Managing the Mid-Summer Heat

The days of summer can be so enjoyable. People love the sunshine and warmer days that allows them to sit outside, play some ball or spend some outdoor time with family. The skies can become a beautiful shade of blue with the white, cotton-like clouds drifting by. Those summer breezes can warm your skin and cause the tree branches to sway.

However, on some days, even combination of days at a time, the gentile sunshine can turn into a blaze of heat and the humidity can increase to the point where you feel like you could ring out your own shirt. These are the days that everyone needs to watch to make sure that they are not overheating.

When Your Body Heats Up

It’s completely natural for your body temperature to rise along with the temperature outside. Fortunately, for all of us, we have mechanisms within the body that recognize when we are becoming too hot or too cold and help to regulate our body temperature for us.

When we get too hot, our body self regulates to lower our body temperature. This can mainly be accomplished through sweating. Our bodies sweat out water onto our skin in an effort to cool us down. But, with ongoing heat and increased humidity, our ability to constantly self regulate our temperature can be over-powered.

Heat Related Illness

When your body is over-powered due to heat and humidity, heat-related illness can result.

Heat exhaustion is one of those problems and its first signs include:

• nausea
• light headedness
• fatigue
• dizziness
• muscle cramping

If these signs are occurring, you should find a cool space to rest, drink plenty of water to rehydrate and rest. Rehydration and allowing your body to cool down are essential. If not, your body can move into heat stroke.

Heat stroke is when your body increases its temperature over 103 degrees and may have the following symptoms:

• nausea and vomiting
• rapid heart rate
• no sweating
• confusion
• headache

Should heat stroke be suspected, medical attention should be received immediately.

Enjoy the Summer But Be Careful

Summer is a great time of the year. Enjoy the warmth, get outside when you can and have some fun. But, when the temperature and humidity rises, make sure that you are keeping a watchful eye on yourself and those around you.