Heat Illness and Hiking

When hiking in extreme heat, like this past weekend, remember to:

Take many breaks!
Drinks lots of water!
Eat!

I learned a good lesson this past weekend after being overcome with heat exhaustion. It is not something I never wish to go through again and thankfully I was with a great group who all helped me deal with my situtation. I just thought I would bring this up as the warm weather has finally arrived.

Anyone else have any tips or recommendations on how to avoid this potentially life threatening illness?

-MEB

MEB said:

Take many breaks!
Drinks lots of water!
Eat!
-MEB

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I'm no expert but I would say the above things are good and
make sure you replace the salts your body loses.

The heat can really wipe me out though. I drank a lot of liquids and ate during the F'ing day yesterday and still, when I went to the gym I was wiped out and dehydrated. The heat just zaps my energy. I still take chicken soup with me regardless of how hot the weather gets. And lots of water.


-Dr. Wu

I had the same experience this weekend, and rest in the shade is what finally helped me feel better. I didn't have any gatorade with me, but some easily digestible food helped wonders. A frozen water bottle isn't bad either.

Slow down your pace, start earlier in the morning, don't bite off as big a hike as you are used to, stop and take more pictures.

-dave-

I was in the same situation several years ago, MEB. Very hot day, heavy pack, long hike, inadequate hydration, inadequate electrolyte replacement all led to my being overcome. My brother carried my pack as well as his the remainder of the day as I struggled to keep up. I only recovered after drinking over 2 liters of liquid and taking a 2 hour nap.

Now I use a hydration bladder, snack regularly, drink gatorade and have a much lighter pack. Freeze your hydration bladder, it'll melt fast enough for you to drink and will cool your core down. Wetting down a bandana and putting it on my head and neck during this kind of weather helps too. Even soaking down a shirt and putting it on will cool you off considerably if you're overheating too fast. It kind of supplements the cooling action of the evaporation of your own sweat. If it's too hot, slow the pace down, take breaks, stick your head or more of you in a stream and stay in the shade as much as you can.

I recently had an extemely bad experience, and was barely able to get down under my own power. I am now a gatorade believer.

If you are taking diuretics (certain blood pressure medications, for example), you need to be particularly careful about your fluid and sodium intake while engaged in vigorous exercise.

Steve

i was sure feeling the heat yesterday-read my report about it-. I was feeling very woozie the last 3 miles down the mountain, my face felt hot, and i wasn't very hungry. when i got to the parking lot, i drank 3/4 gallon of water, went for a swim at the pond, and then ate 1/2 a large pizza at the millinocket house of pizza. after all that my body snapped back into normal mode, and i felt great. i think it must have been the pizza that pulled me back.

MEB...How did you deal with your episode? Did you have any sympoms early on? Did it incapacitate you for a period of time? This might be very useful info in the event any of us inadvertenly get into the same predicament. It looks like it's going to be a long hot one.
Prevention is always a good thing but I think sometime it creeps up on you before you fully appreciate what's happening.
I always seem to think lots about hypothermia but don't give hyperthemia the same consideration.
Hiking with dogs has kept me a lot more aware because I think the overheat so much faster than we do.

Signs and symptoms of various stages of thermal illness arehere . Take it easy out there!

Heat

HI Everyone -
A lot of us were in the same boat/mountain this past weekend. While I am one who drinks a ton (upwards of 5-6 liters on real hot day of hiking) I found that this was not enough this past Saturday on Isolation. I was fine the entire way out, but as I often find on hot days not enough of the food I have with me interests me. I ate maybe half of a bagel and one handful of M an Ms on the summit for lunch. As we were returning, just after the last crossing of the Rocky Branch I started to get a real bad headache. I pushed on for a few minutes and had to stop. I forced my self to eat a little, drink a lot and swallow some aspirin.
I fully agree with the comments regarding salt and electolyte replacement. I always quaff large amounts of diluted Gatorade after hiking but usually avoid it during my hikes. I am going to change this pattern immediately on my next trip. I know I was not dehydrated, and I certainly had enough calories, but I am sure I could have used more...Thankfully, my rest stop did the trick and hte headache went away and we got back to the trailhead OK.

Coffee is a diuretic so you might cut that out.

I rarely use salt aside from tequila but on summer hikes I'll use it at breakfast and make my trail mix with salted peanuts in lieu of unsalted or lightly salted.

Soaking that bandana in cool streams also helps .

Maddy- I had felt ok for most of the day. We took a long break at Horns Pond and swam there. It was the next section that my stomach started to feel really upset. I was still sweating and thought I had been drinking enough liquids through out the day. I slowed my pace down and we fianlly reached the camp site. With a lot of help I got my tent up and refilled water bottles and then went into my tent to rest. After about a half hour I was vomiting...not fun. I felt a bit better after that and then went back to rest more....then I got really scared as I started to shake all over. This is something I would never want to go through alone!

After talking with who I thought was a caretaker he said that I was not going to get any worse as long as I contined to drink fluids and rest I should start to feel better. He was right and within a few hours I was starting to feel better.

The next day we still had a long way to go and I had a few bail-out options but I was feeling better and really took my time.

sapblatt said:

I fully agree with the comments regarding salt and electolyte replacement. I always quaff large amounts of diluted Gatorade after hiking but usually avoid it during my hikes.

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Diluted Gatorade is key! I've heard your body absorbs it better, but what I've noticed is that I don't feel bloated in my stomach when drinking it watered down and my thirst is still quenched and my energy level is still picked up. I buy the mix, since its much cheaper, and use half the amount they say to use (1.5 scoops per liter as opposed to 3).

Count me as another who suffered heat exhaustion this weekend. All the above suggestions are good. I felt fine right up to the point when I got sick. From then on it was slooow going to get out. Nausea and leg cramps were my worst symptoms.

As I have posted previously, I make my own electrolyte drink. Cheap and does the job. Even if I don't think that I will need it, I bring a small plastic bottle of Morton Lite Salt along on my hikes. If I end up sweating more than expected, I can add some to my water. (Morton Lite salt contains soduim and potassium--the most important components of most electrolyte drinks.)

Link to electrolyte drink recipe:
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showpost.php?p=54650&postcount=21

There is additional useful info in the thread:
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4914&page=2&pp=15&highlight=long+distance+nutrition

If the link does not work, search on "long distance nutrition".

While this recipe works for me, some others have reported that they need to add calcium and magnesiuim. (Both are in Gookinaid--see the ingredients list in the recipe post.)

(Apologies to those who have seen this before, but this issue seems to come up pretty often.)

Doug

I bring diluted Gatorade with me, but found out it really doesn't contain much (if any) sodium and potassium. So, I've started to bring a few servings of potato chips and one serving of V8 (together, they supply about 50% of the RDA). Surprisingly, potato chips supply a good amount of sodium AND potassium. The thicker the better... I use Kettle Chips brand. The relative percentages are perfectly balanced with a serving of V8.

V8 juice and potatoe chips are a great idea! I'm going out into the blast furnace either tommorow or thurs. and thought I'd wear my heart rate monitor. Unusually high heart rates relative to level of exertion may be a presymptomatic indicator of potential trouble.
FWIW I go running in the heat and allthough I doubt it toughens me up physiologically it does teach me what I can handle as far as exerting myself.

I have found that my hot water hiking is much more tolerable with a Camelback. (Caveat: I'm not a salesman and I don't play one of TV.) Constant small sips seems to work so much better for me than stopping every half hour or so and taking a bunch of large gulps. When I mix up Gatorade or Gookinade I mix it 2/3 to full strength. I rarely ever use straight water.

I think that the susceptibility of heat related problems is a combination of personal physiology and how you manage your fluids. A combination of luck and smarts can help in this kind of situation. And remember, what works for me may not work for you. You have to do some experimenting on your own.

Another thought on this subject is the application of sun screen and/or bug spray/lotion. I am wondering if either one of these will block pores and inhibit cooling. Anyone have any information on this?

JohnL

MEB said:

Anyone else have any tips or recommendations on how to avoid this potentially life threatening illness?

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Some of these have already been mentioned. I'll try to keep a slow pace so I don't overheat, wear a wet bandanna on my head for evaporative cooling, and drink small amounts of water frequently. I've also learned that I overheat when wearing polyester, so now I wear Merino wool T-shirts in hot weather.

camelback bladder

I took my daughter on our first Views and Brews trip over the Brooklyn Bridge...city temps were 92-96 on the bridge it was a little breezy....I kept telling my daughter (9) to keep drinking, she used a 2L camelback....later that night I emptied it out and discovered she drank app 1L....I think she should have drank more...problem with the camelback, you don't know how much you drank or what is left over while your walking....I think I'll have her use small nalgenes so i can moniter her...on the other hand if that's all she drank then i guess it was ok with her...I did tell her that if she finished it I had another bottle for her.

FWIW I go running in the heat and allthough I doubt it toughens me up physiologically it does teach me what I can handle as far as exerting myself.

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I thought so too until this past weekend!

Another thought on this subject is the application of sun screen and/or bug spray/lotion. I am wondering if either one of these will block pores and inhibit cooling. Anyone have any information on this?

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I wondered this as well since I use bug dope about once a year and Saturday was my once and I ended up sick. Could be coincidence but I'm curious about what related info might be out there.