Wet T-Shirts Provide Effective Cooling for Older Adults During Heat Waves

A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggests that wearing water-soaked clothing in hot, humid weather may cool down and lower the risk of heat strain in older adults, reports Medical Xpress . Researchers monitored a group of adults with an average age of 68 in three separate sessions, with volunteers sitting on a breathable mesh reclining chair for two hours in a room with an ambient temperature of 108 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of 34 percent. Each subject underwent a "dry" session where they wore a dry cotton T-shirt; a "wet" session where they wore a cotton T-shirt soaked in 500 milliliters (ml) of water; and a "wet + fan" session where they wore a cotton T-shirt soaked in 500 ml of water while sitting in front of an electric fan. Participants also had unlimited access to lukewarm drinking water throughout the heat exposure sessions. The wet shirt by itself reduced the increase of heat strain, but heat strain levels did not differ between the dry and wet + fan conditions, "which suggests that fan use with supplemental skin wetting was neither beneficial nor detrimental in lessening heat strain in older individuals," the researchers said. "In contrast, wearing a water-soaked T-shirt without electric fan use in the wet trial significantly reduced the rise in heat strain throughout most of the two-hour heat exposure in the wet compared with the dry and wet + fan condition."