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During the summer I get overheated quite easily - and it has caused many problems for me. Once I get overheated, I begin to feel very nautious and a migraine soon follows.
To make things worse, it's happening several times a week now.

I know that water helps but I hate just drinking plain water, but I do it as much as I can tolerate.

Unfortunately, I live in a small town and there's not many options open to me. I don't like having to take over-the-counter drugs everytime a migraine comes on - but I can never find anything to really help.

Any suggestions?

I used to feel that way about drinking water too, in fact I STILL have to force myself to drink it, since I start to feel really crappy when I'm dehydrated. You could try alternating with gatorade but it's not the same as water. I like to get a big thing of like 20 of the smaller 500ml water bottles because if I get the big ones it's hard to tell I'm even putting a dent in the water in them. You could even get a bunch of the teeny ones and drink those all the time. You could try to drink like two of those a day at first and slowly work yourself up to drinking more. A lot of times in the marines people would carry around a gallon jug of water and just drink from it all the time. Personally I don't like doing it that way, the water gets warm and ends up tasting like plastic. I like to drink juice a lot too, carrying around one of those sports bottles with juice might suit you too, though, like I said about the gatorade, it's still not as good as water.

Thanks for the help. I really like the idea of a teaspoon of lemon juice in the water.

The thing is, even when I'm taking it easy I still can get overheated - one of the problems is my long hair. I work in a college office, so right now I'm limited as to what I can wear and that's part of my problem. I try to dress as cooly as possible - but it can't be anything exactly "revealing".
As for my hair, I have an appointment coming up soon. I'm going to be taking a few inches off of it, and have the ends thinned - I'm hoping it'll help.

I always try to have something to sip on nearby, but a lot of the times it's sugary since - as I said - I don't like plain water. I also have very low blood pressure, and I get dizzy easily from it sometimes - so that's another reason for my needing so always have something cool to drink nearby.

Also, a quick way to cool your body quickly is to use a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol. Wipe it across your forehead or back. The evaporating alcohol works like sweat does, and helps take the heat from your body. Just be careful not to do it too much too quickly...it can cool you off fast enough to send you into shock!

I don't know about the cactus juice thing, I was reading a desert survival book (which is now with my husband in iraq) and a lot of kinds of cactus are pretty crappy for you and will actually cause diarrhea or dehydrate you more... I think that the inside of the pads of prickly pears and their fruit, barrel cactus (not saguaro), and the stalks (and only that part) of ... agave plants I believe they're called are a few of the only ones that are good for you if you need water in the desert. And I think that its in the sahara that they have these gourd things, I don't remember what they're called, and they have water in them you can drink. There's also some kind of tree in some of the deserts that you can get water from the roots, I don't remember what it was though. Aloe pulp is actually bad for you too, it can cause diarrhea. Once I get the book back I'll have to read that section again and give you guys the low-down on where to get water if you're lost in the desert.

Haha, yeah. Well, I'm into desert hiking. I'll have to start a new topic for survival by plant some time. I know some interesting stuff about the desert.

That's a great idea. ^^
During the day, I dislike having my hair pulled back into a plain pony tail but turning it into a bun sounds nice - and suitable - for work. whee


On the cactus note, I'd be at a loss their anyway. As I mentioned, I'm from a very small town and so I'm limited as to what's nearby.

In EMS, first thing we do for anyone we THINK is overheating is throw some ice under their arm pits and give them as much water as they can take.

as for dehydration....you may not like water, but your body needs water all the same...just force yourself to grab a class of water ensted of that soda or whatever. just plain old water is the best.

as for the headakes, take some pain killers.... IBproufen i don't recomend because of it's adverse effects with other possible chemicals/herbs/whatever you might have taken. i only use it if my knee is doing the whole pain and blacking out thing... just take some more basic pain killers.