Keeping Well in Hot Summer Weather, Aug. 11, 1921

With heat advisories up for Wake County and the surrounding area for the third day in a row, we often wonder how people managed the heat before air conditioning. Here's an article issued 100 years ago by the state department of public health on staying healthy during the hot Carolina summers. Less meat was recommended because meat, poultry and fish spoiled easily without refrigeration.

To Keep Well in Summer

Health is largely a matter of habits. This is more true in the hot summer months than in other parts of the year. At this period, when the mercury is flirting with the stars, health may be conserved and comfort increased by careful attention to some of the essentials of the daily routine. Look first to the diet, then to bathing, sleep, exercise, and recreation.

Most important of all is the diet. This true all the year, but it is emphasized by the hot weather. The diet should consist largely of raw and cooked fruits, raw and cooked vegetables, cereals, milk and milk products, but very little meats. The amount consumed in summer should be less than in winter, and this applied with special force to meats, eggs, and pastries. Besides producing heat they tend to constipation and mental sluggishness. Drink much water, but not quantities of iced water. Above all, watch the elimination of waste matter from the body. Avoid constipation.

Take a bath every day, or better still, twice a day. A cool sponge bath first thing in the morning on getting out of bed and tub bath at night before retiring will do much towards keeping the body in good condition, and will make for comfort as well. Tepid water will give more satisfactory results than either hot or cold water.

Sleep regularly at least eight hours. If practical, sleep out of doors on a sleeping porch. Arrange the sleeping quarters so as to sleep in as much moving air as possible. Forget about the alleged dangers of draughts. Nothing enables a person to withstand the heat of summer with ease quite so well as plenty of undisturbed sleep in the open air.

Exercise some every day but use discretion. Open air games in the cool of the day are good both for the mind and body. Do not leave off walking because the weather is warm. Walk early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Walking is always essential to a state of physical well-being. It aids nature through perspiration to cleanse the body.

Recreation is just a form of mental and physical rest, and it is necessary to mental and physical health. It is something that may take many forms, depending upon the personal taste. Vacations at the seashore or in mountains, picnics, short trips in the automobile, motorcycle or on the bicycle, camping parties—anything that will give diversion, that will break the monotony and grind and at the same time tends to bring into play muscles seldom used—will be beneficial.

These are some of the definite things for health and comfort and pleasure in the summer. Here are a few “don’ts.” Don’t talk hot weather and don’t think heat. Avoid as much as possible direct exposure to the sun unless your vocation is such as to have accustomed you to it. Wear lightweight and light-colored clothing. Don’t dissipate by overeating or overdrinking. Go slow and do nothing in excess.

From the front page of the Roanoke, Chowan Times, Rich Square, Northampton County, N.C., Thursday, August 11, 1921