Acclimatised?

[aletta]

As i sat here today in this 40 degree heat we have here i began to wonder why it is after all these years i haven't become more like one of the natives.

I have acclimatised to a degree,yes,but nothing close to a Thai.

I googled and found on several sites that full acclimatisation to a hot environment requires strenuous exercise:-

"Heat acclimatization occurs when repeated heat exposures are sufficiently stressful to elevate body temperature and provoke perfuse sweating. Resting in the heat, with limited physical activity to that required for existence, results in only partial acclimatization. Physical exercise in the heat is required to achieve optimal heat acclimatization"

I wondered how you chaps feel in this heat and can you go digging in the garden like my neighbours are doing as i type.(wearing wooly hat,sweatshirt and jacket)

[buadhai]

I've been running almost daily since I was in Junior High School and have lived in the tropics for nearly 30 years now. I was born and spent my youth in California.

I find that I am much less affected by the heat than are "locals" who have lived in this climate for their entire lives.

Still, I'm not sure if that's due to individual difference or if it proves the point about exercise and acclimatization.

I just finished an 8K run ten minutes ago and I have stopped sweating and my skin is cool to the touch. My heart rate is just under 80. (It's about 50 at rest.) At the moment, it's only 29 here in Saipan, though. So not as hot as in LOS....

Time for a beer.

[Harmonica]

I've been running almost daily since I was in Junior High School and have lived in the tropics for nearly 30 years now. I was born and spent my youth in California.

I find that I am much less affected by the heat than are "locals" who have lived in this climate for their entire lives.

Still, I'm not sure if that's due to individual difference or if it proves the point about exercise and acclimatization.

I just finished an 8K run ten minutes ago and I have stopped sweating and my skin is cool to the touch. My heart rate is just under 80. (It's about 50 at rest.) At the moment, it's only 29 here in Saipan, though. So not as hot as in LOS....

Time for a beer.

Could you be a little considerate and not give us so much head, please?

[buadhai]

Could you be a little considerate and not give us so much head, please? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Head? Head? What head?

[Jack Jones]

I guess it depends on where you are. I always find the heat in Bkk stiffling as there's no breeze but in the coastal parts I cope well as the air is clearer. Drinking alcohol doesn't help. I've often had a few beers wandered down the street and found that I'm dripping in sweat. I think eating spicy food helps also.

[Bryan in Isaan]

I agree that strenuous exercise helps. Up here in the Isaan I can go running 5 to 8 km even at 30 to 34 deg C. I come back from the run and everyone sitting around at the house is wilting in the heat and I feel fine. Does anyone know if there is a temperature limit above which it is dangerous to run or do vigorous exercise? These days it has been 35 to 39 deg C during the day. I would still like to go for a little jog once in a while to get some fresh air, but am concerned that there might be some medical risk.

The air is fresh up here, too, other than some dust and a trace of smoke from farmers burning brush, and very dry. I don't know if I could do much exercising in Bangkok.

Bryan

Edited March 31, 2005 by Bryan in Isaan

[autonomous_unit]

...  Does anyone know if there is a temperature limit above which it is dangerous to run or do vigorous exercise?  These days it has been 35 to 39 deg C during the day.  I would still like to go for a little jog once in a while to get some fresh air, but am concerned that there might be some medical risk.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Of course, it would take a doctor to be sure if you in particular have an unusual risk factor. But, for the most part, the only risk is dehydration and accompanying electrolyte imbalance from profuse sweating. I've noticed a few times in BKK during the hot season, I started feeling a bit "blah" despite drinking water, and getting a bottle of gatorade into me made a miraculous difference. But like my father, I have always been one of those guys who would sweat profusely and get salt visibly building up on my skin or clothes in real heat. I'd take at least a liter of water for an hour or two of hiking at 37+ degrees, or 3-4 liters per day for strenuous backpacking at even 30 degrees. Many people dehydrate themselves unintentionally.

As long as you are sweating and it is evaporating, your body should keep important things like your brain at a safe temperature. A hat to keep the sun off can help a lot there. People in ill health or not conditioned for the level of exertion (and heat dissipation) may suffer heat exhaustion or worse---heat stroke. You should know the signs for these and watch your fluids, starting slowly when adjusting to a new climate. The super danger sign is when sweating stops, the skin warms up, and the person gets sleepy or has other symptoms of shock. You don't ever want to get that far into the symptoms, as brain damage or death may follow shortly... it is important for others to notice the symptoms because by the time it happens to you, you may be too far gone to react to it properly. I usually start to get a kind of diffuse tension headache when I know I need to get a lot of water into me and possibly get some rest in the shade... that's probably a low-grade heat exhaustion setting in.

I've heard of a relatively rare reaction where you stop sweating and basically go into heat stroke much sooner than usual. I cannot remember what it is called, but apparently the only real treatment is to move to a cooler climate! Talk about a bad day at the beach...

[Thomas_Merton]

I agree that strenuous exercise helps.  Up here in the Isaan I can go running 5 to 8 km even at 30 to 34 deg C.  I come back from the run and everyone sitting around at the house is wilting in the heat and I feel fine.  Does anyone know if there is a temperature limit above which it is dangerous to run or do vigorous exercise?  These days it has been 35 to 39 deg C during the day.  I would still like to go for a little jog once in a while to get some fresh air, but am concerned that there might be some medical risk.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eleven years ago I was an ardent marathon runner. Training 15K+ 5 days a week. This particular Sunday I had arraigned to take my daughter to the zoo. Because of this and the fact the forecast was 30C plus for that day, I took an early morning 5K. Even so the temperature was creeping up around the 30. I was relatively pleased with myself as I ran the 5K faster than I had ever done.

During the course of the rest of the day I began to notice some strange things happening. I kept stumbling into door frames. I often missed objects I was supposed to pick up. The final, really worrying event was when my daughter said I was talking as though I was drunk.

The next day I visited the doctor for a check-up. He called an ambulance and got me rushed to hospital. He told me later my blood pressure was so high; I ought to have been dead.

They kept me in hospital for 3 weeks trying to find out why, as they discovered when they brain scanned me, I had had, not one, but two blood props.

Cutting a long story short: they concluded, I must have had hypertension (high blood pressure) for many months before the quick 5K. Running this, possibly triggered the blood props especially as it was coupled with a run in high temperatures.

So I am writing this as a warning to all who embark on running in these high temperatures. Please make sure you are aware of your blood pressure, particularly if, as in my case, there is a history of hypertension in the family.

(BTW I am fully recovered and train again, but never in high temperatures).

[Bryan in Isaan]

Thank you for the good detailed info. I'm getting old enough to know that "feeling fine" is not always the end of the story. Besides lots of water, salt seems to help, as the body uses a lot of it while sweating. The wife and I find that we get dehydrated the most on a "cool" day <28C. We are not thirsty, don't sweat and don't drink enough water.

Bryan

[bina]

there are people -- like me-- that are like reptiles, when cold, we are cold wehn hot, we over heat... so...

three liters minum a day for a youth working physical outdoor work is the israeli army and school recommended amount (for hiking working, army training

i work like the thai workers : hat, long sleeve cotton shirt, sweatshirt, long pants... then i sweat and dont droop; if not, i'm am a very quick heat stroke/exhaustion victim

poeple w/hypertension should be very very careful about exertion in heat it does increase the pressure

there are standards in israel for working in heat that is indoors like working glass ovens etc (i used to be a safety etc manager in a glass factory), cant remember what the limit is... outdoors, no standards; i'm sure europe and america have standards

dry heat is scarier as u dont feel it as much and dehydrate much faster; humid feels hot so people tend to drink more....

i find that when i'm working in summers here outdoors i crave fresh juice like grapefruit etc (i guess its sort of electrolyte stuff: sugars, etc as orange juice w/baking soda sugar and salt is a home made (although nasty) electrolyte brew for infants etc

coke (cola) et al are big no no's as are coffee etc

spicy food makes you sweat and thirsty

we dont use AC at work in my office since we are outside most of time and then its boiling hot in to freezing cold which decrease the potential for acclimation...

we always say: if your urine is clear, you've drunk enough, after unrinating, drink a cup or so of water as a habit, it really helps -- we teach our kids this at an early age since they hike a lot, work outdoors and of course, army in the desert

i think that thai cities are very polluted so the air quality is reduced and the heat reduces the oxygen even more, in bangkok i couldnt breathe at all...rather like being a goldfish in a very small, warm water pond..... blub blub blub

[aletta]

Don't really want to drop dead so will take up some exercise once the forty degree temperatures have passed.

[Jockstar]

5K+ runs? Fukc that you can keep it. I'm fitish. But i have never enjoyed running. BORING! But each to their own. I'd rather do a sport ie football, volleyball etc. But as i said each to their own.