Big news for the Northern Hemisphere. Summer will officially be here June 21. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m a little early (or late). You might want to take a look at my cold-weather posts. But for us northerners, the heat is on.
For as long as I’ve practiced medicine, whether in Mississippi or Colorado, I’ve known that in those first few hot days I’ll be treating some otherwise healthy people for heat-related problems. In fact, just the other day, I saw a man in his early 20s with chest pain, headache, and just feeling awful. He’d been working on a roof. He’s done it for years with no problem. But around here, it suddenly went from a daytime high in the mid-70s to a high in the low 90s. He hadn’t had time to acclimate.
Fortunately, he got out of the heat as soon as the symptoms hit. With some water and cooling off, he was feeling fine in a few hours.
Probably, in a few weeks he’ll be working in the same temperature with no such symptoms. Why?
He’ll be acclimated.
No matter how many years you’ve been working or living in the heat, your body has to re-acclimate to it each year. So with sudden changes, such as heat waves, everybody suffers.
Other sudden changes could be maybe the electricity goes off. That’s a disaster in my book. Or maybe you’re vacationing to a hot spot. Any sudden change of heat—say 10 degrees Fahrenheit or more—will require time for your body to adapt.
Adapting to the Heat: How Your Body Acclimates
When the weather gets hotter, your body adapts in a few ways:
1. You get more efficient at sweating. Sweat cools your skin. The faster it evaporates, the more the cooling, so a little breeze can help (to an extent). On the other hand, humid weather can slow the evaporation down.
Once your body adapts to more heat, it begins to produce more sweat, and you start sweating at a lower temperature. The “new sweat” also contains less salt concentration, so you don’t lose as much sodium. And this less-concentrated sweat evaporates faster, cooling the skin quicker.
2. Your blood gets circulated more efficiently. Your body also adapts to the heat by putting a bit more fluid into your blood. This increases the blood’s volume so that with each heartbeat, more gets pumped out. Your heartbeat slows down in response, which reduces your body’s workload, decreasing your metabolism a bit. Metabolism produces heat. So, voilà, your body is now producing less of its own heat, and the external heat isn’t quite so overbearing.
One thing to remember, though, is your body can’t accomplish these adaptions in a split second. In fact, it takes a day or so before it even starts trying and about two weeks for the acclimation to complete. During this time, it will only know to start working on these processes if it’s exposed to a minimum of about two hours of that extra heat every day.
What Can You Do Meantime?
In those first few days of hot weather, you can help your body both survive and acclimate.
1. Gradually build up your workload. Your body produces heat of its own. The more work, the more heat. So if you work outside, take it easy those first few days, and take frequent breaks. Remember, it only takes a couple of hours a day of exposure for your body to know to acclimate. That works best by accumulating at least an hour of exposure at a time, but shade is a good thing. And taking advantage of air-conditioning is encouraged.
For we who stay inside most of the time, a walk or light yard work in the coolest part of the day might work to start the acclimation process. Or just sit in the shade for a spell. I’ve also seen recommendations to try to keep your indoor temperature no more than about 10 degrees lower than the outside. Maybe not too practical—not to mention dangerous—if it’s 105 outside, but perhaps you could gradually turn it up a bit, at least to the low to mid-70s?
2. Go topless. You lose about two-thirds of your heat from the waist up. So maybe wear a loose, breathable shirt for modesty. The main thing here is the dilemma of using helmets. They may be essential for safety, but they also can hold in a lot of heat. So if you wear headgear, go even a little more slowly in the heat. And again, frequent breaks to take them off, when your out of danger, can help a lot. Even with a hat, try one that breathes a little or maybe just take it off and fan every once in a while.
3. Drink fluids. In order for your body to utilize sweat and use your circulation effectively, it must have plenty of fluids. Drink more water in the heat. (Unless you’re really working hard, you should be able to get enough electrolytes, like sodium and potassium, from your food.) Dehydration can especially fool you in dry climates. The sweat can evaporate so fast you never know you’re sweating. But, given the same temperature, you’re probably losing even more fluid than with the heavy sweat you feel and see in the humidity. One of the ways your body adapts to heat is making you feel thirstier, but I wouldn’t count on that too much. Thirsty or not, you need to need to replace lost fluids.
4. Stay in shape. If you’re in good physical shape, that’s a big plus since your body doesn’t have to work as hard to do the same activity. And fat? Well, it’s a great insulator. It holds in heat really well. Not an ideal situation if your body is trying to cool down.
Acclimation Has Its Limits
Anyone exposed to the heat can have a heat-related illness, but some of us just can’t acclimate as well. For babies, those of us in our 60s and older, and people who have a chronic disease or take certain medications, try as it may, our bodies may just not acclimate well. We’re at extra risk and will need to take extra precautions to try to stay cool.
How is your summer going?
You May Also Like
- My 15 Ultimate Beat-the-Heat Tips
- What to Do for Heatstroke When You Can’t Get Help
- Home Remedies for Heat Rash
- What to Do If You See Someone Drowning
Photo: Flickr/Katrina Br*?#*!@nd, “unchoreographed,” shared via CC BY-SA 2.0.
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