I think that I have a bit of heat stroke, heat exhaustion, or something. I took my grandson out yesterday, concentrated on keeping him safe and well, and didn’t look after myself. Have you been looking after your health during this heatwave here in the UK?
What are the signs of a heat related illness?
Heat exhaustion may cause:
• Heavy sweating
• Dizziness or fainting
• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Muscle cramps
• Weakness
If this happens:
• Move to a cool place.
• Drink cool water or an electrolyte drink.
• Loosen clothing and cool the skin with water or a fan.
It is best to seek medical advice if symptoms don’t improve within 30 minutes. Heatstroke is a medical emergency. Call for help if any one has any of these symptoms.
• A body temperature above 40°C (104°F), if measurable
• Confusion, unusual behaviour, or loss of consciousness
• Hot, flushed skin
• Seizures
• Difficulty responding.
While waiting for help, move a person to a cool place and try to cool them with water, ice packs on the neck, armpits, and groin, or cool, wet cloths. Do not force fluids if they are unconscious or confused.
Luckily my symptoms improved and I am taking it easy and mostly staying out of the sun today.
During a heat wave, your body has to work harder to stay cool. Taking a few simple precautions can reduce the risk of heat exhaustion and the more serious condition of heatstroke. Here are some of the best ways to protect your health:
Stay hydrated.
Drink water regularly, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Limit alcohol and excessive caffeine, as they can contribute to dehydration.
Keep your home cool.
Close curtains or blinds during the hottest part of the day, open windows when it’s cooler outside (such as at night or early morning), and use fans if they’re effective. Air-conditioned public places like libraries or shopping centres can provide relief if your home is very hot.
Avoid the midday heat.
Try to stay indoors or in the shade between about 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., when the sun is usually strongest. We went in an air conditioned soft play area yesterday.
Wear suitable clothing.
Choose lightweight, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothes and a wide-brimmed hat if you’re outdoors. Natural fibres are best like cotton.
Use sunscreen.
Advice is to also apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher to prevent sunburn, which can make it harder for your body to cool itself. To be honest I never use suntan cream. I have old skin that tans naturally after years in the garden. 😁
Take cool showers or baths.
Wetting your skin with cool water or using damp cloths on your neck, wrists, and forehead can help lower your body temperature. A couple of times this week I have wrapped a wet sheet around myself to cool down.
Reduce strenuous activity.
If you need to exercise or work outside, do so early in the morning or later in the evening, and take frequent breaks in the shade. That is what I did wrong yesterday. I forgot I was 65 and played football with kids.
Eat light meals.
Smaller, water-rich meals such as salads, fruit, and vegetables are often easier to tolerate in hot weather. I don’t know about you but my appetite really reduces when it is hot. This can be dangerous if it continues for over a week ( unless you have blubber to lose like me!)
Check on vulnerable people.
Older adults, young children, pregnant people, and those with chronic illnesses are at greater risk from extreme heat. Make sure they have access to fluids and a cool environment. I went shopping for an old friend this week as she can’t breath properly with the heat if she goes out. I didn’t know until I asked.
Never leave people or pets in parked cars.
Temperatures inside a vehicle can become dangerously high within minutes, even if a window is left slightly open. Even with the AC on yesterday my grandson was melting as we drove in the car.
If you’re in the UK, it’s also worth checking local weather forecasts and any official heat-health alerts during periods of very hot weather, especially if you or someone you care for is in a higher-risk group. What are you doing to stay cool?
White cabbage leaves came off as I moved it in the fridge. 💡 moment from my friend who suffered with mastitis and used to put them in her bra. I opted for on my shoulders but they were wonderfully cooling.
Still sleeping with a pop bottle of frozen water but now also drinking it when I wake in the night as I’m not visiting the bathroom as much as usual so need to hydrate more. Theatre air con last night was heaven, so pleased I’m there again tonight with a SFL member and as I’ve been able to get us free tickets we will buy overpriced ice cream and drinks and donate towards their refurbishment project willingly. Thank you for connecting us. 😎
So glad that you two connected. Love the frozen pop bottle idea
I am classed as vulnerable because of health conditions also because of the medication I take. Talking of medications there are a lot that should be refrigerated over a certain temperature. I have where possible been only going into the garden early morning and in the evening if it gets cooler.
I am eating sensibly and drinking a bit of extra water. I have sun hats if I need to go out and have got sun lotion but haven’t used it much this year as have hardly been out in the sun.
We air the rooms early morning then close the windows, blinds and curtains in the front of the house. In the evening the windows are opened again. I go out then and see if there’s anything that my husband hasn’t got around to watering and helping and picking some raspberries and blueberries.
We don’t take our dog out after his early morning walk as the paths can get really hot .Then he goes out again in the evening. In between he goes out into the garden for toilet visits but doesn’t stay out. He has got very used to a fan this summer and I have also put his feet into warm water and rubbed a damp cloth around his face and neck to cool him.
When he wouldn’t drink any extra I cut up some pieces of cucumber to give him which he likes to have.
Great strategies for dealing with the heat. Thanks for sharing
Brilliant important info Toni thank you for sharing xx
Brilliant important info Toni thank you for sharing xx
No worries. Thanks for commenting
Good advice, Toni. I have found the heat very difficult to cope with now I’m over 70. Years ago, I’d have loved it.
Our son brought over a fan and it was a great relief but he needed to take it home again as his flat is under a flat roof and gets exceptionally warm. So I have ordered one as there’s a view that the summer is going to continue with further heatwaves. It was very difficult to find a good one that could be delivered within a week, so if anyone is considering purchasing one, it’d be worth doing it soon.
Great advice. Thanks. I have heard that a bottle or bowl of iced or frozen water in front of it helps but not tried it.
My new tip is to wear a big-brimmed sunhat. Got a dmart paper-based charity shop find, that I had to chase 4 times on coastal walks!
As my face reacted to sunscreen this was a great alternative!
Aww that is a good find. I can’t cope with hats myself. I always feel hotter. You will have to attach some elastic under your chin. That brought back a lovely memory of a straw hat I had as a kid. Thank you.
Keep the sun from hitting your window as this will really heat up the indoors in a hurry. I live in Texas and it regularly gets up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer. I think that equals 40 C. One thing we used to do as college students was to tape aluminum foil to our dorm room windows to keep the sun out. You can close the shades, blinds or curtains on the side of your house where the sun shines in, esp. on the west windows in the afternoons.
Try to park your car in the shade and cover the front windshield while it’s parked. If they don’t sell sun shields for cars where you are, just get a big piece of corrugated cardboard and cut it to fit your windshield; prop it up on the dashboard and use the visors to hold it in place.
You can freeze plastic bottles of water to take with you to the park or beach and during the afternoon, it will melt and you’ll have cold water.
I’ve also heard of folks putting large bottles of frozen water in front of fans to try to cool down the room. I don’t know how well this works bc I always have air conditioning — it’s a necessity in our climate.
However, if I don’t have air conditioning that works well, I may wash my hair in the shower and just barely towel dry it before going to bed. (No hot showers, just lukewarm.)
I’m so sorry you folks are having to suffer through a summer heat wave! Please be careful as you try to stay cool.
Thanks for all the tips. Foil over here is pretty expensive but my neighbour bought a film that does something similar. One of my friends slept cuddling a frozen bottle of water. I never have room in my freezer. What I have discovered is that my thermal curtains I bought to keep me warm in the winter, actually keep the warmth out if closed during the day, and so that was a good investment.
Yes, Toni, we also use thermal curtains both in summer and winter. If foil is expensive, maybe you can cut down a cardboard box and put it over the window panes. Or use towels or sheets or old tablecloths, etc. Hopefully the weather is getting cooler where you are. Be very careful not to overdo it because heat illness is a very serious thing.
I will thanks
Some great advice there Toni. I’ve just been giving my mum a lesson on what she needs to consider in this extended hot weather. Your tips were most helpful. Yesterday she was highly fatigued and washed out. I went on the support site for Addison’s disease to get some guidance and explained to her that her hydrocortisone dose is set on an assumption that outside temperature is c. 20 degrees and when temperature increases significantly then she should increase her dosage also to compensate. As soon as she did that she picked up so quickly. There’s so much to understand about our bodies and how it copes with heat..can be a minefield but tips like your are easy to digest and so beneficial for all. thank you
No worries. Thanks for the lovely feedback
A lot of great advice. I suffered from severe dehydration after being sick with a bad stomach bug for a week and ended up in hospital. I had tried to drink a lot of water but because I couldn’t keep down much else my electrolytes were all out of wack. People often don’t realize that drinking extra water can deplete your electrolytes so try to add a pinch of salt, get some powdered salts or buy bottled pedialyte to add to the rotation. I also drink things like tomato or V8 juice and even add a pinch of salt. It can happen very quickly and is very scary.
I feel very sorry for all of you in the UK and Europe right now as you just don’t have many places to get some relief. The very hot & humid weather has just arrived in Toronto and is due to stick around for about the next 10 days or so – but – many of us have A/C (I have a window unit in the bedroom and two big fans in the living room) – offices, malls, libraries, public spaces, movie theatres, buses, streetcars and the subway, GO and VIA trains are all air-conditioned so there are lots of places to go for relief. The city also opens “Cooling Centres” for those who don’t have A/C or who are homeless – they are cooled, have water and usually staffed with some medical personnel. It is also now mandated that apt. or condos that have a public space (like a party room) must set it up as cooling centre for residents. My old building doesn’t have that option but they must post the address of the nearest Cooling Centre so it can be accessed if needed. We will be in the high 30’s and feeling like over 40C with the humidity so people will be very careful. I hope you all get some relief soon.
Aww bless you. Glad that you are ok. I take some Celtic salt under my tongue each day when I drink as the body doesn’t absorb the water otherwise. It is full of minerals. I prefer natural solutions rather than buying the electrolyte powders. It has started to cool now thanks. We have been in the mid twenties this last few days and so down 10⁰C. You are set up well over there which surprised me. I always think of Canada as being cold. Thanks for sharing.
What most people don’t realize is that for much of Canada the weather is extreme. Here in Toronto this past Winter it was not unusual to leave for work in the morning with the temps at minus 15C but feeling like minus 30C with the windchill factor – we always have to take the windchill into account. Today it is going up to 36C but with the humidity will feel like 42C. This is normal for here and it is what makes life a bit challenging at times. It does tend to catch tourists off guard but there are always lots of places to either warm up or cool down.
What most people don’t realize is that for much of Canada the weather is extreme. Here in Toronto this past Winter it was not unusual to leave for work in the morning with the temps at minus 15C but feeling like minus 30C with the windchill factor – we always have to take the windchill into account. Today it is going up to 36C but with the humidity will feel like 42C. This is normal for here and it is what makes life a bit challenging at times. It does tend to catch tourists off guard but there are always lots of places to either warm up or cool down.
Thanks Toni, I had a bit too much heat one day too. I remember when we were in Thailand they used to make lovely cold lemon shake drinks, which always had salt in them. So I decided to made my own electrolyte drink as, like you, I prefer natural things. It was 1 cup / 250ml water (cool boiled or filtered better but tap water ok too), 1tsp honey, couple pinches of sea salt, and juice from 1/2 lemon. It really helped me to replenish the sugars and salts and settled me down. I will use again in the future. There are lots of other similar recipes online that sound good that use coconut milk / water but we were away from home so I had to use what we had.
Well done. I always take Celtic salt under my tongue with a drink in hot weather. I probably don’t need any more sugar 😁