1st DRAFT- E LEARNING COURSE FOR STUDENTS

As we age, our ability to adequately respond to summer heat can become a serious problem. Older people are at significant increased risk of heat-related illnesses, known collectively as hyperthermia, during the summer months. Hyperthermia can include heat stroke, heat edema (swelling in your ankles and feet when you get hot), heat syncope (sudden dizziness after exercising in the heat), heat cramps, and heat exhaustion.

Experts at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, say knowing which health-related factors may increase risk could save a life. Those factors include:

• Age-related changes to the skin such as poor blood circulation and inefficient sweat glands
• Heart, lung, and kidney diseases, as well as any illness that causes general weakness or fever
• High blood pressure or other conditions that require changes in diet, such as salt-restricted diets
• Reduced sweating, caused by medications such as diuretics, sedatives, tranquilizers, and certain heart and blood pressure drugs
• Taking several drugs for various conditions (It is important, however, to continue to take prescribed medication and discuss possible problems with a physician.)
• Being substantially overweight or underweight  
• Drinking alcoholic beverages
• Being dehydrated

Lifestyle factors can also increase risk, including extremely hot living quarters, lack of transportation, overdressing, visiting overcrowded places, and not understanding how to respond to weather conditions.