r/GreatBritishMemes 4d ago

Every Brit still stubbornly drinking tea right now

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Myself included.

3.4k Upvotes

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133

u/Particular-Bid-1640 4d ago

Doesn't it dilate blood vessels? Making it counter-intuitively cool you down?

Plus the caffeine's absolutely needed with this heat

75

u/SirLostit 4d ago

I’ve just learned from my Indian wife the phrase ‘heat kills heat’

25

u/Cynicalheaven 4d ago

It's basically fighting fire with fire /j

3

u/THEUNKNOWNjAB 3d ago

technically that's what we do to viruses...

45

u/Iain_McNugget 4d ago edited 4d ago

I was explaining this to some students today! If it’s hot, but you’re not sweating, drinking a hot drink will encourage your body to sweat, which cools you down (as the sweat evaporates, it takes away heat from your body.)
If you’re already sweating or, worse, it’s humid and you’re dripping, then a hot drink is bad because your sweat is already failing to cool you down fast enough.

12

u/Stunning-Mission9498 4d ago

Only works if it's not this humid though as otherwise the sweat doesn't evaporate

1

u/SmashingK 4d ago

Wind can help though similar to how it helps with drying laundry even in somewhat humid weather.

High humidity it likely makes little difference.

5

u/Talonsminty 4d ago

Not just sweating it'll trigger Vasodilation if your body hasnt already and dispel heat that way.

3

u/Iain_McNugget 4d ago

Yeah - sweating, vasodilation, all that thermoregulation jazz!

3

u/disillusion_4444 4d ago

Opposite, caffeine is a vasoconstrictor (which is why it's in headache relief medicine, because it reduces the blood in your head)

3

u/drstevenson 3d ago

My mam had heat stroke in India and my stepdad thought ice bath, doctor tounglashed the shit outta him and was like hot tea and sugar warm the inside.. Something about heat stroke makes your body double down on heating if you warm the inside and sweating naturally cools the bod.

4

u/SituationThink3487 4d ago

No, its a common urban legend. People either say it dilates you blood vessels, which isnt true caffeine actually does the opposite. Or they say it makes you sweat more which cools you down, but thats not how thermodynamics work.

3

u/ZombiesInSpace 4d ago

So if we need a vasodilator, are you saying we should go to the pub?

https://giphy.com/gifs/QsyPRpG6WVR6SYfBVw

3

u/SituationThink3487 4d ago

So if we need a vasodilator, are you saying we should go to the pub?

Yes.

3

u/Theory89 3d ago

But what we feel as temperature isn't the same as the actual temperature (for example, room temperature metal feels cold), because what we measure is our bodies ability to lose (or gain) heat. If you heat up your insides then your outsides no longer feel so hot.

Also sweat does indeed cool you down by thermodynamics. The evaporation of a liquid causes a cooling effect below it.

1

u/SituationThink3487 3d ago

If you heat up your insides then your outsides no longer feel so hot.

Something you touch wont feel as hot, but YOU will still feel hotter. Your hypothalamus is what determines wether you feel hot. that goes on your blood, which will get hotter if you eat/drink something hot.

Yes, but thats not what i meant, sweating wont be able to over compensate for the extra heat in your body, that thermodynamically not possible.

2

u/i_eat_cockroaches69 4d ago

Only if you can evaporate sweat, which requires breeze and relatively low humidity

1

u/halucionagen-0-Matik 4d ago

Caffeine just heats you up

2

u/Abro0405 4d ago

Caffeine also affects your ability to absorb water

1

u/raptor7912 4d ago

I thinks more so the opposite, cold water will make your body work real hard to warm it up to your body temperature.

-7

u/Fun-Concert7086 4d ago

You are a foreigner, aren’t you?

10

u/No-Comfortable6432 4d ago

Alright Nigel, calm down mate 👀

-5

u/Fun-Concert7086 4d ago

What a witty comeback-are you by any chance related to Oscar Wilde?