While sitting in my east dorm room with one tiny fan, sweat dripping down my face, and temperatures reaching 90 degrees, I started to think about this September heat. When will it end? It feels torturous and I started to question the effect it is taking on my health. The heat often makes me feel more tired and lazy. The question then is whether it is healthy to feel this way as we are sweating more and burning more energy or if this is unhealthy to be exposed to such heat. Does this weather also affect how we work, learn and function as well?
Many people can develop illness from the heat including heat stroke, heat exhaustion and heat rash. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety states that overly hot environments can “cause health problems and may affect performance.” Heat can increase irritability, lessen concentration and ability to do mental tasks, as well as lessen the ability to do skilled tasks or heavy works.
Extreme heat can lead to even more negative effects on the body. If the body is affected by extreme heat it can lose body fluids through sweat and can lead to your body pumping too much blood to release this heat rather than working to keep the body functioning properly. This can eventually lead to extreme health risks. Here is some more info on the heat effects on humans. There are many ways to stay healthy through this exhausting heat. It is very important to stay cool and hydrated. Here is more info on what you can do to stay healthy in the heat.
Aside from health risks on the body, it was found that “aggressive crimes of all kinds soar with the heat” and accidents and suicide attempts increased as the heat increased. This puts all people at risk of various kinds when the weather is in high heat. High temperatures were also found to increase hospital admissions for diabetes, urinary tract diseases, kidney stones, and respiratory ailments.
With all of these factors in mind, it seems as though we should take more consideration into the weather and its affect on our health. As college students, staying focused and getting good grades is one of our top priorities but the heat seems to be slowing us down. We should look to invest into more air conditioning in the residence halls and classrooms. Heck, maybe they should even consider canceling class with all of these side effects to high temperatures!
This heat is brutal! The past few days I have spent more time feeling dizzy and gross in my own room than I am outside in the sunlight. The heat makes me irritable and it inhibits my ability to focus. It is no surprise to me that heat has such negative effects on the body. Heat can cause serious, potentially deadly problems and it surprising that the university, by not keeping dorms cool, risks the serious decline and harm of their students. As you said hydration is key, but even if someone is perfectly hydrated, extreme heat can still be catastrophic.
Thanks for your response! We need to find ways to help us ignore the heat and get rid of it as much as we can so we can perform well in and outside of class. We often just deal with it because there isn’t much else you can do about it but it definitely takes a toll on our health and safety.
I have always noticed that I become EXTREMELY irritable when it is hot out. I get extra tired, have little motivation to do things, and am annoyed more easily than I already am. While I am glad other people feel the same pain as me, it is clear that heat can be an extreme problem. You never hear news anchors say “it is too cold; don’t leave your house today if you don’t have to!” However, they say something similar to this when it becomes extremely hot out. I think that the research you found is very interesting, especially relating to diabetes, UTI’s and kidney stones. I have learned in previous classes that there is a correlation between ice cream and murder rates. Clearly eating ice cream does not cause an individual to want to kill someone else, however, ice cream sales go up in the summer, just like murder rates. My guess would be that it is because the heat makes us more irritable, and brings out different reactions in the body.