1. Take care of your fluid and salt balance.
It’s a familiar story: don’t forget to eat and drink. In hot weather, your body loses salts and fluids through perspiration, so it’s important to keep a good salt balance. Although salt in general increases bloating, in the heat, snacking on a few extra pretzels is not so much dangerous as it is desirable.
You should also drink fluids regularly. Normally, an adult body needs 2-3 litres of fluid a day, some of which we get from food. It is a good idea to drink a litre or a litre and a half of water every day. In hot weather, sweating can double or triple the need. Keep your alcohol intake under control, as alcohol increases swelling.
2. Keep moving.
This is another familiar one: exercise rarely makes anything worse. Exercise makes you feel better because it also gets the fluids moving in your body.
If you’re taking long car or plane journeys, take a walk or twist your ankles. When you sit for long periods with your knees and hips bent, the large blood vessels in your thighs get squeezed, blood flow to your lower legs slows down and your legs swell.
Good holiday shoes are light and roomy.
You can stimulate circulation with a leg pump: alternate between the heels and the heels, pumping your feet 30 times.
You can also get relief by pulling socks over your feet to increase venous circulation and fluid drainage.
