Summer Sickness

[Sapphire Silk]

Anyone else find they just get sick more often in Summer?
Every Summer for the last 4/5 years I find that when the heat rolls in, up pops the nausea, the painful skin, my migraines get more frequent, ect. Pretty horrible, basically.
Not dehydration, apparently. Thanks doc!

Anyone else ever get this? Not looking for medical advice or anything, but it'd be comforting to know I'm not the only one who's incredibly heat prone. Especially since I live in a country pretty prone to insane temperatures.

How do you know it is not dehydration?

It actually does not take much to get dehydrated, and in mild dehydration your numbers on your labs will actually be normal but you will still be symptomatic.

[TheSHAD0W]

The easiest way to tell if you're dehydrated is by how often you pee and what it looks like. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you're becoming. (Get over your disgust at having to look at your own pee, it's important.)

http://health.clevelandclinic.org/20...u-infographic/

Also, if you're in the sun a lot in your job, wear light-colored clothes, and loose-fitting long sleeves and pants are actually better than short ones.

[Latekin]

I can usually tell from:

A) What Shadow just mentioned.
B) I keep a litre bottle of water with me at all times and refill it constantly throughout the day.
C) I've been to the docs during one of my anti-summer fits and run the tests.

My partner has suggested possible Seasonal Affective Disorder. I thought that was only something that hit people in winter, but apparently not.

[Cia]

Sun poisoning sucks. I get it at least once every spring/summer.

[Seshat]

Nope - any season can cause SAD.

Also, how much water you as an individual require in any given condition may vary wildly from the statistical average. You can't just assume 'I drink 4l per day in summer ergo I'm not dehydrated'.

Pee quantity and darkness is probably the best 'rough guide' for the layman, assuming one's kidneys are functioning correctly. Dry mouth, dry eyes and lack of sweat can also be used as measures, though all can also have other causes.

Heatstroke is independant of dehydration: you can be perfectly well hydrated and still get sick or even die of too much heat build up in your internal body.

[cindybubbles]

I need to watch what I wear, especially in the spring or fall, when the temperature varies. Summer and winter are better because the extreme temperatures in both seasons mean that my clothing options there are consistent:

Summer attire

- T-shirt
- Hoodie jacket (gloves optional)
- thin pants
- socks
- ankle cuffs made from socks, and
- sneakers


Winter attire

- sweater (with possible sweatshirt underneath)
- thick sweatpants
- duck-feather vest
- long, thick, hooded coat with a fur trim
- hat
- gloves (mandatory)
- scarf
- socks and
- boots

[Latekin]

Nope - any season can cause SAD.

Also, how much water you as an individual require in any given condition may vary wildly from the statistical average. You can't just assume 'I drink 4l per day in summer ergo I'm not dehydrated'.

No assumptions. As I said, suspected it was ,did the pee check thing, went to doctors, ect.

I'm just not very good at summer I guess.
Doesn't help that the aircon at work is so inneficient that they may as well not bother.

It's been better lately, I've been given more shifts out in the garden, so I can go stand under the retic system if I go into melty mode.

[Seshat]

Summer attire

- T-shirt
- Hoodie jacket (gloves optional)
- thin pants
- socks
- ankle cuffs made from socks, and
- sneakers

At home:

Spaghetti-strap top in thin fabric
Undies
Shorts in thin fabric.
OR
Sarong made of thin fabric
Undies.


Going out:
T shirt
Bra
Undies
Long shorts, capris or slacks
Shoes & thin socks.


I'd melt in what you've listed!

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

The heat was why I moved to Tasmania. We've had exactly two really hot days this summer. I'm another one who doesn't do well in the heat.

Back when I lived in the Semitropical North I worked in the operating rooms at the Big Hospital in town. We had a burns unit, and when we operated on burns the OR temp was raised to 40+C for the sake of the patient. The staff suffered... until we had a donation from the big football club. They had a heap of ice vests they used for summer training, and were replacing them, so we got the old ones. Complete with Eau de Sweaty Footballer!

These ice vests live in the fridge, and they contain a gel that acts like an all-over-torso ice pack. Pure bliss! They tend to last most of the day. They are a bit heavy but I'd rather heavy than hot.

Maybe something like that is an option for you? or even a smaller icepack tucked in the back of your pants or something. Have a couple of them, keep one in the fridge and swap them out when they get warm.

I also used to use the wet/icy bandanna across the back of my neck. Wet enough it trickles a bit down your back. Not ideal but it definitely helps a bit.

The occasional gatorade or powerade is good too - don't drink too many because you'll be sitting down on the loo the day after for a long, long time - recommend one or two bottles of water, one electrolyte drink, back to the water. It's amazing how good replacing some of the salts you've sweated out makes you feel.

If the store air con isn't working well, have you suggested they use some fans? Moving air makes a huge difference, even without air con.

Failing that, we do have some big hardware stores down here, and a new Big Green one being built... just saying! ;-)

[Blue Ginger]

I'm another that suffers in the heat but no where near as bad as you.

At 30o, my fingers and feet start swelling up.
At 35o, my hands, wrists and ankles join them. At this temp, my appetite disappears and the thought of food makes me feel sick. Fruit juice ice cubes are my friend at this point.
At 40o, the rest of my legs swell up and all my joints get painful.

It does mean that I can freak people out by telling them how hot a place is without a thermometer though.

When Victoria had the record temps around Black Saturday in 2009, I was on the surf coast in a caravan and annex. Outside temp was 48.9o (120 for those in the US) and inside was 54o (129). But I couldn't even sit outside under the shade cloth we had up because I was getting sunburnt through it. (Damn you Irish genes!) I had a portable air-con, that wasn't able to cool anything but did move the air around, lots of ice and water, and a spray mist bottle. Didn't get heat stroke, which was very lucky. Would have been handy to have one of those ice vests.

We normally have a handful of days over 35 in Melbourne, a few days nearing 40 and rarely days over 40 in summer. Mostly the hottest we will get is 42-43o. The days around the Black Saturday bush fires were some of the hottest that we have on record.