Summertime comes with its own host of summer-related illnesses: heat rash, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, varying degrees of sunburns, sun poisoning, and eye damage. Then there are the bug bites, the water-related injuries, the stress injuries from playing sports after a sedentary winter, and more. Here, we’ll concentrate on the sun sicknesses.
Even if the temperature is not hot, you can develop any of the following heat sicknesses if you are in direct sunlight for an extended period of time, if you are working hard outdoors if the temperature is mild or slightly warm even if it’s overcast, or if the humidity is very high and the temperature is low but sunny, and you are working hard outside.
Heat rash is a skin irritation caused by excessive sweating when your sweat glands are blocked, usually by greasy lotions or gels. It looks like little blisters or pimples that cluster in the creases and crevices of your body: elbows, arm pits, and knees, as well as the chest, neck, and shoulders.
You aren’t likely to die of a heat rash, but you will be seriously uncomfortable. To lessen the discomfort, avoid greasy gels and lotions that can block your sweat glands. Wear clothes that wick the moisture away from your body. Use sweat absorbing powders such as talcum and cornstarch. Some places recommend using antifungal sprays, but in my experience, they contribute to blocking the sweat glands.
For the same reason, avoid deodorants that contain anti-perspirants, as these will block the sweat glands and contribute to heat rash. Do use deodorants, but choose ones that don’t prevent sweating. If you’re worried about sweat stains under your arms, wear clothes that don’t show the sweat so much, use underarm pads, or wear sport weight sweat-wicking clothes. Also, be generous with the talc and carry towels to keep the area dry.
Heat Cramps are the next step in heat sickness, where the muscles develop severe cramping and pain, the body feels clammy – cool and moist. The cure for heat cramps is to drink fluids and seek shade and a breeze, if there is one. Wait until the cramps are completely gone, you’ve peed at least once, and feel energized again before continuing with any work in direct sunlight.
Heat exhaustion is also relatively harmless as long as you catch and treat it in time. Heat exhaustion is caused by dehydration. Symptoms include flu-like symptoms of joint aches, throbbing headache, chills, and weakness. They also include cool, dry skin (no body moisture to sweat) and a weak pulse. The cure for this is relatively simple: drink lots of fluids and find shade. A breeze (real or artificial) is a plus.
Drink until you start sweating again, then keep drinking. If you’re out in the sun and not sweating and not peeing at least every 4 hours, you’re dehydrated. Find shade and drink fluids. Water is good, water with electrolytes is better. Avoid caffeine and alcohol until you are re-hydrated, although if that’s all there is, then take it. Don’t turn your nose up at any fluids if you have entered heat exhaustion. Drink in the shade and stay there until you have peed and are capable of producing sweat again. And then keep drinking as long as you are in the heat.
One problem with heat exhaustion is that once you get it, you are more prone to getting it again, and are more sensitive to heat.
Heat stroke is the most severe form of heat sickness and it can be quickly fatal. Symptoms include all the previous heat sickness warnings, plus the core body temperature has risen as high as 103ºF or higher, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, difficulty breathing, red dry skin that’s hot to the touch, hallucinations, disorientation, agitation, confusion, rapid pulse, and seizures, coma, and death. You want to catch it as early as possible. First thing is to cool down: get to a shady area, apply cool or tepid wet cloths to the armpits, back of the neck, and groin, followed by ice packs as the body temperature falls, and give fluids as soon as tolerated in the form of ice chips at first, then liquids.
The best cure for heat sickness is prevention. Wear hats, light colored lightweight loose clothing, and drink lots of water and drinks containing electrolytes. Take frequent shade breaks. Monitor how often you pee, and if it takes more than 4 hours –rehydrate, cool off, and rest until you are hydrated enough to pee again.
Other forms of sun sickness include a vast array of sunburns, from the light pink first degree burns that turn to a toasty brown to the angry red blisters with blackened edges of serious third degree burns.
You may think a mild, first degree sunburn is nothing, but it causes deep damage to the skin, allows you to burn faster and deeper next time, will cause premature wrinkles, and can lead to skin cancer. Even if you never get a serious sunburn, but you do get several mild sunburns a year, you can still get skin cancer.
We all need sunlight to create Vitamin D, but 15 minutes of sun exposure is sufficient to do that. After half an hour, the skin begins to burn and even if you get in shade or go indoors, the skin continues to cook. It may not start to redden until 2 to 6 hours after exposure. Just because you’re not pink yet doesn’t mean you’re not getting burned. The peak effects of the sunburn make their appearance 12 to 24 hours after exposure.
Even a mild sunburn can cause nausea, chills, fever, blistering (sometimes not apparent until the skin begins to peel away 3 to 7 days after the burn), skin irritation, headache, and dehydration.
The worse the sunburn, the stronger the symptoms. Sunburn can lead to heat stroke and a severe sunburn can lead to permanent scarring. Any of the following symptoms means you should contact a medical authority as soon as possible, either on your own behalf if you can or on hte behalf of someone else suffering it:
severe pain
severe blistering
headache
vomiting
fainting
confusion
and/or fever
Immediate self-care includes getting out of the sun, getting out of the tanning bed (for those who do that), and covering any exposed skin from any direct sunlight – even through a glass window. Apply cool compresses of water, equal parts milk and water, or Burow solution (available at most pharmacies) for 15 – 20 minutes, then changing for fresh compress and solution, and continue for up to 6 hours. You can take aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen for pain relief during this time. After the compresses, apply aloe gel – either the inner gel from fresh leaves or purchased gel from a pharmacy.
Cool, but not cold, baths are the only kind to take with a sunburn because warm or hot baths or showers can deepen the burn. Avoid bath salts, oils, and perfumes. Use a soft towel and pat dry, do not rub. Avoid all lotions and gels with topical anesthetic because you can become sensitized to them and even allergic. It’s not worth it for mild sunburns. Silver sulfadiazine (1% cream) can even be used cautiously on sunburned faces for strong first degree or mild second degree burns. For second degree sunburn, you may be given oral steroids. Steroid creams have not been proven effective so avoid them. In severe sunburn cases with blistering steroids are withheld to reduce the chance of infection.
Third degree sunburns may be severe enough to be admitted to a burn unit at a hospital.
Sun poisoning can occur at any level of sunburn – it’s like an allergy reaction to excess sun exposure.
Once such an allergy develops, it doesn’t go away. Treatment is similar to both sunburn care and allergy treatment. Once you develop sun poisoning, you can only have limited sun exposure – 15 minutes is enough to create vitamin D and still be under the time when allergy symptoms develop.
The best thing is prevention – stay out of direct sunlight as much as possible and limit direct exposure to approximately 15 minutes of morning sunlight (the mildest sun of the day). When out in the sun for longer than 15 minutes, wear a wide brimmed hat and sun-blocking clothes with long sleeves and legs. Apply sunscreen to skin that is exposed, particularly the nose and tops of the ears. Sunscreen must be applied thickly and frequently. It is not waterproof, will sweat off, and does not provide all day protection. Re-apply every half hour and after swimming or heavy sweating.
Be aware that antibiotics, acne medications, St. John’s Wort, and medications prescribed for skin conditions such as psoriasis can increase your sensitivity to sun and sunburning. All mind altering drugs, medications, and alcohol will diminish your awareness of pain and sunburning, so either pay extra attention, take extra precautions, or avoid these substances altogether if you are also out in the sun. Skin conditions such as herpes simplex, lupus, and porphyria will worsen after sun exposure.
Chronic sun exposure even for the purpose of tanning will cause early wrinkling, and may lead to increased skin pigmentation in the form of moles, skin cancer, and cataracts.
Minor, uncomplicated sunburns will heal within 7 days, and may have itching, peeling skin, and touch sensitivity during that time.
Your eyes are not exempt from sun damage. If you squint or your eyes tear up in sunlight, they are being damaged. Wearing sunglasses with a UV400 protection and a shade over them (like a sun visor or broad brimmed hat) can reduce or prevent sun damage to your eyes. Premature cataracts, sunburn to the whites and the corneas, pterygium (where tissue grows on the whites of the eyes), “snow blindness”, and macular degeneration are the most common eye damage from sun.
The best sunglasses are wrap-around with red, orange, amber, or yellow lenses that block 100% of UVA and UVB light. Even then, you still should wear a broad brimmed hat to shade the eyes. If swimming, wear snug fitting goggles. Wear them even on overcast days because the UVA and UVB rays penetrate cloud cover.
In all cases of sun sickness, limiting your exposure to direct sunlight (and cloudy sunlight) will reduce your damage from it. Wearing sunglasses, a wide brimmed hat, sunscreen, and sun blocking clothing will also reduce damage from sunlight when you have to be out in it and working. I’d suggest doing your heaviest and hardest work as early in the morning as possible and as late in the day as possible and avoiding direct sunlight during the brutal hours between 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
If the sun is hot enough to boil tomatoes on the vine, then it’s too hot to be working in.