Hot Tips to Beat the Heat
While the Chathams have had fairly moderate temperature the last couple of weeks, it may not stay that way for long. The Farmer’s Almanac predicts hotter than normal temperatures this summer, and high temperatures can be hazardous to your health.
Despite being preventable, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States from 1979 to 2003. During this period, more people in this country died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined.
People suffer heat-related illness when their bodies can’t properly cool themselves. When this happens, a person's body temperature can rise rapidly. It’s important to recognize the symptoms of heat-related illnesses and understand how to prevent, control and respond to their effects.
Several factors make heat-related illnesses more likely. When the humidity is high, the body’s natural cooling mechanism, sweating, is not as efficient. Sweat will not evaporate as quickly, preventing the body from releasing heat quickly. The elderly, infants, pregnant women and individuals with chronic medical conditions are also more likely to suffer from heat-related illnesses.
Heat-related illnesses can range from a mild reaction, such as prickly heat, to a sever reaction, such as heat stroke. Knowing the signs and symptoms of these illnesses is the first step to prevention.
Heat Rash
Heat rash, or prickly heat, is the irritation caused by a blocked sweat gland. It looks like a red cluster of pimples or small blisters. The best treatment for heat rash is to wash and dry the affected area and to provide a cool, dry environment. The use of powder may be used to increase comfort.
Heat Cramps
Heat cramps usually affect people who sweat a lot during strenuous activity. Sweating causes the body to lose water and minerals, and these low salt levels in the muscles may be the cause of heat cramps. If heat cramps are experienced, stop all activity, drink water or a sports beverage and do not return to strenuous activity for a few hours after the cramps subside, because further exertion may lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. If the cramps do not go away within an hour, it is important to seek medical help.
Heat Exhaustion
Heat exhaustion is a moderate heat-related illness that can develop through exposure to high temperatures and is the body's response to an excessive loss of the water and salt contained in sweat. Symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, headache, nausea, lack of appetite, weakness, muscle cramps, dizziness, fainting, or vomiting. The skin is usually cool and moist. If left untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke.
Severe Muscle Cramps - News
Spritz your sheets with a spray bottle before bedtime. The two most severe types of heat-related illness are heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, muscle cramps, headaches, nausea and vomiting.
Symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, headache, nausea, lack of appetite, weakness, muscle cramps, dizziness, fainting, or vomiting. The skin is usually cool and moist. If left untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke.
Heat Cramps - cramps or muscle spasms in the abdomen, arms or legs. Solution: Stop activity. Cool down, drink clear juice or sports drink. Heat Exhaustion - heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, fainting.
If you experience dizziness, fatigue, faintness, headaches, muscle cramps and increased thirst, you need to relax in a cooler shaded place and drink water or a sports drink. Move severe symptoms, such as disorientation, pale and clammy skin,
nausea, light-headedness, headache, cool and clammy skin, heavy perspiration, shallow breathing, muscle tremors and cramping, Health Department officials said. Additional symptoms for heat stroke, which can be fatal, include severe headache,
Health World Center: DrMirkin's eZine: Muscle cramps, memory loss ...
Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
July 3, 2011
Muscle Cramps in Athletes and Exercisers
This month a study from the University of Cape Town, South Africa
showed that the athlete who is most likely to suffer muscle cramps is the one
who runs the fastest and the one who has had previous muscle cramps (British
Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2011). Of 210 triathletes competing in an
Ironman triathlon, 43 developed severe muscle cramps, while 166 did not.
There were no significant differences between groups in any pre-race or post-
race blood mineral levels or body weight changes (a measure of dehydration).
This supports many other studies that show that the most likely cause of
muscle cramps in conditioned athletes is muscle damage. The most likely
causes of muscle cramps in out-of-shape exercisers are lack of salt or water
(1).
CRAMPS IN ATHLETES OCCUR MOST COMMONLY DURING INTENSE EXERCISE. Cramps
occur far less often during less-intense training, because the most common
cause of muscle cramps in exercisers is muscle damage from all-out pressure
on the muscles.
MUSCLE DAMAGE: Most muscle cramps in serious exercisers and athletes
are caused by an exaggerated "stretch reflex" triggered by muscle damage.
When you stretch a muscle, it pulls on its tendon. Stretch reflex nerves in
that tendon send a message back to the spinal cord (not the brain), and then
the "stretch reflex" in the spinal cord sends a message along nerves from the
spine to cause the muscle to contract. During extreme pressure on the
muscles, muscles are damaged causing sustained contractions. A study from
South Africa showed that the most likely causes of cramps are muscle fatigue
or tearing of the muscle itself (2). Electromyograph (EMG) studies measure
increased electrical activity from damaged muscles. EMGs show markedly
elevated electrical activity of the nerves controlling cramped muscles.
Furthermore, a review of the scientific literature shows the most common
cause of muscle cramps appears to be muscle damage (3).
WARNING SIGNS: Before athletic cramps come on full force, you will
usually feel the muscle pulling and tightening. If you slow down, the pulling
lessens, but if you continue to push the pace, the muscle goes into a
sustained cramp and you have to stop exercising to work the cramp out.
Severe Muscle Cramps - Bookshelf
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