How To Not Die: When You're Too Hot & the World is Too
I lived through a severe heatwave. I kind of almost died because I was in a small, enclosed, too-humid space, and there was no air circulation.
I didn't, because I knew what to do and cool myself down before it was too critical and I'd end up in an emergency room. I'm told they're not like the multiple-Emmy-award-winning show (with more awards coming soon), The Pitt, in real life. I didn't know a Dr. Jack Abbot in real life who can do emergency medicine in the field (and that field is wherever you are when you get severe heat stress), chances are you don't either.
Arm yourself with some cool knowledge instead.
That line between almost dying and dying and very close if you don't know what's happening. It's better to be comfortable than to suffer > get close and not know it.
Here's what you can do to be comfortable, so you don't get close to dying.
Essential Cool: Hydro Edition
If you've been sweating more than you usually do, your body needs electrolytes that aren't found in water. It's the electrolyte imbalance that might be causing you to feel thirsty, even if you go through a bottle or two of water. If you have access to it, WHO's Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) solution is something you should keep mixed with regular water and drink regularly. You also find a similar composition in a sports drink. Not an energy drink. You don't need wings, you need gym performancemaxxxing electrolytes.
Another sign you might be dehydrated: If your hands are pruning quicker after washing them with water than they usually do.
Extra Cool: Food Edition
In warm weather when your brain and heart work harder to adjust your body temperature to cool yourself down. Eat light, lighter than usual if your diet is more calories than your body weight. Calories going in are calories that your body has to process.
Along with dehydration, you also need to make sure your diet is compatible with the weather. Your standard diet, especially if you're from a place where it's not this warm, might lack what you need for a warmer weather.
You don't have to just eat miserably and avoid delicious food. Adapt based on what you can find locally and look into cuisines you like that fit the nutrition criteria of being good for heart-health/cardio and brain-health supporting food and beverages.
Spicy food might also counter-intuitively (depends on your intuition, ymmv) be helpful as the food is closer to your current body temperature.
Things to Avoid to Not Stress Out Your Body
Seriously, Don't.
- Anything dehydrating, including alcoholic beverages, also coffee or energy drinks if you're not making it up with equal hydration. And equal in this weather is waaay more than you think. Switch to tea, you can make it iced.
- Anything that causes more physical exertion and you sweat a lot. You can skip your regular exercise routine, you won't be able to do more if you die.
- Any food that might have gone bad. Heat also changes how food rots and causes fresh food and cooked food to go bad faster, including what's in the fridge. Do a sniff test and don't risk it if something smells off.
- If you have eaten bad food and now have digestion issues, you might need extra extra hydration. Standard dehydration checks still apply (check the hydro section above again for standards).
Danger Signs
Like I mentioned before, severe heat stress makes your body work harder to cool you down. This means, if you ignore symptoms of dehydration and exert yourself more, it can lead to your body shutting down *aka* multiple organ failure. You have to recognize these early, because one of the signs is that you'll have trouble thinking.- Check your pulse: Does it feel too fast?
- Check your body: Don't feel like moving a muscle?
- Check your brain: Can't think?
All of this is relative. So keep a check on your usual signs when you're feeling better, so you have a comparison point for worse.
Quick! Clock's Ticking!
Cool Your Body-and-Brain Down. Fast!
- Anything that has a large surface area where blood is closer to the surface is what you cool down first.
- You can use towels in the freezer, any cooling compress, or ice in a bucket. You can use this on your feet (quickest), wrists/hands (more accessible) and neck (when you need to use your hands).
- When you think clearer, grab some more hydration salts and have those. You might have also lost some essential amino acids if your stomach hurts. Hydration salts don't make up for these. Less amino acids = Stressed liver. Stressed liver + heart + rest of the organs = bad! bad! super bad! Death bad.
- And if everything still sucks, most importantly, tell someone so they can go get help!
If you're physically tired, you might also be mentally tired and not know it. This is going to make you act stupid. For once, you can say, it's not me, it's the weather.
Here are some more specific signs:
- You are feeling way more tired than usual. You will feel tired from the heat, that's normal, but if you don't feel like doing anything at all, that's dangerous.
- Also, check your pulse - wrist is the most accessible - if that's waaay higher than you think it should be and feels too fluttery, it is an emergency or close to it especially if it doesn't come down after trying cooling methods, so please go to a doc.
- Bad stomach cramps, along with everything else. This also means your liver might be stressed, so your stomach ache might not be from bad food but from a stressed liver that doesn't have enough amino acids to replace what was lost and electrolyte/diet wasn't sufficient enough to make up short-term.
Please be safe! Spread the word if you knew some of this and didn't know some, others might also not know it. You don't have to share the link. Only do it if you really, really like it.
If you have any thoughts/feedback/additions on this guide, share them here.
I'm also available for a chat if you want any specific food recs, I'm told I have great taste and I have a friend who has greater cuisine recs than I do. We watch a lot of The Bear, we haven't seen the new season yet. My friend is currently (hopefully temporarily) in the hospital, so if you send your wishes in any of the forms, I'll pass it along, I think my friend will appreciate it and it'll be a nice surprise.
Async form to fill here, and I'll write back to you. If you want to chat with me, 1:1, fill the form here.
I also adapted my living space to be more comfortable and can help you do that too. Form for that is here.