{"id":11944,"date":"2025-06-24T23:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11944\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T23:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:07:09","slug":"exercising-or-playing-sports-in-extreme-heat-can-be-extremely-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11944\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercising or playing sports in extreme heat can be extremely dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Extreme heat makes it especially hard for your body to cool down, so you need to be extra careful if you exercise or play sports when it’s baking outside.<\/a><\/p>\n

Your brain tries to keep your body within a degree or two of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius), and it does so in part by triggering sweat. When sweat dries, it carries away heat from your body’s surface. <\/p>\n

When sweat can’t do its job \u2014 because your body is generating a lot of heat or it’s too hot<\/a> and humid to cool down \u2014 you are at risk of becoming dehydrated or even getting a heat-related illness such as heat exhaustion<\/a> or heat stroke<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The higher the temperature, the harder it is for the body to stay cool, but humidity plays a big role too. High humidity makes it feel hotter than the temperature because it makes sweating less effective. There’s so much water in the air already that it can’t take up much more \u2014 including the water in your sweat.<\/p>\n

The heat index, which factors in humidity and is included on many weather forecasts, provides a sense of how hot it really feels \u2014 and what’s dangerous for prolonged exposure or strenuous activity. <\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says people should start exercising \u201ccaution\u201d when the heat index reaches 80 to 90 degrees and \u201cextreme caution\u201d from 90 to 103 degrees. It labels everything over 103 \u201cdanger\u201d or \u201cextreme danger.”<\/p>\n

NOAA has a chart<\/a> that shows how the heat index is affected by humidity. For example, a day that is 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) can hit the \u201cdanger\u201d level with 70% humidity.<\/p>\n

If you want to exercise in the heat, here are some tips to say safe<\/a>, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Time your exercise and outdoor activities for the coolest parts of the day.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Try to exercise in the shade as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Take frequent breaks.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Drink lots of fluids, and limit drinks that are high in sugar, caffeine and alcohol. Don’t wait until your are thirsty to drink more. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Exercise with someone so you can check on each other, or pair up with a teammate. <\/p>\n

If you start to feel any of these symptoms, stop exercising, get to a cool place and seek medical care:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Muscle cramping or muscle weakness<\/p>\n

\u2014 Shortness of breath<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dizziness<\/p>\n

\u2014 Headaches<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nausea <\/p>\n

A common heat-related illness is heat exhaustion<\/a>, which can be marked by rapid heartbeat, fast breathing, headache, nausea and muscle weakness or cramping. <\/p>\n

It can develop into the more serious heat stroke, when your body can no longer control its temperature. Symptoms include confusion or slurred speech, seizures or even loss of consciousness.<\/p>\n

Heat also increases your risk for a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis<\/a>, which causes the rapid breakdown of muscles. If you think you or a fellow athlete are in danger, call 911, give them fluids \u2014 preferably water \u2014 and try to cool their bodies with cold water or cold compresses. ___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Extreme heat makes it especially hard for your body to cool down, so you need to be extra…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[12669,347,10106,1198,210,6330,3884,1165,12230,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-11944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-12669","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-healthy-eating","14":"tag-heat-waves","15":"tag-lifestyle","16":"tag-physical-fitness","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114740857745374068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}