Tips for preventing, recognizing and treating heat-related illnesses from PBMC’s top emergency doc

Extreme heat can cause serious illness, but there are things everyone can do to avoid heat-related illness— and ways to quickly recognize it when it’s happening and quickly treat it to avoid a health emergency, says Dr. Ninfa Mehta, Peconic Bay Medical Center’s chair of emergency medicine.

The key to staying healthy and safe is keeping an eye on the forecasted temperature and heat index, avoiding being outdoors at peak times of day, avoiding strenuous outdoor activity during those times, knowing the symptoms and knowing how to quickly treat them, Mehta said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the elderly, young children and people with chronic illnesses, including high blood pressure, are more likely to get heat-related illness and become more ill more quickly compared to healthy adults. But even young, healthy adults can get heat-related illness from spending too much time in the heat, the CDC says.

“One of the best things to do on hot summer days is to try and stay indoors at the peak times of heat, usually from about noon to 4:30 or 5 p.m., Mehta said in an interview Friday. If a person has access to air conditioning, they should think about that, she said.

“Wearing lightweight, loose fitting clothing— like cotton materials,” to help you stay as cool as possible,” she said.

“Protecting against sunburn, because once someone is already sunburned, they’re more susceptible” to heat-related illness. And heat-related illness will progress more quickly in someone who’s already been sunburned,  Mehta said.

“Drinking lots of liquids, like cold water. You don’t want to have anything super dehydrating — so not lots of caffeine, not lots of alcohol,” Mehta said. Stick with cool liquids like lemonade and water.

“I think those are the big things,” Mehta said. “People who have to be outside during those parts of the day that are super hot, should take some time to get acclimatized — maybe going outside and doing something that’s not super strenuous.”  People who want to exercise outdoors, ride a bike or go for a run, should only do it at cooler times of day, mornings and early evenings.

The warning signs of heat-related illness are feeling overheated and weak, dizzy, nauseous, having a dry mouth and sweating profusely. People can also experience heat cramps and heat rash. These are typical symptoms of heat exhaustion, according to the CDC.

Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which is a serious illness.

As heat-related illness progresses, symptoms include confusion, altered mental status and slurred speech, Mehta said.

A person’s body temperature can rise quickly to dangerous levels 106ºF or more in just 10 to 15 minutes. They may lose consciousness.

“At the extreme, they may have seizures,” Mehta said.

If you’re with someone with any of these symptoms, “the first thing is you want to get them to a cool location as fast as you can — somewhere indoors, air-conditioned. Get them out of all unnecessary clothing, anything that’s, like socks, a jacket or a sweater. Get all those extra layers off,” she said. 

“You want to get them to drink if they can. If they’re super sick, you may not be able to get them to drink, but if they can, you want them to get them to drink some cool liquids, water or an electrolyte drink would be great, like a Gatorade or something like that,” Mehta said.

“And then if they’re more unresponsive, you can’t really get them to comply with you while you’re waiting for EMS to arrive or get them to a doctor, you can spray them or sponge them down with cool liquids, and then even put a fan on them, so, like, if you’re if they’re wet, and then there’s a fan that’s going to be a much more quicker method to cool them,” Mehta said.

“You can also put ice packs either in their groin, their armpits, and on their neck, because those areas, once they’re cooled down, will start to cool down the rest of the body pretty quickly,” she said.

“If anybody has any of those later signs of heat illness —if they are not acting themselves, having seizures, confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech you should call 911,” Mehta said.

Temperatures and heat indices have not been as high on the East End as they’ve been in western parts of the island and in New York City.  Peconic Bay Medical Center’s emergency department has not been seeing a lot of heat-related illnesses so far.

Mehta said she thinks people have gotten pretty educated about heat stroke in recent years and believes that’s helping. “We definitely are seeing a couple patients like that, but not a ton,” she said.

“With the new ER space, there’s just so much more capacity to see patients. We have lots more doctors. So you know, if somebody has a need to come to the ER, they should really feel free to come and get treated and checked, instead of waiting,” Mehta said.

“Be mindful, stay hydrated and keep young ones and old people safe,” she said.

Mehta also urged everyone to remember how quickly temperatures increase inside parked cars, even with windows open. Never leave children or pets in parked cars during warm weather, not even for a few minutes, she said.

The risk of heat-related illness climbs with the heat index, a value calculated by combining temperature and relative humidity. A heat index of 90ºF and up puts everyone at risk. 

Generally, higher relative humidity means higher heat index values at lower temperatures. For example, when the temperature is 85ºF and relative humidity is 60%, the heat index is 90ºF, requiring extreme caution. The same temperature (85ºF) with relative humidity of 95% produces a heat index of 105ºF, which is in the danger zone.

Alek Lewis contributed reporting.