My wife and I were discussing the hot summer in Europe a few years ago when many older people died. This led to the question of what exactly killed them. I have a hunch that if they had kept themselves hydrated the risk of death would have been much lower. But this was just a WAG and wouldn’t explain much anyway.
Can anyone enlighten us?
Thanks.
Since most of them were at home I assume they had access to as much water as they needed. My impression was that the heat exacerbated whatever pre-existing conditions they may have had and the extra stress on the body was too much to handle. It would be interesting to see a study of what specifically they died of and what criteria was used for attributing their deaths to the heat. Surely if a large number died of heart attacks for instance then a certain proportion of those would have had their heart give out whether they were exposed to the heat or not.
I would also be interested to know which countries had the greatest problems. I only remember references to France in this regard but unless it was some cultural phenomenon (such as environmental rules making air conditioners unduly expensive or a general disregard for the elderly etc…) then it is hard to see how it would affect just one country.
As one ages, one doesn’t tend to get as thirsty as one should when one gets dehydrated. High temperatures exacerbate this, and often dehydrate the elderly, who don’t recognize that they’re drying out, and by the time they reach for water, they may already be so hypovolemic that they pass out, and it’s “game over”.
In addition, their thermo-regulatory abilities decline with age too. The body does not cool itself as well as it once did, nor does it feel the heat quite as well. So the temperature goes up, the person doesn’t recognize that they’re getting hot and dehydrated, and bam, a high core temperature combined with lack of fluids takes them out of the picture before they can take corrective action.
That makes sense, but everybody is different, of course. I recently celebrated my 78th birthday by climbing a 3400 ft mountain in Arizona when it was 95 F at the beginning and 103 when got back down. As we are in the “monsoon” season, the humidity was around 60 percent, so it was tough slogging.
However, as I do this almost daily, am acclimated and obviously keep hydraated. My two climbing buddies and I total 217 years old combined. 
Anybody can get used to the heat if they take the proper training; it’s the ol’ stress-and-adaptation-to-stress routine. It helps a great deal to be nuts.
Wikipedia on the 2003 heat wave
From what I read the 2003 heat wave was particularly deadly as night temperatures did not go down the way they normally do in the hot period of summer. So people could not recover overnight as they normally do.
Differences in mortality between countries probably also had something to do with how care for the elderly is organized and how that system is prepared for such an unusual event. In some countries the point at which people move from their apartment into a nursing home is earlier than in others.
I have read a lot of guesses why a/c isn’t so common in Europe over the last years. My take is that it’s mainly not cost or other restrictions keeping us for getting more a/c but that we simply don’t perceive a pressing need. In summer we simply expect to drink a lot, sweat a lot, keep in the shade and recover overnight. For example, I am in Southern Germany, south of the latitude of Paris. In a typical year there are perhaps 4-6 ‘would be nice to have a/c’ weeks and 1-2 ‘OMG if only we had a/c’ weeks. A lot of people are away on holiday in that time anyway. So it’s generally not considered worth one’s while to install air conditioning, for use in only a few weeks per year.
I know it’s because of climate differences, but I’m always interested to see that a ‘heatwave’ of 38-40 deg C will be killing people in Europe, when that’s par for the course in most parts of Australia come summertime.
It makes me wonder if a large number of expat pensioners die during summer over here, and it’s attributed to other causes than the heat.
That goes a good way to explaining it. During the heatwave, which went on for weeks, my flat remained the coolest of any flat I know and it was still about 80 degrees in the bedroom (the coolest room) at 2am … we were exposed to the heat constantly. Our heat is never a dry heat, there is always humidity to a lesser ir greater degree.
Europe doesn’t go for a/c in the same way as the States (possibly because we 'd only use it for a few months every year). ‘Young’ people had better access to the relief of a/c in their offices (only the more modern ones), some bars, cinemas or departement stores. Many of the old buidlings in Paris do not have lifts - old or young, you climb your five or six flights with your shopping or you don’t go out at all.
Cultural factors played a big part too - July and especially August are the traditional holiday months in France, this contributed to the problem. From mid-July you litterally couldn’t buy an electric fan anywhere in the city. The company who supplied my office with water for the cooler ran out. Old people’s homes were short staffed, hospitals over stretched. Saddest of all as families went on their three week holidays many grandparents were left with no one to visit and check up on them.
This all caused a bit of a scandal as you can imagine. We had a hot spell in June/July this year, but nothing as bad as 2003 of course, but it was noticeable that every weather forecast included instructions to drink at least 2 litres of water a day and to make sure you found yourself somewhere cool to recover for three or four hours a day.
France has a color-coded alert system now - for heatwaves. Sign of the times…
In the Chicago heat wave of 1995, there were two other factors contributing to the higher death rates among the elderly. First, many of them were poor, and either didn’t have air conditioning or couldn’t afford to turn on their air conditioners. And second, many of the victims lived in higher-crime neighbourhoods and were afraid to leave their apartments to seek refuge from the heat. Both of these factors are more prevalent among the elderly.
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity!
Well, that’s what people tell me, anyway.
But lame jokes aside, props to **QtM ** for the nice explanation.
Though I didn’t ask, this is very timely information that I can use.
So, like, thanks for the thread.
I knew heat could kill the elderly, but see now I didn’t really understand how or why.
Count me a little wiser this day.
Wow, didn’t realize what an age spread is represented here on the Dope. You go guy!!! You probably have more energy @ 78 than I do @ 39. Good for you!
Actually makes me happy to hear this as my dad is getting up there and while I believe he’s in pretty good shape, he’s nowhere near 3400’ mountain climbing!
My dad, a Depression baby, always speculated they were too cheap to use the electricity. :dubious:
I seem to recall hearing that heat waves don’t cause any major shift in the overall death rate, as the elderly people who die during a heat wave generally would have died very soon - within weeks - anyway, and thus heat waves are followed by periods of particularly low death rates. Mostly only the extremely feeble are killed by heat waves.
I might be mixing up different phenomena here, though. Perhaps Qadgop knows whether this is the case or not.