Warnings of the negative effects of heat waves are spread everywhere, and families prevent children from playing abroad, and it is not possible to walk in the street without seeing 5 different types of hand fans, and the generation X (born in the period between 1965 and 1980) may tend to consider the whole matter as exaggeration, but is what happens around us actually?
The heat wave that occurred in 1976 led to 700 deaths in the United Kingdom, according to the British Telegraph, and in the summer of 2022 – which broke the records – recorded 2,985 deaths related to heat.
For weak categories, free waves pose a fatal danger, and exposed to danger in particular are the elderly who live alone, people with previous health problems such as heart disease and poor kidney function, and people with cognitive problems that hinder their ability to search for cooler environments such as Alzheimer’s patients and dementia.
Continuous advice to maintain health during the heat waves raises the dissatisfaction of some, especially if they do not work or even bring in reverse results, so what advice should be taken seriously, whether it spread in 1976 or 2025? What advice should you be ignored?
Wrong advice: Drink hot drinks
A study conducted in 2012 from the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa Canadian University found that drinking a hot drink increases the body temperature slightly, stimulating more sweating.
The body cools if sweat is evaporated, but this only finds in dry conditions where sweat can evaporate easily, while sweat remains in hot and wet weather on the skin and does not evaporate easily.
Correct advice: Eat potato chips (it is preferable to eat healthy salty meals)
According to reports during the 1976 heat wave, an emergency doctor’s advice was to encourage individuals to take potato chips.
“We lose as an important jurisprudence through sweating, such as sodium, potassium and chloride,” explains Dr. Josh Foster, a lecturer in environmental physiology at Kings College London College.
He adds that, according to government guidelines, we should not exceed 6 grams of salt per day, and suggests the experience of spraying salt on fresh, chopped tomatoes.
Wrong advice: Wear Sufi underwear
Light wool under the allowances is the perfect choice according to fashion magazines, as the wool absorbs the moisture of the body and allows evaporation, but Dr. Foster questioned this and said, “The clothes that allow the passage of air are the perfect choice.”
Dr. Foster is also not advised to cotton because of his high resistance to evaporation, it absorbs a lot of water, and the water does not evaporate from the skin easily.
Foster recommends wearing loose and well -ventilated clothes, and the reason for this is that it will help evaporate sweat.
From 1976 to 2025
The British Health Security Agency recommends the following during heat waves:
- Stay away from the sun at the most heat times today between 11 am and third in the evening.
- If you are going to practice physical activity, plan to do this during the day in which the atmosphere is cold, such as morning or evening.
- Keep your home cold by closing windows and curtains in the sun’s rooms.
- Wear suitable clothes if you want to go out, such as a hat and sunglasses, and search for a shadow and apply a protective of the sun.
- Drink a lot of fluids.
- Check your family, friends and neighbors who may be more likely to develop the disease.
- Learn the symptoms of heat stress and sunstroke, and what to do if you or anyone else is afflicted with it.