The summer season is upon us and it’s time to think about preventing dehydration and heat-related illness. Unfortunately, outdoor activities often place people at serious risk of dehydration.

Those most at risk include:

• Children: When summer vacation from school arrives, most children spend a great deal of time outdoors being active. Because children have a larger surface area in relation to body mass, they often gain heat faster than adults when the outside air temperature is higher than body temperature.

• Athletes and exercisers: People who spend hours training and competing in the hot summer sun often do not have an adequate intake of fluids to make up for the loss of fluids caused by their activities.

• Outdoor workers: Workers such as landscapers, construction crews, police officers, postal employees and others who spend most of their days in the heat often have little time for bathroom breaks or for drinking fluids. As a result these workers may not consume enough fluids during their workdays.

• Elderly people: There is a fine line between how heat affects most adults and how is can affect the elderly in a more profound way. It is extremely important for senior citizens to practice a gradual acclimatization to heat that puts emphasis on hydration.

Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration:

• Weakness, dizziness or extreme fatigue

• Dry lips and tongue

• Headache

• Nausea

• Muscle cramps

• Concentrated urine that appears darker than normal

Is Your Body Acclimatized to Heat?

“I’m used to the heat; it doesn’t affect me” That statement may seem like common sense; however, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to heat-related illness and dehydration.

How does one acclimatize their body to heat? It takes about 10 to 14 days of working or exercising in the heat for your body to adjust or become acclimatized. You should cut down on the intensity of your exercise or activity during these first days. Once your body is heat acclimatized, the amount of sweat you produce, and other total body fluid losses, increases because you sweat sooner and more than before you became acclimatized.

Drinking for Hydration

The best time to consume fluids is before you are thirsty -- by the time you are thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. It’s best to drink on a schedule when it is hot outside. Avoid drinks containing caffeine or alcohol while in the sun or heat. These types of drinks stimulate the production of urine, thereby promoting dehydration. The best drinks are water, or one of the many flavoured sports drinks that are on the market. Sports drinks help to replace some of the electrolytes you lose through sweat and provide carbohydrate energy to working muscle.

Adults need 17 to 20 ounces of fluid before beginning activity, as well as an additional 7 to 10 ounces every 10 to 20 minutes during activity. Your fluid needs don’t stop when your activity is over - you should consume 24 ounces of fluid within the first two hours after outdoor activity.

Children need four to eight ounces of fluid before beginning outdoor activities and five to nine ounces every 20 minutes while they are outside. Once kids return from outside play or activity, they also need to consume 24 ounces of fluids within the first two hours after they stopped their activities.

Did you know? One adult-size gulp of fluid equals one ounce of fluid, and one child-size gulp of fluid equals one-half ounce of fluid.

Follow these steps and ensure a safe and healthly summer.