Residents hoping to get a break from the heat Monday were hit with one of the hottest days in the summer, with temperatures climbing to nearly 91 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of over 100.

During these hot times, residents should be aware of how to treat heat-related illnesses, including heat rash, heat exhaustion, and the most serious, heat stroke. Heat-related illnesses account for nearly 240 deaths annually in the United States.



Know the warning signs

According to Medicine.net, heat rash is a skin irritation caused by excessive sweating during hot, humid weather. It can occur at any age, but is most common in infants and children under the age of 4 and elderly people over the age of 65. Heat rash is one of the easiest heat-related illnesses to treat.

Heat exhaustion is a milder heat-related illness that can develop over a period of time with exposure to hot temperatures or dehydration. Replacing fluids is essential to preventing heat exhaustion. The people that are especially prone to suffering from heat exhaustion are elderly people, those with high blood pressure and people working or exercising in hot temperatures. Warning signs of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, tiredness, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea or vomiting and fainting.

The most dangerous of heat-related illnesses is heat stroke. If heat stroke goes untreated, the person suffering is at risk of dying. Those suffering from or noticing someone suffering from heat stroke symptoms should call 911 immediately.

Heat stroke is a form of hyperthermia. Unlike less serious forms like heat cramps and heat exhaustion, heat stroke is considered a medical emergency. In extreme heat, if the body can’t dissipate heat, the body temperature will rise. In extremely serious instances, the body temperature can rise to almost 106 degrees.

Symptoms of heat stroke include unconsciousness or a markedly abnormal mental status (dizziness, confusion, hallucinations or coma), flushed, hot and dry skin, a slightly elevated blood pressure and hyperventilating.



Practice begins

Monday’s high temperatures happened to coincide with the first day of fall sports practices at area high schools. Although they are doing everything they know to prevent serious health problems from the extreme heat, both Milton football coach Mike Bergey and Shikellamy High School athletic trainer Mike Elder subscribe to the theory that prevention is the best medicine.

Both men said Monday that what the athletes did in the preceding weeks and months to prepare for this week’s practices should go a long way in protecting them from problems associated with the heat.

“It seems like every August the temperatures seem to go up on us,” Bergey said after his Black Panthers had completed their workouts for the first day. “The humidity makes it so much worse. It is smothering. When you are out in it for a while, it isn’t as bad, but when you go from the air conditioning to the outside, it smothers you.”

Although many coaches can remember their own playing days where their coaches made them feel ashamed to ask for drinks of water, Bergey said that was not the case for him when he played under Milton coach Dave Six.

“A generation or two before me, it was more of a ‘suck it up and deal with it’ type thing. It wasn’t emphasized as much as today, but, with coach Six, if we wanted a drink, we were able to do that,” Bergey recalled.

Elder, in his 10th year as the Shikellamy trainer, hopes that his message to athletes over the years is paying dividends. He advises them, regardless of the sport, to spend some time training in the heat during the summer to get their bodies acclimated to the weather conditions.

He said it takes 10 to 14 days to accomplish that condition and allow their bodies to adjust to it.

He also urges the athletes to look out for one another.

“I tell the kids every year that they are responsible for themselves and each other. If they see a kid who doesn’t look quite right, doesn’t feel well, throws up in the huddle and no one sees it, they need to speak up,” he said. “If they have a lineman who is not getting off the ball as quickly as he was two or three plays ago, they need to speak up, and be aware of the signs of heat stroke such as profuse sweating, dizziness or nausea.

“Some of them may want to play through it because of the coach, but I let them know in front of the coaches that they need to speak up and that there will be no ill will. If the coaches give them a tongue lashing, then they are not taking responsibility,” Elder said.