June days are already scorching with heat, and ahead lies the whole summer and the long...
June days are already scorching with heat, and ahead lies the whole summer and the long‑awaited vacation season. But if for some the sun is joy and freedom, then for others it’s a serious challenge, first and foremost for people with cardiovascular diseases. A cardiologist, Associate Professor at the Department of Hospital Therapy and Endocrinology of the NSMU, Kamila Kholmatova, will remind you how to organise a summer holiday so that it is safe for people with heart and vascular pathologies. 🥵 Hot weather is hard to tolerate for almost all northerners who live in our region. Genetically, northerners are adapted to mild summer temperatures. Taking into account the high humidity, the heat can affect even the body of healthy people, provoking shortness of breath, rapid pulse, dizziness, a feeling of lack of air, chest tightness, etc. ❗ Temperature fluctuations can provoke a hypertensive crisis, heart rhythm disturbances, heart attack, or stroke. ❓ How can you protect yourself during the summer heat? 🔹 It is best to spend your holiday in familiar latitudes without a significant rise in temperatures during summer, and to avoid long flights. 🔹 Try to go outside in the morning or evening, avoiding direct sunlight. 🔹 Ventilate the room more often, use an air conditioner, but do not stand directly under it. 🔹 Wear light, bright, loose, breathable clothing made of natural fabrics and always wear a hat! 🔹 You can take a cool shower, apply a cold towel to the back of your head and neck. 🔹 If fatigue or shortness of breath appears, you need to rest in the shade, sit down or lie down. 🔹 Drink a sufficient amount of water. 🔹 It is necessary to eat in small portions, include more fresh vegetables and herbs in your diet. 🔹 Monitor your blood pressure, pulse, and weight. In case of suboptimal values, especially with blood pressure above 160/100 or below 100/60 mm Hg, pulse values above 90 or below 50 beats per minute at rest, an unscheduled consultation with your attending physician is recommended to optimise therapy! 🔹 If you live at a dacha/in a village and feel that your condition is worsening, it is better to leave for the city in advance, as calling emergency medical help to remote places in urgent situations can be difficult. The ambulance may simply not make it to you in time. ❌ What is not recommended? 🔹 It is strictly forbidden to consume alcohol and smoke. 🔹 To eat fatty, salty, spicy, very hot food. 🔹 Do not work in the blazing sun or in a greenhouse during summer heat. 🔹 Do not increase physical activity, work bent over for a long time. The optimal regime: 15–20 minutes of work and 20 minutes of break, while it is better to avoid heavy physical work. 🔹 It is not advisable to plan a trip to the market, trips on public transport or to the dacha during hot daytime hours. 🔹 Do not stay behind the wheel for a long time — in hot weather, reaction speed decreases and the risk of road accidents increases. 🔹 Elderly people are not recommended to use public transport if it is hot and stuffy inside. 🔹 Do not suddenly change the ambient temperature: do not plunge into icy water, do not use contrast showers, as this can provoke the development of life‑threatening arrhythmias. 🔹 Do not stop taking medications on your own without consulting a doctor when blood pressure and pulse readings are unstable. 🚑 What to do if someone feels unwell during the heat? 🔹 Move the affected person to the shade, unfasten tight‑fitting clothes, collar, tie, belt. 🔹 Splash water or wipe their face and chest with a damp towel. 🔹 If the affected person complains of chest pain, a feeling of heaviness or tightness, dizziness, “spots” before the eyes, palpitations or arrhythmia, deterioration of vision, speech, movements — it is necessary to call an ambulance. 🔹 Check whether the affected person has any medications recommended by healthcare professionals for such cases and help them take them.