How to beat the heat this summer season

Having fun under the sun is a summertime goal for lots of Northeast Ohioans.

But, if they’re not careful, heat injuries like sunburn, heat exhaustion and worse can turn a day at the beach into a trip to the emergency room, a hospital stay or even death.

Protecting oneself from heat illnesses requires a person to know his or her physical limits, know when to get out of the sun and seek shade, wear the appropriate attire and drink plenty of water, the experts say.

Types of heat illnesses

According to one WebMD page on the topic, “Prolonged or intense exposure to hot temperatures can cause heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heat cramps and heat stroke (also known as sun stroke). As your body works to cool itself under extreme or prolonged heat, blood rushes to the surface of your skin. As a result, less blood reaches your brain, muscles, and other organs. This can interfere with both your physical strength and your mental capacity, leading, in some cases, to serious danger.”

The Centers for Disease Control and prevention add sunburn and heat blisters, or heat rash, to the list.

Donald DeCarlo, chief medical officer and chief operations officer at University Hospitals’ Geauga Medical Center said people often use the term “heat stroke” to describe a variety of heat-related ailments.

“To me, that’s actually a very specific diagnosis,” he said, adding that the term “heat stroke” is used to describe the most serious degree of heat injury and that it can be broken down into two categories: non-external and external heat strokes.

He said the non-external variety is more common in northern states, where folks who aren’t used to high temperatures and don’t have air-conditioning and are often older adults, can’t efficiently cool themselves and fall victim to the illness.

“The other would be an external heat stroke: people doing road races — 5Ks, 10Ks — or a guy out playing golf,” he said. “These tend to be younger, more active people.”

No matter which type, he said that “a heat stroke would be the most severe type of heat-related illness, with which a person would have an extreme body temperature leading to neurological impairment. The patient has a really high fever. But it’s not because of an infection. Rather, it’s because the body is not able to regulate its temperature, for whatever reason.”

DeCarlo explained that heat injuries occur when the body’s ability to maintain

HEAT-INJURY SYMPTOMS

According to the Mayo Clinic, signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion may develop suddenly or over time, especially with prolonged periods of exercise. Possible heat exhaustion signs and symptoms include:

• Cool, moist skin with goose bumps when in the heat

• Heavy sweating

• Faintness

• Dizziness

• Fatigue

• Weak, rapid pulse

• Low blood pressure upon standing

• Muscle cramps

• Nausea

• Headache

The clinic further advises that if you think you’re experiencing heat exhaustion:

• Stop all activity and rest

• Move to a cooler place

• Drink cool water or sports drinks

“Contact your doctor if your signs or symptoms worsen or if they don’t improve within one hour,” according to the clinic. “If you are with someone showing signs of heat exhaustion, seek immediate medical attention if he or she becomes confused or agitated, loses consciousness, or is unable to drink. You will need immediate cooling and urgent medical attention if your core body temperature (measured by a rectal thermometer) reaches 104 F (40 C) or higher.”

a consistent temperature around 98.6 degrees becomes compromised and it can’t keep its cool.

“When an excess of heat, combined with a body not being able to rid itself of that heat through its sweating and evaporation mechanisms, that imbalance can cause an extreme reaction,” he said.

He said that the degree of heat-related illness is not only based upon a person’s body temperature, but that, generally speaking, if your body temperature is getting up to 104 degrees or higher, neurological damage is usually a result and “you’re getting into heat stroke.”

Who’s at risk?

While anyone can be affected by heat-related injuries, certain folks are more susceptible.

“Those who work in hot or humid environments — such as manufacturing plants, bakeries, or construction sites during summer months — are most at risk,” the related WebMD page reads. “Heat-related illness can strike anyone. But chronic alcoholics, the elderly, the young, the obese, and individuals whose immune systems may be compromised are at greater risk, as are individuals taking certain drugs, such as antihistamines, antipsychotic medications, and cocaine. High humidity also increases the risk of heat illness because it interferes with the evaporation of sweat, your body’s way of cooling itself. However, even long, hot afternoons at the beach can pose problems if warning signs are ignored.”

DeCarlo added that people who don’t know their limits are also good candidates for heat-related injuries.

“The best way to combat (heal illness) is to, number one, know yourself,” he said. “For example, if you start a new exercise regimen, do it when it’s cool outside — early in the morning or at night, when temperatures go into the 70s. People don’t get into trouble so much around those temperatures. It’s when they do it during the heat of the day — in the 90s-plus — when they get into trouble. It’s also when they don’t hydrate, don’t wear appropriate clothing and are not well-conditioned enough, physically, to be able to do prolonged activity in extreme temperatures.

“So, if you’ve never gone out and done a lot of running, I wouldn’t recommend going out and doing a 5-mile run in high temperatures,” he added. “I mean, well-conditioned athletes tend to have a much higher capacity to run out in hotter conditions. But, if that’s not you, then it’s not such a good idea to do so.”

He said another category of people who are at particular risk of developing heat injuries are outside in the heat, participating in casual activities while imbibing a bit.

“One of the problems we see this time of year is that people are going out to parties, they’re going to the lake, et cetera, and they’re getting intoxicated. So, they’re not selfaware enough to monitor themselves because, when you’re intoxicated, you kind of get desensitized,” DeCarlo said.

Another at-risk population when it comes to heat injury is children, explains Cristen Vanek, Teaching & Learning Center/Campus Kids director at Lakeland Community College.

“Coming from the educational view on protecting young children from suffering from heat exhaustion, my advice would be the following: Young children play hard and have not developed the cognitive ability to recognize the needs of their own body — such as taking in enough fluids and supplying their body with a nutritional diet,” Vanek said.

Finally, people who work outdoors during the extreme high temperatures of summer days are frequently at risk of sustaining heat-related injuries.

According to a CDC web page on the topic, “Heat stress can affect many outdoor and indoor workers. Occupational exposure to heat can result in illnesses, injuries, reduced productivity, and death.”

The warning signs

According to DeCarlo, just paying attention to the people you’re with in hot weather can go along way toward diagnosing potential heat illnesses.

“I think, initially, most people complain — ‘I’m not feeling well,’ et cetera,” he said. “That’s when you need to help get them to a cooler environment and also encourage them to drink the proper amount of fluids. As far as if the person is starting to have neurological impairment, they need to immediately go to an emergency department.”

DeCarlo outlined these initial symptoms of a heat illness: increased weakness and dizziness, nausea and vomiting, muscle crams and headaches.

A CDC web page on various heat-injury symptoms adds others, like a fast, strong pulse; hot, red, dry or damp skin; blisters on the skin; confusion; fast, weak pulse, fainting (passing out) and painful, red, warm skin.

Hydrate, rinse, repeat

Like with any ailment, the best medicine is prevention, experts agree.

So it’s important to take the appropriate steps to prepare for any hotweather, outdoor exposure, whether you’re planning a day at the beach, playing a round of golf or you work outside every day.

Take Nunzio Galipo, for example. The Mayfield Heights resident and longtime landscaper who has more than 30 years on the job said the most important thing he does to stay safe under the sun is to drink plenty of water. And he’s got a trick for keeping it cool out on the road.

He fills two 2-liter bottles with water for each day.

“I freeze, like, eight of them a week,” he said. “So I bring one or two of them with me for the day and, by like 1 or 2 p.m., they’re thawed out and not a solid block of ice anymore, and I can drink cool water - not just to hydrate, but also to help keep myself cool.”

He said that, if he’s really feeling the heat, he’ll find a spigot to help cool off.

“I’ll turn on a faucet and rinse off face, head and hands off and take a fiveminute break just to cool down, and then get back at it,” he said.

Galipo added that ducking into the truck to sit in the air-conditioning or finding a shady place to be fore a few minutes also helps out.

“I just make sure to take breaks throughout the day if I’m really feeling it,” he said.

He also added that he prefers to wear light-colored clothing on the hottest days “because it doesn’t hold the heat in.”

DeCarlo confirmed that light-colored, loose-fitting clothing is the best choice for anyone working outdoors and under the sun in the heat. That, combined with drinking plenty of water and/or sports drinks, knowing yourself and your physical ability and monitoring yourself and others for signs and symptoms can go a long way towards helping you stay safe under the sun.