This summer has already served up several heat advisories due to extreme temperatures. To stay healthy amidst the hot weather, a Northern Virginia doctor wants to make sure you know how important it is to follow the basics.
Dr. Debra Lee, the chief medical officer at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, says the first thing you should do is stay inside as much as possible. And if you do need to go out, check the weather forecast, the heat index, the air-quality index, and any advisories about the hot weather.
If at all possible, limit your outdoor exposure to the early morning and just before dusk, Lee says. “That high noon period tends to be when you get hit with the sun, and the early afternoon is when the temperature tends to peak.”
Don’t Skip the Sunscreen
If you do need to go outside, Lee says, you need to be careful about wearing sunscreen and staying hydrated. If outside, it’s critical you take water breaks every hour at least, setting an alarm on your watch or phone if necessary, Lee says. There’s an easy way to tell whether you’re getting enough water, she adds: “You want your pee to be clear.”
Lee says “Your body is made up of more than 70 percent water,” and that’s necessary to circulate nutrients as well as dissipate heat. “Becoming dehydrated puts you at much higher risk of heat exhaustion.”
Sunburn and heat exhaustion are different things, but one feeds on the other. Sunburn makes you more prone to heat exhaustion, Lee says, because sweating is critical to the dissipation of heat, and sunburned skin is less able to sweat properly. “When you burn the skin, you lose some of that ability … heat exhaustion happens much more quickly.”
“You do want to protect your skin, because your skin is protecting you,” Lee says.
Wearing Long Sleeves in Hot Weather
This may be counterintuitive, but wearing longer sleeves — as long as it’s a breathable fabric — helps protect your skin, Lee says, letting it “continue to function to help cool you.”
Sunscreen is also key, and mineral-based and chemical-based sunscreens “will both do the job” of keeping your skin safe, Lee says. There’s no specific research that says the chemicals in sunscreens do any damage, nor does the thickness of mineral-based sunscreens close off your pores and impede your sweating process. That said, each has their own pros and cons.
“My kids particularly hate [the mineral-based ones],” Lee says, “because they go on wet and chalky, and they don’t like having all the white streaks all over them.” It also takes longer to put the thicker mineral-based sunscreens on. But it pays off, Lee says. “They work immediately on contact, whereas the chemical sunblocks, your body needs to process it” for 20 to 30 minutes before the protection really kicks in.
“I’m a very impatient person. I’m an ER doctor,” Lee says; “I need things to move right away. Being able to put it on and run outside right away, that’s a key selling point for me.”
Avoid Heat Exhaustion
Taking care of these factors before and during sun exposure will keep you out of potentially dangerous situations regarding sun exposure and heat exhaustion, Lee says. And you don’t want to mess with what can happen if you’re not careful at this stage.
“You can become dizzy; you can because nauseous. You can even become confused, and that’s when it becomes really quite dangerous,” Lee says. “With heat exhaustion, it can go badly very quickly. So it’s really important to have a level of awareness as to what’s just too hot.”
Featured image, stock.adobe.com
