Heat affects

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No, I promise, you are NOT boring me.  I’m just hot.
What you say?  What kind of baloney is that?

Sorry, though, it’s true.  The data are now indicating that we yawn to cool our brains. Dr. Andrew Gallup (Princeton University) has been studying the effects of yawning on thermoregulation since 2009, when he was at SUNY Binghamton.  (You’ll see how my brain gets cooled below, when I describe where I sit.)

He and his coauthor (Dr. Omar Eldakar, University of Arizona)  in the review paper, described our yawning behavior in the summer and the winter, as they did their studies in Tucson (AZ).   In the winter, when the air was cooler, folks yawned about twice as often as they would have in the summer, when there would be little or no cooling effect.  (2011, Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience .

This is a far cry from our earlier beliefs that we yawn in response to excess carbon dioxide in our bodies.  By the way, “catching a yawn” is simply a function of how empathetic one is.  If one has an (emotional) disorder, then one is much less likely to catch a yawn, because the empathetic response is much lower.

And, I don’t do heat well.   Once the temperature exceeds 68 F (20 C), I am in trouble.  My forehead is dripping and my shirt is sopped.  Which is why I am also fodder for mosquitoes.

When I sit in my backyard, I have a fan blowing (air velocity over 2 fps makes it less likely mosquitoes will stick around- plus, it cools the local air) and a UV mosquito eradicator. (Dawn and dusk are the worst times for mosquitoes, by the way.)  Mosquitoes feast on mammals employing heat and carbon dioxide sensors, as well as detecting body odor (which is a function of the bacterial flora on our skin).  Which means besides me, mosquitoes are in love with pregnant women.

Oh, and scratching those bites makes you an even bigger target.  You see, our bodies send histamines to attack the invader (the mosquito saliva) – but scratching spreads the saliva and increases our histamine response.  (Yes, that does mean taking an antihistamine may make the bites bother us less- but it will not get us fewer bites, since the antihistamine has no effect upon the mosquitoes).

So, I’m letting you know, I’m not tired.  I’m enjoying myself with your company in my backyard.  But, being hot, I’m yawning (trying to cool myself anyway I can) and providing fodder for mosquitoes.  Pass the wine, please…

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4 thoughts on “Heat affects”

  1. Ok so READING about yawning has prompted a yawn. What is up with that? Why do we follow others’ yawns by yawning? BTW did you know (I’m sure you do) that the mosquitoes that “bite” are female? Go figure.

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