Healthy Aging Current Topics in Healthy Aging

Keeping Seniors Safe in the Heat

Summary & Participants

Keeping cool on hot days is especially important for seniors. Here are some tips on how to stay safe when the mercury rises.

Medically Reviewed On: August 01, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Keeping cool this summer means avoiding heat stroke, the most serious heat-related illness, and heat exhaustion, a milder affliction but still a dangerous one. Older people are especially vulnerable.

Delores: Because of my age, my perspiration stuff doesn’t do as well as it used to.

Barbara Blackman, Project FIND: Be aware what’s going on with you. Your body temperature is not going – you know, it doesn’t adjust quickly, especially when you’re elderly and if you are taking medicine. So you want to make sure that you keep yourself cool

ANNOUNCER: Chronic medical conditions can also up the risk of heat stress. Heat stroke can even be life-threatening. So here are some basic steps you can take on hot days.

Barbara Blackman, Project FIND: Take cool showers. Dress in light clothing. Drink plenty of fluids. Try to get to one of the cooling centers or a library or some place – go shopping – where it’s a cool place.

ANNOUNCER: And don’t forget to start at the top!

Barbara Blackman, Project FIND: You should wear a hat that is long brimmed to keep the sun away from yourself and it keeps you cooler.

Patricia: It protects your eyes – the hat, if it were bigger it’d be even better, gives you more protection than the glasses.

ANNOUNCER: And be sure to eat small, light meals. A heavy meal diverts blood to the stomach to aid digestion when it is more needed at the skin's surface to help cool the body.

Delores: I’m eating different things, or less things, I eat less bad stuff.

ANNOUNCER: So stay cool and stay safe! Thanks for joining us on Once Daily!