Beat the heat and stay safe this summer

With tem­per­a­tures soar­ing into the 90s this week, it is time to prac­tice pre­ven­tive mea­sures against heat-induced ill­ness, espe­cially when you are exer­cis­ing or work­ing outdoors.

Water is your first line of defense. Your body needs water to stay cool because it replaces flu­ids lost through sweat and helps pre­vent dehydration.

We want you to drink water con­tin­u­ously dur­ing your time out­doors when the tem­per­a­ture is above 85 degrees, about one liter per hour. Don’t wait until you are thirsty because thirst is a late symp­tom of dehydration.

You can increase your heat tol­er­ance by drink­ing water and an icy, cold, sweet drink such as Gatorade or a Slurpee about 30 min­utes before you go out­side. Avoid drinks with alco­hol and caf­feine; they may feel refresh­ing, but they can actu­ally accel­er­ate dehydration.

Pale yel­low urine, which appears nearly clear, indi­cates that you are ade­quately hydrated. It’s a good idea to check it before and after exer­cise. It’s also a good idea to weigh your self. Los­ing more than two per­cent of your body weight after exer­cise sig­nals a poten­tially dan­ger­ous loss of fluids.

The Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol reports that 300 Amer­i­cans die each year from heat expo­sure. In fact, heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the United States, claim­ing more lives each year than floods, light­ning, tor­na­does and hur­ri­canes com­bined, accord­ing to the National Weather Ser­vice. Chil­dren, the elderly and peo­ple who are sick or over­weight are espe­cially susceptible.

Short of stay­ing indoors, here are some other common-sense sug­ges­tions to beat the heat this summer:

• Wear light­weight, light-colored cloth­ing that reflects the sun;

• Take fre­quent breaks while work­ing or play­ing and mod­er­ate your activ­ity level;

• Sched­ule activ­i­ties dur­ing the coolest parts of the day: before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m., and;

• Stay out of the sun.

Even on mild days, it’s dan­ger­ous to leave chil­dren and pets inside an enclosed vehi­cle, even if the win­dows are open. Tem­per­a­tures quickly can reach 140 degrees Fahren­heit or more and have fatal con­se­quences within minutes.

Physi­cians are pri­mar­ily con­cerned with three heat-related ill­nesses. It’s impor­tant for you to rec­og­nize their warn­ing signs and take imme­di­ate action to cool the body.

• Heat cramps are pains and spasms that tend to occur in the abdomen and legs and are the result of the dehy­dra­tion. They are the first indi­ca­tor that the body is strug­gling to cope with heat. Peo­ple with cramps should rest in a cool place and drink a glass of cool water every 15 min­utes or so. The appli­ca­tion of cool, wet cloths can mit­i­gate symptoms.

• Heat exhaus­tion occurs when sweat is not evap­o­rat­ing fast enough and the body fails to cool. The warn­ing signs include cool, moist or flushed skin; heavy sweat­ing; headache; dizzi­ness; and nau­sea. It is often a pre­cur­sor to heat stroke — the most dan­ger­ous heat-induced con­di­tion — and requires that the per­son imme­di­ately cease all activ­ity, retire to a cool spot and hydrate. Other efforts to cool the body can include the damp­en­ing of skin with cool cloths, the appli­ca­tion of cold packs (espe­cially to the armpits and scalp area) and fan­ning to evap­o­rate excess sweat.

• Heat stroke — also known as sun­stroke — is a seri­ous con­di­tion in which the body’s tem­per­a­ture con­trol sys­tem totally shuts down and can result in organ dam­age and even death. Symp­toms include vom­it­ing; loss of con­scious­ness; body tem­per­a­ture as high as 105 degrees Fahren­heit; hot, dry skin (when you stop sweat­ing, you are in trou­ble); rapid, weak pulse; and rapid, shal­low breath­ing. Call 911 imme­di­ately, move the vic­tim to a cooler place and quickly cool the body with wet sheets, fan­ning and ice packs.

Thomas P. Hubbell, MD, is a fam­ily med­i­cine physi­cian and an active mem­ber of the Ohio­Health Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal med­ical staff.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Jun 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.