Heat Safety & Prep

Three Things An ER Doc Says You Need To Know About The Heat

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We've got three words for this summer: Hot, hot, hot.

That raises all kinds of risks including sunburn, dehydration and heat exhaustion, even for healthy people. We asked Dr. Neil Gandhi, an emergency medicine physician at Houston Methodist hospitals, how you can best protect yourself - and avoid the ER - when it's hot outside.

Here's what he said.

1. Give yourself plenty of time to acclimate.

“What that means is, take your time each day when you're spending it out in the sun and try to spend progressively more time each day. So don't just go out there and spend three or four hours at once," Dr. Gandhi said. "Work yourself up there slowly. Spend 15 minutes, then 20 minutes, then an hour, then two hours."

That way, your body has time to get used to the heat.

2. Stay hydrated.

Dr. Gandhi can't stress this one enough.

"Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate," he said.

“We recommend avoiding those sport drinks or sugar drinks. Water is a great agent for your body."

It's important to drink before going outside, too.

While anyone can fall victim to dehydration, some people are especially vulnerable.

"The really young pediatric patients, patients under the age of four or five, and the elderly or the geriatric patients, patients over the age of 65 or 70, they're extremely vulnerable to high heat and their bodies can dehydrate very quickly," Gandhi said.

3. Know when to stop.

“If you're feeling a little bit unwell, if you're feeling dizzy, if you're feeling slightly confused or tired … it's a signal from your body telling you it's time to take some rest time, to go back indoors, maybe take some shade, hydrate and definitely cool off," Gandhi said.

People who have other medical conditions - think diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease - that make them susceptible to heat need to be the most careful. Those who work outside also need to practice extra caution.

Signs that you need medical care include confusion, increased body temperature or vomiting.

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Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.