When it gets hot out, we generally reach for a fan when we can but a new study shows that turning on the box fan when the temperature is really soaring may not be the best idea, especially if you happen to be in a dry heat. Turning on a fan in a dry heat wave may leave you worse for wear.
Fans seem to still be fine for high, humid heat waves and do help with cooling but when it comes to dry heat, they just make you dehydrate even faster. Bodies are complex things and how we react to heat may feel the same to us regardless of type but our bodies are doing a lot of different things for different heats to keep us alive. We shouldn’t endanger that.
There are limits to the study. It was only done with healthy men for a limited amount of time so it may not hold true across the board. Our bodies’ abilities to regulate heat changes as we age and for a variety of health related reasons. Still this is an important factor to keep in mind as the weather gets hotter and hotter.