the heat makes me feel exhausted and headachey and like I constantly want a shower.

I’m Greek and I would take a Greek heatwave over a UK one. I don’t quite know what it is about UK hot weather but it’s absolutely unbearably hot for me 😭 One obvious thing is dwellings are built to retain heat, carpet everywhere, and no air conditioning, those are killer. But also even outside, in the garden, on the patio, just walking around, it’s too bloody boiling hot 🥵

I'm not a fan - it's totally different from being on holiday! And it seems much more humid here, which is just nasty, especially at night. When I was working, it was an 18 minute walk to the station, a 40 minute train journey with no air con, then either tube (on non-air conditioned line) or bus. Then an office with no Aircon 🥵 Really unpleasant, absolutely no respite from it at all. My house is cool though.

I would never close the curtains because the sunlight is brilliant for me but that's obvious as I have SAD

People talking about an Aircon unit.

Don't forget the important part of it is the conditioning - it really helps with the humidity, nothing else helps.

The problem part of it is the noise.

After years of living in new builds - admittedly with tiny heating bills - last year I finally saw a report which acknowledged, in Europe at least, more air-conditioning is going to be needed for the sake of people's health. There's no reason why flats like this shouldn't be built with some kind of air system for heating and cooling. You'd get far more use out of the cooling.

I'm also not hugely convinced by the thermal bricks. I can see they keep My heating bills low. But it's very weird in summer when you realise you are slowly being cooked. You literally are being cooked. It's not your imagination. The bricks have absorbed all the heat from the Sun and they are throwing it back at you.

And they are throwing it back at your air-conditioner unit.... I don't know when building regulations are going to see sense about this.

It's been several years now that I've had to run an air-conditioning unit several days from May to October. When I go outside, the difference in temperature is extraordinary. They have literally built heat boxes up and down the country. - edit - I mean it's always much cooler outside than it is in the flat. So I go out thinking it's boiling and it actually isn't! It's just the way the build is.

@Saywhatnowhey I always need to have that vent every year!

Actually, posters who are really struggling with the heat in houses, do you know how your houses have been built? If it's post 2000 there's a chance that you've got some of this going on.

We also get posters every year arguing that it's not possible to build for our climate - but somehow, New York manages to have proper heated buildings in winter and proper cold buildings in summer. I worked over there for a bit and was put up in company flats. It is possible!

All that said, it looks like today is a very nice day where I am. So I'm going to go out and enjoy it. Here it's Sunday and Monday that looks like too much. But it depends which forecast you look at? And no one knows who is right!

It really is not the heat but the humidity In my experience. I find dry heat much easier to tolerate.

It's about respite I think. In the UK in a heatwave there are very few places you can escape the heat in. Almost no buildings are built to minimize solar gain, we are not able to live as much outside because our weather is too changeable and unpredictable and yes very little air conditioning.

In the winter, heating is abundant - every bus, train, shop and office you go into has heating and actually the problem is getting your outdoor gear off in time to avoid overheating. In the summer, aircon is rare so the feeling of heat being inescapable is much worse.

I bought a portable air con unit a few years ago after many years of trying every single super duper fan. It has truly made a difference because I know there's an escape if I can't stand it any more. It's a noisy fecker which gives me a stiff neck from the draft so I use it sparingly (solar panels mean the electricity it runs on isn't a concern). I still find my house gets noticeably dirtier and untidier because I go into shutdown mode during heat.

When the aircon isn't on I rely on window shading with thermal blinds and that makes a huge difference

Some great suggestions here. We moved to Edinburgh a few years ago and one of the bonuses we hadn’t thought of is that we avoid the really hot weather down south. Plus it’s Edinburgh!

I am like you but with this caveat: I think it is about lifestyle

i love hot weather if I can lounge in the shade, dip into the sea or pool, and snooze during the hottest part of the da

i Hate hot weather if I have to do the shopping, clean the house and then go to work in our hot office that has no airco, then drive home sitting in a hot traffic jam, come home sweaty and tired and then need to do the cooking

hot weather is only nice if you are at leisure imo

I'm in the East of the country and there have been several summers now that I've found absolutely brutal, I don't do heat and it can be significantly worse here than many areas. Also think any ability I had to feel the cold disappeared at menopause and never returned! I'm dreading this year because I don't think the newly acquired heart condition they are still trying to treat effectively will help matters.

Sympathy to all feeling the same.

I’m weird in that I can easily handle it when I’m abroad but can’t deal with it here in the UK. My DH said it’s because we have a different type of humidity. When in southern Italy a couple of years ago it was 34 degrees every day and we were walking all of the time- 30-35k steps a day. I was absolutely fine and loved it. Here it gets to 20 degrees and I’m cursing.

I agree. I’ve tried both, and having curtains closed to stop the light getting in but windows open to allow a through breeze is far more effective. Even if the air is warm, it’s better than it’s moving.

I keep windows and curtains closed in the day and open them at night

I hate it too, especially at night. I'd rather be at -10 than +25.
I'm dreading the next week.
I have an AC in my front room/office, but I can't sleep with it on as the clunk disturbs me. So it will be fans, cooling towels and a knackered menopausal me until it cools down again.

Are you drinking enough and are you getting enough salt to replace what you are sweating out? I feel sick in the heat if I'm still on 'winter intake' of water. Upping my hydration and eating a salty packet of crisps usually helps.

Breeze may be temporarily cooling but letting the room heat up is worse.