People should be very cautious when they travel on a vacation or holiday to hot climates if they aren’t accustomed to the tropical sun and humidity. Severe sunburns, heatstroke, and heat exhaustion can cause some serious medical problems and even death. The info below may help you when you travel on a vacation or holiday to hot climates.
Even though these sun related problems, sunburn, heatstroke, and heat exhaustion are not diseases, they can be very serious and could ruin your vacation. They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this is particularly true when dealing with the sun. Keep in mind that the sun’s rays in the tropics are more intense between noon hour and three p.m., as well as at high altitudes, even if it’s a cloudy or overcast day.
What can you do to prevent getting sunburned?
Usually, the lighter or fairer your skin, the easier you can get sunburned. Even clouds offer little or no protection from a severe sunburn, so why take a chance of ruining your holidays when getting a painful, serious sunburn is easy to protect against? To prevent getting a bad sunburn, particularly if you sunburn easily, use a high SPF (Sun Protection Factor) of 30, or stronger. Use the sunscreen liberally, wear wide-brimmed sun hats, use UVA & UVB protection certified sunglasses, and wear a long-sleeved shirt and slacks. It’s best to try and stay out of the sun between noon and three in the afternoon. Build up exposure to the sun slowly, day by day. Try and limit the length of time you spend in the sun to around fifteen minutes the first day, and gradually increase your time in the sun on subsequent days.
What can you do to treat a severe sunburn?
You can ease the pain of a sunburn by soaking in a cool bath three to four times a day. If you add some baking soda to each bath, it will help even more. Cool showers will probably hurt too much, and they are not as effective or soothing as cool, relaxing baths. To help with headaches, or pain and swelling, take aspirin or other pain medication such as Advil or Ibuprofen. Do not take any aspirin based pain medications if you are on blood thinners or have an ulcer. If you are not sure if it’s safe for you to take these pain relievers, check with a doctor or medical clinic. To avoid dehydration, drink at least six to eight glasses of water per day. Do not break any blisters if you can help it. Broken blisters can easily get infected, especially in the humid weather of the tropics. If they do break, wash them gently with soap and warm water.
If the sunburn doesn’t appear to be healing and you are still in pain after a few days, you develop a very high temperature or fever, have a splitting headache that just won’t go away, are vomiting or have diarrhea, feel dizzy or confused, or your eyes hurt and bright light bothers them, you need to see a medical professional immediately.
What can you do to avoid heat exhaustion?
Heat exhaustion is completely preventable. Wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat, drinking lots of liquids, and staying out of intense heat and humidity will help you avoid this serious problem.
What are the best things that you do if you have the symptoms of heat exhaustion?
Heat exhaustion is caused by a combination of very high temperatures and humidity. This may result in the loss of fluids from your body through excess sweating. These fluids must be quickly replaced or heat exhaustion can result.
The symptoms include headache, fatigue, lethargy, giddiness, and muscle cramps. The treatment is to immediately move out of the sun or heat and drink plenty of liquids, preferably commercial beverages containing electrolytes, such as Gatorade. Do not drink any alcohol as this will make your condition worse.
If you do not feel better and show positive signs of recovery in a very short period of time, have someone take you to a hospital immediately as your condition could quickly progress into a true medical emergency, heatstroke.
What must you immediately do if you get heat stroke?
When heat exhaustion is not successfully treated immediately, it can result in a very serious medical emergency. Heatstroke is characterized by high body temperatures of 102 to 106 degrees Fahrenheit, or 39 to 41 degrees Centigrade. There is also a cessation of sweating. The symptoms of heatstroke include flushed, red skin, headache and confusion which can progress into delirium and convulsions, and can be fatal.
Note: Someone has to help you to get out of the sun or heat and rush you to a hospital immediately.
Tags: Vacations
