Heat Related Injury
Memorial Day weekend, the official start of summer vacation season, is just around the corner, but in fact the heat injury season started in March, depending on where you live.
Temperatures as low as 79 degrees farenheit can precipitate heat injuries such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke. It's the combination of several factors that gets you: temperature, humidity, activity, clothing and hydration. Especially susceptible are the very young and the very old, the sick or infirm and alcoholics.
In brief, the higher the temperature, the higher the humidity, the higher the level of activity, the heavier the clothing, and the less you hydrate yourself with fluids and electrolytes, the more likely you are to fall victim to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Heat Prevention
Try to avoid the hottest times of the day for your exercise or heavy training. Obviously you can't control the humidity, but you can avoid training situations that place you where sprinkler systems have recently watered a stadium or field near a running track. Some trainers recommend avoiding heavy exercise (especially running) in an environment where the temperature and humidity added together is greater than or equal to 180 (eg. Running in the rain (100% humidity) in 80 degrees or more of ambient temperature).
Wearing light weight, light colored loose fitting and well ventilated clothing allows your body to dissipate heat. Sweating allows you to cool your body by wicking away and cooling the surface of your body, but unfortunately just because you're still sweating doesn't mean you can't become a victim of heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. Experts recommend drinking before, after, and even during extended periods of heavy exercise. You should never be more than 30 minutes from being to drink all the fluid you want at a particular time. Try to drink enough so that you're urinating more than 4 times a day and, when you do, it's coming out clear or light yellow, and not bright yellow or dark yellow (depending on your diet, you still may be too dry). Water and various rehydration fluids with electrolytes (like Gatorade) are okay for rehydration. Alcohol unfortunately is not.
Folks with heat exhaustion feel and look sick. They may be dizzy, have headaches, or nausea, vomiting, and weakness. They should be hydrated and allowed to rest. They may appear to recover within a few minutes, but don't be fooled: they are still dehydrated and should be required to rest and re-hydrate for the rest of the day---and not sent back into the game or training session. When all symptoms have resolved and they're urinating clear or straw colored urine, then you can be assured that they've been successfully re-hydrated.
Treating Heat Injuries
If untreated, the body temperature may rise dramatically and mental status changes occur ranging from confusion, to irritability to loss of consciousness. Now we're talking heat stroke, and we're in a 911 situation. While you're waiting for EMS to arrive, start cooling the patient immediately. The best way to expose as much skin as possible and then wet that exposed skin with water and fan the dampened patient as best as you can. Don't be afraid to use ice or ice water (or cold beer if that's all you've got).
The patient needs an ER or hospital as soon as possible.
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