Your risks of contracting a Heat-related diseases increase when the temperature outside is high. This is because it is more difficult to cool yourself via perspiration when the temperature and humidity are both high. And if you don’t get treatment right away, this might lead to some major health issues.
Hyperthermia is a term that is often used to refer to a collection of heat-related disorders. The term “hyperthermia” refers to any situation in which your body is unable to manage its temperature appropriately and adequately handle the heat.
Heat-related Diseases may affect everyone, although the following groups are more likely to fall sick from it:
- Infants and children in their early years
- Elderly citizens aged 65 and above
- Overweight individuals
- Individuals who work or exercise in the open air Persons who already have a medical problem such as high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease
- Those who take certain medications, such as those prescribed for depression or sleeplessness
The following are some of the reasons why Heat-related Diseases are becoming more common:
Anybody, regardless of age, gender, or physical condition, may experience the negative effects of heat stress. Yet, those who are more susceptible to developing unwell as a result of prolonged exposure to very high temperatures include youngsters and elderly people.
- Those who labor outside, people who are socially isolated or economically underprivileged, those who suffer from Heat-related diseases, or chronic diseases, and certain populations of color are also more susceptible to the effects of heat.
- Temperatures in the contiguous 48 states that are unusually high throughout the summer have been more regular in recent decades
- (see the High and Low Temperatures indication), and it is anticipated that severe Heat-related diseases (heat waves) will become more often and more intense in the future.
- As a direct consequence of this, an increase in the likelihood of heat-related illnesses is anticipated.
- Yet, there is a possibility that hospitalization rates may vary as individuals get used to greater temperatures and as communities improve their heat response plans and take other actions to continue adapting to changing conditions.
Climate Change
Because of climate change, it is expected that future heat waves will be more intense and last for longer. If you already have one or more health issues and Heat-related diseases, you should start taking preventative measures as soon as possible. Have a conversation with your primary care provider about how the heat can impact you, and work together to devise a strategy that will assist you in remaining cool. Help will come if you continue to educate yourself and pay attention to any symptoms you may have.
Global Warming
The negative impacts of heat waves on people’s health will become more severe as a result of global warming.
A heat wave is a period of exceptionally hot weather that often lasts for two days or more and is much hotter than the average temperature for a specific region during its recorded history. There have been heating waves in the past, but climate change is making them last longer, be more severe, and occur more often.
We can deduce this from the number of times that new records for the daily high and low temperatures are established. Temperatures are recorded each day at a network of hundreds of weather stations spread around the world. In the 1950s, high and low-temperature records at weather stations were set at roughly the same rate in the United States. However, beginning in the late 1960s, the number of record daily high temperatures measured each year has been increasing at a faster rate than record daily low temperatures.
This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This change is partly attributable to the fact that there have been much fewer daily low-temperature records broken in the last several decades. This tendency was clear to see in January 2019, when there were a total of 269 new high temperatures and 17 new low temperatures for the record books throughout the globe.
In addition, scientists investigate the attribution of extreme events to determine whether or not a warming climate has made extreme events, such as heat waves, more severe or more likely to occur. They do this by simulating weather conditions using computer models, and they can do this with or without taking into account global warming and other contributing factors. Scientists can get the conclusion that global warming is making heat waves more severe by analyzing several scenarios.
Heat waves that are becoming worse are expected to lead to a rise in the number of people who die from Heat-related diseases. Because of climate change, Heat-related diseases anticipated that by the end of this century, the United States would see an increase in thousands of fatalities per year that are caused by Heat-related diseases. As a result of the urban heat island effect, heat waves may be more intense in cities, which means that an increase in the number of people living in urban areas might add to the number of people who are impacted.
