With summer making its presence felt, can the regular summer hazards remain far behind? You might prepare yourself to get outside the beachside or a camping trip you have been putting off because of inclement weather conditions. Everyone understands the flu season is behind but can you let your guard down in matters related to your health just because it’s summer?

The summer season and rising temperatures have specific health hazards you must be aware of. You cannot behave like you are in school and cut corners with your health during summer. This post lists some summer hazards and symptoms to look for besides preventing them and staying healthy during the summer.

Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion

When temperatures begin sweltering, it’s not merely uncomfortable but also life-threatening. Extreme heat sends approximately 65,000 Americans to 24-hour emergency care centers every year seeking treatments, states the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC).

The two most heat-related illnesses that occur include heat exhaustion and heat stroke because the body cannot correctly cool down after extended exposure to excessive heat. Heat stroke is a severe version of heat exhaustion and is entirely preventable.

Doctors advise patients to slow down during the hottest part of the day, between 11 AM and 3 PM, when the sun tends to be the strongest. However, if you notice anyone around having a body temperature of 40° Celsius or higher besides heavy sweating, nausea and vomiting, loss of consciousness, and hot and damp skin, it indicates heatstroke, and the person needs treatment from an emergency room near me. Therefore it helps if you take the heat seriously when feeling sick.

Mild and Severe Dehydration

Spending time in the sunlight after the winter may seem fine, but do you realize you must increase your intake of water? When soaking out in the sunlight, sipping cocktails, or playing sports, you must prioritize drinking water. Unfortunately, by skipping it for too long, you might become a victim of mild to severe dehydration, states the US National library of medicine. You can receive urgent care in Abilene for mild dehydration but might require hospitalization for severe dehydration.

Preventing dehydration should not be a challenge because you merely need to drink plenty of water. Sixteen ounces of water is the recommended quantity that you must consume every hour between 10 AM and 2 PM.

Sunburn And Sun Damage

The best part of summer is the long and sunny days. However, the largest organ of your body, the skin, is at risk of changing its appearance to make you look older with wrinkles and increase your risk of skin cancer.

Preventing sun-related skin damage is not difficult if you make sunscreen an everyday habit. You must apply sunscreen even when the sun is hidden behind clouds because sunscreen is the most effective protectant against the UVA and UVB rays of the sun.

Water-related Injuries

Are you considering a trip to the swimming pool or beachside with your kids? Unfortunately, summer hazards continue following you even in water except for drinking water. You can develop infections and diving injuries that require treatment from the emergency room in Abilene and is the cause of unintentional injury death among children between one and four.

The American Red Cross suggests safe swimming setups at pools like swimming in the designated areas supervised by lifeguards, swimming with the body and not allowing anyone to swim alone, and having children or inexperienced swimmers wearing life jackets and earplugs to prevent infections of the outer canal of the ear.

Food Safety

Everyone loves grilling or picnicking without considering how long their feast is sitting out unrefrigerated or whether it is hot off the grill and fully cooked. It is common for people to overlook that mayonnaise needs refrigeration or can result in gastrointestinal problems causing nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Practicing safe drilling and refrigerating is recommended by the CDC, besides separating poultry and seafood from other foods to prevent cross-contamination. In addition, washing hands when handling food, cleaning your tools, and thoroughly cooking meat is suggested by experts to avoid the hazards of summer that can strike without warning.

Instead of ruining your summertime, wouldn’t you think it beneficial to think about the hazards and care for them appropriately to ensure they never come near you? We are confident you would like to have a great time during the summer without scheduling visits to Express Emergency Room Abilene to treat health conditions. However, if you need any help, the facility mentioned above is available throughout the day and night, providing services.

Heat Stroke Symptoms and How an ER Can Help

During summer, people participating in outdoor activities may expose themselves to more heat, which brings issues such as hydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. Fever is one common concern for individuals during this time. The culprit for fever here is mostly dehydration, heat exhaustion, or heatstroke. If you experience temperatures of 103 degrees F and higher, you are considered to have a high-grade fever, and you need to get to an emergency room for fever treatment.

If you ask, “How does the ER treat a high fever?” you must realize that the treatment depends on what is causing the heart illness.

When exposed to heat, your body becomes dehydrated, and temperatures rise. You begin to have heat exhaustion, mainly accompanied by a fever that doesn’t exceed 104 degrees F, faintness, extreme thirst, muscle pains, dizziness, and a slow heartbeat.

If heat exhaustion remains unaddressed, it can evolve into heatstroke, whereby the temperatures rise beyond 104 to about 106 degrees F. This is a potentially life-threatening condition. If you have these signs and symptoms, it could indicate heatstroke, and a visit to an ER is required.

• A body temperature of 103 degrees F or higher
• Hot, red, dry, or damp skin
• A fast pulse
• Confusion, irritability, slurred speech
• Loss of consciousness
• Muscle cramps

Heatstroke could temporarily or permanently damage an individual’s viral organs like the lungs, heart, liver, and brain.

How an ER Can Help

The staff at an emergency room near you can help cool the body down through various methods, including running water through a tube surgically or via the nose to the stomach. An endovascular cooler can also be introduced into a large blood vessel within the thigh to cool the blood. Visit Express Emergency Room Abilene today!