Suppose someone is playing sports (i.e., 2022 Qatar World Cup) in a 109 heat index. They don’t have the option of declining to play, but they do get all the water and electrolytes their body could need. Are their internal organs still going to “cook,” somewhat, nonetheless, especially if playing under direct Sun?
At what point of a heat index does the body just say “Nope” even if one is drinking fluids aplenty?
Somewhat related: How did American soldiers survive wearing thick uniforms and combat gear and helmets and all that in 105-degree Iraqi summer heat?
If your body can’t shed heat fast enough, by perspiration and respiration, then you are going to go into heat exhaustion.
Having sufficient water isn’t enough. If the humidity is high enough that there is insufficient evaporative cooling, you will need to get to a cooler place or have a problem.
I donno. But have experience as a sherpa for my Wife when she does IronMans.
In Boulder Colorado she did pretty good. The temp was mid 90’s. Crazy stuff. She was fine at the finish. Then back at the hotel she went into hyperventilation. Dry heaves too. I did all I could to get her rehydrated, but wasn’t sure that was the problem. Very, very scary shit.
I did everything I could to cool her and try to relax her breathing. Nothing worked.
I ended up calling 911 (first time in my life). The medics came to the hotel, and I think the disruption, and having actual medical people there taking her stats calmed her down. Didn’t need an ambulance ride.
I’m 57 years old. This was perhaps the scariest time in my life.
Oh, and kudos to Boulder County Colorado Paramedics for doing such a fine job. And we didn’t get charged a dime.
She said she drank plenty of water, but maybe didn’t take enough salt.
Wow, enipla, that’s a really horrifying experience. Glad she ended up okay! Did she only take water during/after the race, or any sports drinks as well?
Played cricket in the heat approaching those temperatures. Drink plenty of water, or even better lemonade, squash etc. Bits of fruit help as well.
Remain covered as much as possible. Can’t emphasize this enough. Wear a hat. Stripping to the waist or wearing shorts is a very bad idea. I have noticed European try and do that, bad bad move. Loose clothing that covers you up is ideal. Basically above 35C shorts and T shirts become counter productive.
But how long are those sports contests? People can usually handle short periods of high temperatures, but not all day.
Oh interesting. I had thought you’d ideally want to be as close to nude, essentially as you could.
No, in those weather conditions, the heat added by sunlight on your naked skin can be more than the heat lost via evaporation. (Especially as the evaporation looses effectiveness when the temp & humidity of the air rise. And increasing evaporation is what removing clothes is about.)
Right… if you’re mostly in the shade, then shorts & t-shirt are perfectly good. But if you’re mostly in the sun, you want to keep your skin covered up so you’re not absorbing heat directly from the sun faster than you can evaporate it away through sweating.
You mostly want to drink water, not sugary stuff you’re far more likely to get dehydrated faster than you’re likely to run out of electrolytes. As in, if you’re doing something strenuous, you can get dehydrated in an hour or less, but you’re really unlikely to have electrolyte issues in the same time frame. If you’re doing long duration exercise, it’s a good idea to drink something with sodium in it, 0.5-0.7 g/l is recommended. That’s for strenuous exercise in hot weather- like distance running or something.
Golf? Sport? :rolleyes: Now that’s a good one. Even at the amateur level, what percentage of players are using carts, or caddies, or even one of those wheeled holders to pull their bag over carrying it? Watch one of the dancing shows on TV one night, watch how hard the performers are breathing when they’re done & talking to the judges, yet they’re not considered ‘athletes’.
The players are in decent shape & get out of the sun occasionally & get access to (cold) drinks & fresh towels, much moreso then the spectators. I’d be more worried about the spectators standing in the gallery, unable to afford another $7 bottle of water to cool off.
Okay, rant over. To more properly answer the OP’s question, it’s much more of a concern for endurance athletes; ones who are going for long periods of time, w/o breaks in the action. Even baseball players, who are on the field during the hottest part of the day during a day game get to come into the dugout for (almost) ½ the game, where they have access to misters & towels & drinks.
It’s your long distance cyclists, & runners, & triathletes who are doing non-stop exertion who are in much more danger. Remember Gabriela Andersen-Schiess at the '84 Olympics? She was dehydrated enough to be experiencing muscle cramping.
I do ultramarathons. I’ve done ultramarathons in the summer. I’ve done very professionally organized ultramarathons in the summer, including one that had a flag system. For every x° the temp/heat index was over a certain baseline there were more & more restrictions indicated by the corresponding flag color on the course; all of this was in the “race bible” given to racers & support staff in advance of the race. The highest level prohibited running (everyone had to walk) & required BP & weigh-ins at the two medical tents, every 4ish miles (it was an 8½ mile loop course). There was a mandatory, recorded weigh-in before the event & the idea was that basically any weight you lost during the event was water weight. If your weight was down too much, you were required to sit; rehydration, including IV’s, were administered. At that point, it was solely up to medical personnel’s (including lead doctor’s) discretion as to whether you were allowed to continue the race.
Another trailing edge method is urine color, the darker it is, the more concentrated it is, the more dehydrated you are. (Porta-johns suck at night because there’s no light in them.)
The level of dehydration where performance starts to degrade is well below the level where it becomes dangerous. My guess is that Mrs. enipla didn’t PR at that race; that her running splits were slower than at other full tris.
From about 25C-35C less clothing cover, helps. Above 35C hell no.
That sounds like Hyponatremia, commonly caused by drinking too much water. The concentration of sodium in your blood goes dangerously low.
Dr. TAMARA HEW-BUTLER, from Oakland University appeared on Adam ruins hydration episode.
Dr. Tamara in the episode said that drinking too much water, and going into Hyponatremia, is very common among rookie marathoners, who are just handed water at every corner. She says its a myth, perpetrated by the society, to drink water when not thirsty. Your body has a perfect way of telling you when you need to drink - its called thirst.
Everything I’ve ever read and heard says that thirst works well, if you’re not sweating buckets, and that if you’re sweating enough, the mechanisms that induce the feeling of thirst will lag enough that you’ll be dehydrated before they kick in and you feel thirsty.
Hence the advice to drink before you’re thirsty. And if you’re doing enough sweating and enough hydration, you do run a risk of hyponatremia, which is why they recommend drinking 0.5-0.7 grams per liter of sodium in the water you drink, in order to stave that off.
Yeah, I sweat enough that I have to be hydrated when I start, and then start drinking as soon as the sweat turns on.
I’ve never weighed myself to see how much I lose, but I am going to in the near future. I can’t know for certain otherwise, but I’m afraid that in weather like we’re having right now, I can’t drink enough to keep up. That’s not a problem in the short-term, but for a matter of many hours on end it could be a real issue.
It depends a lot on what you’re doing and for how long. If you’re just outside, you’ll sweat a lot, but you can keep up pretty easily. But if you’re actively exercising, you do need to take periodic breaks to hydrate and to let your body cool off and stop sweating quite so much, and thereby catch up some.
Still, from what I can tell, hyponatremia and stuff like what happened to enipla’s wife are more the province of marathons, long distance bike rides and triathlons, or maybe really long term, sustained high intensity work.
Stuff like a two hour soccer/football/baseball game or your average outdoor workday aren’t likely to get you dehydrated in 100F/38C temps if you’re moderately careful about drinking water, much less worrying about sodium.
I think keeping your skin covered actually helps in the sun, but I think they went without protective body armor panels quite often due to heat.
Also they would have hydration packs like Camelbaks, so water would be easily accessible while their personal supply lasted.
