Beat the heat!

dd

Time for a review! Below is an excerpt from Devereaux, the Posse Doc, in his latest Gazette. It bears repeating.<br />
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Heat<br />
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Since we started on the medical foot, perhaps a word about heat and heat tolerance might be in line. We are coming to the hot part of the year. We are, whether or not you believe it, relatively active during a shoot, AND we are out in the sun. That means that we are losing fluids. More to the point, we are also losing electrolytes in our sweat. Some of this lose is insensible in that you dont really note that you are losing it. Not all sweat is readily identified from your head often is not recognized for instance.<br />
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It is, therefore, clear that we all need to stay well hydrated. By that we mean that you need to drink additional fluid during the course of a match. You should plan on at least an extra litre, maybe two. The other ingredient that we often forget, as it has been denigrated a lot in our society, is SALT. Was a time when salt acted as money, it was so important. Nowadays we arent as physically active and the need for replacement salt is less obvious. But in these circumstances, we ought to be replacing the salt we lose.<br />
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Now of course, my first choice for how to replace salt would be beer. A good bottle of Grolsch would go a long way to easing the pain of how badly I shot. Unfortunately we don low no drinkin on the range, so the second easiest way to accomplish the same thing is to salt your lunch, or eat salty foods for lunch (like potatoe chips, or any other chips for that matter). I dont mean that one should go overboard in salting everything that one eats, but perhaps just lunch on the day of a shoot would be sufficient. Another source of electrolyte replacement is one of the various power drinks. Gatorade is the grand daddy of the electrolyte drinks, but there are others out there that also work. Just keep in mind that Gatorade is good sweat replacement, but you should also take in some free water with it, as it is hyperosmolar. When we deployed to Honduras I generally had the troops working on the planes on the tarmac drinking strength Gatorade, and that worked well. Those that didnt like the taste of Gatorade drank water and salted their eggs in the morning and dinner.<br />
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Heat Syndromes<br />
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?What are some of the signs of heat induced problems. Most common is a general sense of weakness. Often this is accompanied by a headache. The headache is general, not well localized, and often throbbing. There might be some visual blurring, although that isnt common. There might be nausea, and even a little vomiting. At some point, some people pass out, or at least have a near syncopal episode where they FEEL like they are going to pass out although they dont go out all the way. IF you get to heat stress, you will probably feel a generalized weakness, difficulty doing simple tasks, some dizziness and difficulty walking a straight line. Heat exhaustion is manifested by profuse sweating accompanied by generalized extreme weakness, increased respiratory rate and the accompanying numbness and tingling of hands, feet, and mouth. Heat stroke is the end stage. Your body now has sweated out all the fluid that it has and you are now literally burning up. Body temps have been recorded as high as 107, there is a general flush to the skin, which is hot and dry to touch, and the person is prostrated. They are in need of emergency cooling. Their clothes should be wetted and rewetted as they will dry incredibly quickly from the body heat, and any restricting clothing either loosened or removed. They need transport to an ER.<br />