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Editor’s Note: This story was first published in 2020 and has been updated.

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Whether you’re without power, enduring extreme heat or trying to save money, there are ways to feel comfortable without artificial cooling.

Heat can foster fun summer activities, but the body shouldn’t be too hot for too long, as too much heat can harm your brain and other organs, according to the US National Institutes of Health. Sweating is the body’s natural cooling system, but when that’s not enough, there’s increased risk for developing the heat-related illness hyperthermia — signs of which include heat cramps, heat edema and heat stroke. Heat combined with high humidity exacerbates this risk, since the air’s saturation level makes sweat accumulate on the skin, preventing the body from cooling naturally.

Staying cool can be done by using some basic supplies and knowing how to manipulate your home to control its temperatures. Here are 14 methods for doing so.

When you’re hot and flushed, hydrating yourself is the first and foremost step to cooling down, said Wendell Porter, a senior lecturer emeritus in agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Florida.

The temperature of the water doesn’t matter since your body will heat it, he added. If your body is suffering from the heat and needs to cool itself, it can’t do that without enough moisture, since the body cools itself by sweating.

Taking a cold shower or bath helps cool your body by lowering your core temperature, Porter said.

For an extra cool blast, try peppermint soap. The menthol in peppermint oil activates brain receptors that tell your body something you’re eating or feeling is cold.

Place a cold washrag or ice bags (packs) on your wrists or drape it around your neck to cool your body. These pulse points are areas where blood vessels are close to the skin, so you’ll cool down more quickly.

Place box fans facing out of the windows of rooms you’re spending time in to blow out hot air and replace it with cold air inside.

If the weather in your area tends to fall between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the mornings and evenings, opening the windows on both sides of the house during those times can facilitate a cross-flow ventilation system. If you do this, you can opt to use or not use the fans, but the fans would help cool the house faster, Porter said. The outdoors can pull the hot air from your home, leaving a cooler temperature or bringing in the breeze. Just be sure to close windows as the sun comes out, then open them when the weather is cool again.

Just resting near a fan would reduce your body temperature as well.

If you have windows that face the sun’s direction in the morning through afternoon, close the curtains or blinds over them to “keep the sun from coming directly into the house and heating up (the) inside,” Porter said.

You could also install blackout curtains to insulate the room and reduce temperature increases that would happen during the day.

If you do turn the air conditioning on, don’t set it below 70 degrees Fahrenheit in an effort to cool the house faster, said Samantha Hall, founder of Spaces Alive, an Australia-based design research company helping to create healthy, sustainable buildings.

“It just runs for longer to reach that temp and will keep going until you start to feel a bit chilly and is then hard to balance,” she added. Instead, keep the unit temperature as high as possible while still comfortable.

Cotton is one of the most breathable materials, so cotton sheets or blankets could help keep you cool through the night.

The lower the thread count of the cotton, the more breathable it is, Porter said. That’s because higher thread counts have more weaving per square inch.

If you can’t sleep through the night because you’re too hot, try sleeping somewhere besides your bedroom, if that’s an option. Heat rises, so if you have a lower or basement level in your home, set up a temporary sleeping area there to experience cooler temperatures at night.

Common advice for staying cool without air conditioning includes refrigerating or freezing wet socks, blankets or clothing then ringing them out to wear while you sleep. But this isn’t a good idea, Porter said.

Because of “the amount of energy they can absorb from your body that night, they will be warm in just a matter of minutes,” he said. “And then you’d have damp stuff that would mold your mattress. So you definitely don’t want to do that.”

If no one’s using a room that doesn’t have vents or registers, close the door to that area to keep the cool air confined to only occupied areas of the house.

Use the exhaust fan in your kitchen and/or bathroom

Flip the switch for the exhaust fan in your kitchen to pull hot air that rises after you cook or in your bathroom to draw out steam after you shower.

Incandescent light bulbs generate a higher temperature than LED light bulbs do. To make the switch, watch for sales on energy-efficient bulbs, then slowly replace the bulbs in your house, Porter said.

Switching light bulbs can save money but won’t reduce a lot of heat in the home, Hall said. However, if you focus on switching the bulbs in areas you’re sitting near, that would make a more noticeable difference, Porter said.

Oven heat can spread throughout your house. Keep the heat centralized in one area, such as a slow cooker. Or, cook outdoors on a grill to keep the heat outside.

Eating an ice pop or ice cream to cool down may help for a moment. But don’t go overboard on the sugar if you’re overheated or at risk of being overheated, Porter said.

“Sugar would run your metabolism up and you’d start feeling internally hot,” he said. “So the cool treat might be good, but the extra sugar might not.”

If you’ve tried everything and still can’t beat the heat at home, you could look online for any local programs that are offering ductless air conditioners.

Depending on your state, some cooling centers — air-conditioned public facilities where people might go for relief during extremely hot weather — may be open and taking precautions to ensure they’re as safe as possible. You could start by checking with your local utility offices, as they would know who is offering certain programs, Porter recommended.

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The Senate will vote Wednesday on whether to approve the Right to Contraception Act, both as a way to safeguard women’s access to birth control and to show voters where their senators stand on the issue, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

The New York Dem noted that June marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed women the constitutional right to an abortion. He said nothing short of legally codifying a person’s fundamental right to birth control will stop the conservative-leaning Supreme Court from continuing to chip away at women’s health care.

“Now more than ever, and as we approach the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade, contraception is a critical piece of protecting women’s reproductive freedoms, standing as nothing short of a vital lifeline for millions of Americans across the country,” Schumer said in a statement.

“The American people have a right to know where their elected officials stand.”

He vowed that he and fellow Senate Democrats would “fight to protect access to contraception and other reproductive freedoms that are essential safeguards for millions of women to control their own lives, their futures and their bodies.”

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), is designed “to protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.” It covers everything from oral contraceptives to condoms.

While some Republicans have said there is no need for such a bill because the right to contraception and family planning are not being challenged, the bill’s supporters claim that the Supreme Court’s failure to protect abortion rights and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are clear signs that the conservative-majority justices are coming for the rest of it.

“It’s a slow creep to a very bad situation in terms of rights,” Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro told the Daily News.

That is underscored by the fact that many right-wing and extremist officials in politics and the judicial system have called for a Supreme Court reckoning on contraception, Schumer said. Moreover, he said, states are already restricting public funding for contraceptive products and services.

State legislation to protect contraception rights has been blocked or shot down in Virginia, Missouri, Arizona, Tennessee and Idaho, among others. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump implied earlier this month that contraception is on the policy table, although he walked his statements back later on.

“I have been clear we will not stand for these attacks, and we will fight to preserve reproductive freedoms,” Schumer said, adding that Democrats “remain absolutely committed to doing everything we can to protect women, families, reproductive freedom.”

The vote will be a litmus test and a source of information for voters heading into this fall’s election, of the measure, which passed 228-195 in the House of Representatives in 2022, when it was under Democratic control.

With News Wire Services

Every morning for a year and a half, Logan Whitehead, 24, rubbed a clear gel on his shoulders, waited for it to dry, then went about his day as usual.

“It was basically like a hand sanitizer solution,” said Whitehead, who lives in Torrance, California. “Smelled like hand sanitizer, looked like hand sanitizer.”

The gel wasn’t hand sanitizer, though. It was a hormonal solution meant to block Whitehead’s sperm production. The gel was male birth control.

Until this past winter when his participation concluded, Whitehead was a volunteer in a phase 2 trial for the gel. The product — which contains testosterone and a synthetic hormone called Nestorone that reduces sperm production — is the most advanced among a crop of novel birth control options for men.

If the Food and Drug Administration approves the gel, Whitehead said he would definitely keep using it, especially after watching his partner struggle with available female birth control options.

“The gel was such an easy process,” he said. “It was basically like taking the pill for the day.”

Whitehead said he didn’t notice side effects using the gel beyond some upper back acne and possibly a bit of weight gain, although that could have been linked to a new sedentary job.

Hormonal gel trial shows promise

On Sunday, at the Endocrine Society’s conference in Boston, researchers with the National Institutes of Health’s Contraceptive Development Program presented encouraging phase 2 trial results on the hormonal gel.

The trial involved 222 men, ages 18 to 50, who applied 5 milliliters of the gel (about a teaspoon) to each of their shoulder blades once per day.

The second part of the two-part trial is still underway. Initial findings showed that the contraceptive worked faster than expected, according to Diana Blithe, chief of NIH’s Contraceptive Development Program.

After 12 weeks of applying the gel every day, 86% of trial participants achieved sperm suppression, meaning they had only up to 1 million sperm per milliliter of semen, the amount the researchers deemed effective for contraception. On average, the timing for effective contraception was eight weeks.

In comparison, normal sperm counts without contraception can range from 15 million to 200 million per milliliter.

The faster-than-expected timing to suppress sperm is an encouraging sign, especially since past attempts have taken longer to reach these sperm levels, Blithe said in a news release about the new data.

Prior efforts using testosterone alone have required higher doses of the hormone, which can cause side effects. Because the gel includes both testosterone and Nestorone, it acts more quickly and requires less testosterone, she said.

Nestorone is a type of synthetic hormone called a progestin that’s already used in the vaginal ring contraceptive. Combining Nestorone and testosterone in the new gel is meant to keep men from producing sperm without affecting their sex drive or causing other side effects.

So far, the men in the gel clinical trial have shown low enough blood levels of testosterone to maintain their normal sexual function.

Researchers are now tracking how well the gel works to prevent pregnancy. Because of pregnancy risk, male participants are required to be in committed, monogamous relationships, and need consent from their female partners too. The couple must agree to use the gel as their only birth control and to have sex at least once a month for a year. Throughout the study, men have their sperm counts tested periodically, which is a good predictor of fertility. If the sperm counts remain low, the chances of pregnancy are slim.

After decades of early-stage attempts and failures, there are no federally approved male birth control drugs. Only a handful have even advanced into human trials.

It’s not because the approaches haven’t shown potential, researchers say, but because there hasn’t been enough funding or financial investment to complete expensive advanced human trials.

“We’ve been pushing for hormonal male contraceptives for 50 years, but there isn’t enough money available to really drive something through a very large phase 3 trial,” said Daniel Johnston, chief of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Contraception Research Branch.

If one male birth control drug gains approval from the FDA, pharmaceutical companies and industry investors would put more resources into other medications or products, Johnston believes.

“We’ve been chasing this for a long time,” Johnston said. “I hope we’re entering new territory.”

Nonhormonal options in development

Also at the Boston conference on Sunday, YourChoice Therapeutics said a very small trial in the U.K. — just 16 men — showed that its nonhormonal pill, YCT-529, was safe and free of side effects. The San Francisco company’s nonhormonal pill works by blocking the vitamin A receptor important for male fertility.

YourChoice is planning a larger trial, according to CEO Akash Bakshi.

“We’re excited to see what happens next,” Bakshi said.

Separately, a Charlottesville, Virginia, medical device company, Contraline, is developing a nonhormonal male birth control method that involves injecting a gel into the vas deferens, the tubes that transport sperm from the testicles.

Injecting the gel, called ADAM, involves a single, 15-minute procedure, said Kevin Eisenfrats, Contraline’s CEO and co-founder. Then, the gel is meant to stay in place for years. Contraline compares the long-acting reversible contraceptive to an intrauterine device (IUD) for women.

Contraline has been testing ADAM in an early clinical trial in Australia. In January, the company reported that among 25 clinical trial participants, the approach resulted in a 99.8% to 100% reduction in the number of motile sperm within 30 days of the procedure, Eisenfrats said.

“It’s honestly very similar to the experience patients have after a vasectomy,” he said. “Some of these patients had light bruising and swelling, which go away on their own.”

Contraline hopes to start testing ADAM in the U.S. in 2025.

Because Contraline is developing ADAM as a medical device and not a drug, it may be able to go through a speedier clinical trial and regulatory process than contraceptive drugs like the hormonal gel, experts suggest.

If it goes according to plan — which can be rare for novel products with no precedent — Eisenfrats said he’s aiming for an FDA approval in 2027.

Another company called Next Life Sciences is developing a similar method. Next Life’s approach, called Plan A, or Vasalgel, also involves blocking the vas deferens with a gel-like injection. Next Life is based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Next Life hasn’t started testing Plan A in people yet, although the company did test its method of injecting the gel in Canadian volunteers this past year.

Demand for new contraception is growing

U.S. and global surveys have found that men are willing to use contraception, said gynecologist Dr. Brian Nguyen, one of the investigators on the gel clinical trials.

“By and large, they always say they’d be interested,” said Nguyen, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California.

According to one 2023 survey published in the journal Contraception, three-quarters of 2,066 male respondents said they’d be willing to use new contraceptives.

In 2019, the nonprofit Male Contraceptive Initiative estimated more than 17 million men in the U.S. want more birth control options.

Heather Vahdat, the Male Contraceptive Initiative’s executive director, said interest in male birth control has been on the rise since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Recent research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health found that the number of young women and men choosing permanent birth control such as vasectomy and tubal ligation increased sharply after the court’s decision and has continued to rise.

A separate study conducted in part by the Male Contraceptive Initiative, showed that before the abortion ruling, 78% of men in the U.S. said they were interested in trying new birth control methods. Afterward, it climbed to 82%.

“The demand has always been there, but there’s a greater intensity now,” Vahdat said. “We get emails daily from people asking where they can sign up for clinical trials.”

Unlike a vasectomy, each of the new contraceptive approaches is meant to be reversible, so men can stop using them and regain their ability to have children.

“Vasectomies are a great solution for men who are done having kids,” Eisenfrats said. But reversing the procedure — which involves reattaching the vas deferens in a three-hour microsurgery — can be extremely challenging and doesn’t always work, he said.

While condoms can be highly effective against pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections when used perfectly, perfect use is hard to achieve. And condoms generally aren’t the preferred contraceptive in long-term relationships, YourChoice’s Bakshi said. 

Why is male birth control taking so long?

The new trial results are encouraging to Vahdat. But she knows that it’s not enough to show a birth control method is safe and effective. The product needs substantial buy-in from investors, too.

“We have this classic line, ‘Male contraceptives have been 10 years away for 50 years,’” Vahdat said.

The reason, she believes, boils down to lack of funding.

After NIH research grants, the Male Contraceptive Initiative is the second-biggest funder of male contraceptive research in the world, according to Vahdat.

“That’s super exciting, except when you consider we only grant about $1.5 million a year,” she said.

On average, the Congressional Budget Office ballparks $1 billion to $2 billion as the amount needed to take a drug through clinical trials and onto the market.

Right now, there’s just not enough money to take any of these male birth control approaches through the FDA review process, USC’s Nguyen said.

The hormonal gel is the most advanced in clinical trials, but it still hasn’t gone through a much larger, lengthy phase 3 trial. As of now — in part due to funding uncertainties — plans to test the gel further are still up in the air.

Most academic researchers or small biotech companies developing new drugs rely on drugmakers with deep pockets to fund advanced trials. In exchange, these bigger companies usually expect a cut of profit once the drugs make it to market.

The studies so far have been funded by NIH and the independent nonprofit Lundquist Institute in Torrance, California.

As of now, Nguyen said, there’s no major pharmaceutical company stepping in to fund the male contraceptive gel’s next-stage trials.

“There has to be an industry partner,” he said.

Nguyen thinks the challenge is that despite evidence that men want options, many couples still depend on female birth control.

“But that doesn’t mean they are satisfied with them and wouldn’t appreciate a male method.” Nguyen said.

“People always ask, ‘How long will it be until we see this product on the market?’” Nguyen said. “Most people will say five to 10 years, but I disagree.”

However, the chance of any of these male contraceptives — the gel, the physical blockers, the pills and whichever new methods crop up next — making it to market depends on whether investors with deep pockets recognize the demand is really there, Vahdat said.

To reach this point, she believes, the conversation has to shift away from viewing male contraception and female contraception as mutually exclusive landscapes with two separate populations demanding them.

“I think of male contraception as women’s health,” she said. “You’re still preventing unintended pregnancy.”

Kesha is celebrating her freedom. On Friday night, the musician headlined West Hollywood Pride at OutLoud Fest and shared onstage that the concert marked her first show since becoming a free woman after settling her decade-long lawsuit with Dr. Luke last summer.

“This is my first show as a free motherfucking woman,” Kesha told the crowd before debuting a new song aptly titled “Freedom,” as she asked the crowd, “Anybody else feeling free as fuck tonight?”

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The Smashing Pumpkins are giving fans a new release to (ava) adore, with the launch of a new bourbon whiskey, inspired by the band’s iconic discography and iconography.

Dubbed the “FEW Smashing Pumpkins Bourbon,” the new 93-proof bottling is a collaboration between the band and U.S. distillery FEW Spirits, with a flavor cut with black tea from Madame Zuzu’s Emporium, the boutique tea shop run by Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and wife, Chloé Mendel Corgan. The accompanying bottle is designed by artist Katelan Foisy, who designed interior album art for Corgan’s solo album, Ogilala, and has worked with the Pumpkins on stage backdrops for previous tours. Etched on the back of the label is the lyric, “Time is never time at all,” taken from the band’s hit single, “Tonight, Tonight”, from 1996’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

The accompanying liquid starts with a straight bourbon that’s aged for four years, that’s then cut to bottling strength using “Midnight Rose” black tea from Corgan’s tea shop. The finished product offers familiar bourbon notes of vanilla and caramel, balanced by hints of rose water, sandalwood and the black tea. Perhaps inspired by the band’s diamond-selling Mellon Collie album, the tasting notes say to expect “bright aromas” of “ripe honeydew melon” as well.

Aside from paying tribute to the band’s catalog, the new bourbon release also honors the shared Chicago roots of Corgan and FEW Spirits’ founder and master distiller Paul Hletko.

“Whether you’re making music, painting, blending tea, or distilling spirits, you’re making art,” Hletko says, in a release. “As a Chicagoan, I felt a personal responsibility to match the raw, primal energy of the Pumpkins.”

Adds the longtime Pumpkins fan: “Songs like ‘I Am One’, the opening track of the band’s first album, Gish, provided a ton of inspiration. Press ‘play’ and you’re immediately struck by these thumping, propulsive drums, joined seconds later by a tight bassline groove before crunching guitars kick in to round out what, for me, is such a signature sound. That’s the driving, yet symphonic quality we wanted to bring to this liquid.”

The FEW Smashing Pumpkins Bourbon is available to purchase now at select retailers across the U.S. and online. You can find out more at fewspirits.com. This is the latest musician collaboration from the distillery, which released a “Motor Oil Whiskey” with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in 2022.

As for the Smashing Pumpkins, the band is set to hit the road with Green Day and Rancid this month. The “Saviors Tour” kicks off June 29 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. and wraps up Sept. 28 at Petco Park in San Diego.