How humidity increases the risk of heatstroke

When it’s billions of degrees hot and humid, the heat can feel like a heavy blanket suffocating you.

Difference between dry heat and wet heat

When it comes to dry and moist heat, the main difference is that humidity prevents sweat from evaporating from the surface of the skin and helps cool the body.

“When you’re dry, it’s easier to expel sweat quickly. Houston Methodist Hospital, hot and humid places. “High humidity makes it harder to sweat effectively.”

When sweat doesn’t evaporate and sticks to your skin, it makes you feel hotter than it actually is. The combination of ambient temperature and humidity is heat index, that’s how the temperature feels. The higher the combination of heat and humidity, the higher the heat index.

How to avoid heatstroke

Gandhi notes that cases of heat stroke tend to increase at the beginning of summer when people are just getting used to the heat, during heat waves when the heat index can be particularly high, or at the beginning of the school year.Football practice begins.

One of the important things to avoid heat stroke is heat acclimatization, which is the process of gradually acclimatizing the body to high temperatures. Giving your body time to adjust over a few days or a week can promote physiological adaptations to heat, such as increased perspiration efficiency, increased blood flow to the skin, and the ability to move around with a lower heart rate and core body temperature. increase. “Your body is a wonderful machine,” said Gandhi. “The longer it takes to adapt, the better.”

Of course, other ways to avoid heatstroke include staying indoors during the hottest hours of the day, staying hydrated, and limiting exposure to extreme heat. Plain water is fine for staying hydrated, but if you find that drinking salty liquids makes you feel better, “you should definitely keep drinking,” Gandhi said. , salt is not harmful, i.e. a small amount of salt will not harm a person.But on a physiological level, water is as effective as a sports drink.”

Know the signs of heatstroke

Warning signs of heat stroke include confusion, unconsciousness, vomiting, feeling hot, dry skin, Profuse sweating and a very high body temperature. If you start noticing these signs in yourself or others, you should seek help immediately.BBe especially careful with young children and older adults.It is easy to get heat stroke.

“This is a true medical emergency,” Gandhi said. “The person needs to go to the emergency department right away or the damage could be irreversible.” The patient’s recovery is pretty good,” he said.