Keeping Cool: Summer Heat Safety
Dateline: 08/10/98If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Advanced age makes you more susceptible to . . . Sure, you've heard it before about all sorts of things. But when it comes to hot weather, your susceptibility can kill you. This article tells you how to find out how hot it feels outside, how the heat can affect you, what to do about it, and how to protect yourself. Elderly deaths from hyperthermia -- not a statistic you want to increase.
How Hot Is It?
If you have ever watched the weather forecast in the summer, you already know there is more to the heat than just the air temperature. What matters is how hot it feels to you when you are in it. Fortunately, most meteorologists report the apparent heat, often called the Heat Index or the Heat Stress Index, as part of their weather reports. But not always.
What determines the heat index? It is simply the combined effects of the air temperature and the relative humidity. Increases in either temperature or humidity raise the heat index. Let's say it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. When the humidity stands at 30%, the heat index is also 90. But when the humidity reaches 50%, the heat index rises to 96, and at 80% relative humidity, this same air temperature feels like 113 degrees! If your meteorologist doesn't report the heat index, simply find out the air temperature and the relative humidity and find the Heat Index on this table.
The higher the heat index, the greater your risk of heat-related illnesses. With heat indices between 90 and 100, even limited activity can result in heat cramps or heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke is possible. Between heat indices of 101 and 129, all three heat-related illnesses become likely for elderly individuals. Above a heat index of 130, heat stroke may be imminent. Don't even think about going outside.
If you don't want to bother with the exact heat index, simply check out the Current Extreme Heat Information for your area. Find out whether your area is under a Heat Advisory or an Excessive Heat Warning.
What Heat Can Do To You
Take the heat seriously. Besides any medical problems you might have that could be worsened by the heat, you also respond more slowly and less effectively to changes in your body temperature. You sweat less (so you cool off slower) and you don't tend to get thirsty (so you get dehydrated without knowing it). A variety of other factors can increase your risk of developing heat-related illnesses. Review these Health and Lifestyle Risk Factors to see where you can reduce your risk.
Even before you develop serious health problems, even before your body temperature starts to rise, you may experience such heat-related illnesses as heat cramps, heat fatigue, or heat syncope. Heat cramps, brought on by exertion, may be the first warning that you are becoming dehydrated or otherwise stressed by the heat. Heat fatigue may simply be a feeling of weakness experienced when you move into a hot environment, even without exertion. Heat syncope is a feeling of faintness generally associated with exercising where it is hot. For all these conditions, rest and a return to a cooler environment is often all that's necessary for them to resolve.
More serious than those conditions are two conditions that result when the body can no longer maintain its normal temperature. In the face of exposure to extreme heat, the body simply overheats. Two distinct types of severe heat illnesses are possible.
Heat exhaustion represents the result of the body's overzealous attempts to cope with extreme environmental heat. Symptoms include profuse sweating, extreme fatigue, cramps, nausea, and possibly dizziness. Heat exhaustion requires immediate medical attention.
Heat stroke occurs when the body fails to exert any control over its core temperature. Sweating often diminishes or ceases altogether. Confusion, delirium, and unconsciousness soon follow. HEAT STROKE IS A LIFE-THREATENING MEDICAL EMERGENCY, REQUIRING EMERGENCY MEDICAL ATTENTION.
Know the facts. Be able to recognize the Symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Your life may depend on it!
What To Do When You Get Overheated
For heat cramps, heat fatigue, and heat syncope, ceasing the activity that precipitated the symptoms and moving to a cooler environment are often sufficient. Nevertheless, particularly if you have other medical conditions, you should contact your physician for advice. Do not treat these symptoms lightly.
Heat exhaustion, though not as serious as heat stroke, is a significant medical problem that requires immediate medical intervention. Untreated, heat exhaustion can progress to heat stroke. Seek immediate medical attention. In the meantime, take action. Do everything possible to move the victim (or yourself) to a cooler place and help him/her lie down. Give him/her water or juice and soak him/her with cool wet cloths. But do not delay getting medical attention, particularly if their symptoms progress.
Heat stroke is a medical emergency. Call 9-1-1 or your local emergency number. As soon as you have removed the victim to a cooler location, apply cold water compresses or, even better, immerse him/her in cool water while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Be sure you can recognize these Heat Related Environmental Emergencies. To be sure, take this Heat Exam.
Besides these heat-related illnesses, it is important that you know about some other Related Disorders, like malignant hyperthermia and malignant neuroleptic syndrome.
How To Avoid Getting Too Hot
Several sources can tell you what to do if a heat wave is predicted and what to do to protect yourself.
But it really all boils down to this. Stay out of the heat. Reduce your activities. Drink plenty of cool liquids. And, finally, don't mix heat and alcohol.
Keep cool, and keep coming to The Mining Co. for information and referral.
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