Michael Mosley…

Hyperthermia is the scary big brother of hypothermia. Generally speaking, by the time you realise you are ill, you are very far down the path and things get bad very quickly. Much harder to reverse than hypothermia and risk profile much worse.

Bit of a thread resurrection, but just got this link via email, it’s all about heat acclimatisation (and not just applicable to ultrarunners):

Ultrarunners’ Heat Acclimation Cheat Sheet

I found this interesting

https://theconversation.com/michael-mosley-reportedly-died-from-heat-exhaustion-how-can-extreme-heat-turn-deadly-232161

Especially this which I hadn’t really considered:

The human body has two main ways to lose the heat generated by the body or gained from the environment.

 

First, the body attempts to lose heat to the surrounding environment by pumping warm blood to the skin surface. However, when air temperatures are higher than skin temperature (around 35°C), this method becomes ineffective. Instead, the body starts gaining heat from its surroundings.

Second, the body can produce sweat, which has a cooling effect when it evaporates. However, in humid conditions, the sweat on our skin evaporates less readily, as the air already contains plenty of moisture.

35°C really isn’t that warm imo but apparently already your body will be struggling potentially quite seriously.

Also scary is how quickly things can escalate and once the threshold has been crossed and heat stroke has developed how most (58%) won’t survive beyond a month.

I have always coped reasonably well in high temperatures, I certainly wasn’t aware of how both quick and serious things can develop beyond the point of no return.

It is ironic that even in death Michael Mosley still has the ability to educate people on health issues and how to take care of themself, something which I have no doubt he would approve of. RIP

In my mid 20’s – fit/lean, working on an engineering job in Turkey, I had a daytime nap in summer heatwave sun. I woke up in a pool of unbeknownst liquid, few hours later it really hit me and I crawled into bed back at my hotel. I was so rough/weak I had to ring my contacts at the factory for help who got me into hospital and on a IV drip. I was absolutely wiped out.

I did the london to Brighton ages ago with 2 others, 1 chap was fair skinned, it wasn’t even hot I d say warm, c20s.  He wasn’t hydrating though but pretty fit.  We all finished but he started mumbling rubbish on the train back.  We took him to a n e, he was put on a drip and kept under observation overnight.

I m in Spain, its 31 today, its like a wall of heat stepping outside the door.  At 40 it’s oppressive.

For those who were aware that an American had also gone missing on a Greek island after setting off in the heatwave last Tuesday he body was found today.

That makes three missing tourists who had gone for walks in the heatwave found dead in a week.

https://www.euronews.com/2024/06/16/three-missing-tourists-found-dead-in-just-one-week-on-greek-islands