What happens to older people in the heat?

What happens to older people in the heat?

Older people are at significant increased risk of heat-related illnesses, known collectively as hyperthermia, during the summer months. Hyperthermia can include heat stroke, heat edema (swelling in your ankles and feet when you get hot), heat syncope (sudden dizziness after exercising in the heat), heat cramps, and heat exhaustion.

What should you do if your senior is overheating?

Open windows across the room from each other to create circulation (cross-ventilation). Cover windows that are in direct sunlight, pull curtains shut, and close blinds in the heat of the day. Avoid exercising in the heat.

What makes people more susceptible to heat illness?

Other factors that make a person susceptible to heat illness include older age, heart disease, other chronic diseases, extreme exercise, sunburn, obesity, sleep deprivation, alcoholism and certain medications. Patients taking beta-blockers, tricyclic antidepressants, aspirin and diuretics are predisposed to heat disorders.

What are the dangers of heat stroke for older adults?

Heat-related health dangers for older adults soar during the summer. Someone with a body temperature above 104 degrees Fahrenheit is likely suffering from heat stroke. Symptoms include fainting; a change in behavior (confusion, combativeness, staggering, possible delirium or coma); dry, flushed skin and a strong, rapid pulse; and lack of sweating.

How many people died during the summer heat wave?

By summer’s end, upward of 5,000 Americans and 1,100 Canadians had died from heat-related causes or drowned while trying to cool off in rivers and lakes.

When did they start planning for extreme heat?

In the years since 2003, most European governments have developed action plans for extreme heat that emphasize green spaces, public education, warning systems and emergency measures for the most vulnerable.

How many people died in the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave?

But in the summer of 1995, the Windy City lost approximately 700 residents in just five humid and sweltering days–a staggering mortality rate that exposed the city’s inadequate response system while debunking common assumptions about which groups are most susceptible to heat-related death.

How did the summer heat wave affect London?

This summer heat wave has lived in infamy not only for its soaring temperatures but also for the malodorous stench it unleashed on England’s capital. Many Londoners had recently traded in their chamber pots for water closets, which flushed an unprecedented amount of water and waste into the city’s 200,000 cesspits.