Summer Days

Prelude and some backstories
Well, Summer is here. Most of us have very fond memories of those reckless childhood days. Obviously we didn’t tan our bodies, while basking in the hot singing sun rays or did not run behind our dates in some beach, we did not get access to a boat or yacht either, but we managed to do a lot of fun activities. Couple of those activities include reading comics, playing gully cricket, drinking water from earthenware, sipping banta and playing with that round marble, drinking rasna, watching tv, swimming in the pond/river, enjoying the afternoon rain etc.

As you all know, I am a bit bhabuk (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/hi...) type guy 🐒🐒🐒. I spent those days mostly by reading books and by watching the way environment around me changed. I can remember vividly the way mountains in the far changed changed shades from grey (winter) to light green (thanks to autumn prior to ). Some afternoon there will be this raging Kala Baishakhis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norw...rs), and heavy rainfall would continue till 6-7PM. I can vividly the way lightnings lighted the dark surrounding as if it were day light. Sometime there would be hailstorms and big icy hailstones will fall. I will be like, how come sky managed to get a refrigerator. I hated power cuts at those time, and we had to light little kerosene lanterns, yet I miss those things. 15 nights in a month (Full Moon – New Moon) will be pitch blacker and starrier every day until new moon, and rest 15 days (Full moon- New Moons) would sprinkle more and more silver powders everywhere. I would walk to my home on a road covered in white silver dust thanks to moon or lit by my lil torchlight piercing the night. Yes, I was very much interested in buying Alpenlibe candies, because it gave glowing tattoos on every purchase. And we would have mangoes, not like this solid mangoes. We had these very juicy mangoes. All you need to cut the blackened stem and slurp the juice inside. Where I lived, water melons were a royalty. And we would get bored of such mangoes. Who would have known that I will miss them in future. There was a tube well and we carried water to our home by filling buckets. Metal handle will be hot like anything and ground water was warm, well colder than ambient temperature(it easily crossed 43-44 degree). It was a bit of torture to pump the handle to fill the bucket. When I was in 4th standard, one day I had spent an afternoon in our drawing room. And I had caught some sort of sun stroke may be. The following night was a nightmare for everyday. Every evening I walked with my father and couple of stray dogs. I would hold a stick freshly cut from amarpoi tree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalanchoe_p...ta). My left hand’s fingers would be in my father’s clutch and my right hand would hold the stick. The other end of the stick would be in mouth of my favorite dog (Dhali Kali(because she was of black (kala) and white(dhala) color)). That was a strange trio of ours, but we were joined by other siblings of Dhali Kali. And we would go to some Pan Shop (beetle shop). My father would couple of pans for himself and my mother. The kind Pan Wala would give me some candied papayas or cherries.

expresses my thoughts right now perfectly. And just like that summer days will be gone. Those were some days. 🙂

Please talk about how did you spend your summer days, when you were a kid

Actual Topic
Well, let’s talk about couple of important things. Heat and summer days walk hand in hand, at least in most places of India. Let’s remember couple of important things.

Dos
1) Remember to hydrate yourself. Maintain electrolyte level.
2) Take proper diet before workout.
3) Eat watermelons, mangoes and other seasonal fruit.
3) Use Sun Glasses and Sun Screen (read the myths https://www.chatelaine.com/health/sunscreen-myt...)
4) Use Umbrellas
5) Help local fruit sellers
6) If you are sweating, don’t remove your soaked clothes. Sweat will evaporate and it feels like heaven when breeze blows.
7) Don’t deny water to anybody
8) Please give water, food and shelter(if possible) to stray animals

Don’ts
1) Avoid working out in the morning after waking up. You will wake up in an empty stomach. You will need to hydrate and eat your breakfast.
2) Avoid caffeinated carbonated drinks. They pump sugar to the body. Sugar rush is a real thing https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/heres-how-sug..., and they act as a diuretic.
3) Avoid caffeinated drinks (tea, coffee, energy drinks etc)
4) Avoid going out in afternoon if possible. Otherwise never forget sunglasses, umbrella and sunscreen. (Don’t forget your mask though 🐒🐒🐒)
5) Avoid spicy food.
6) Avoid hard to digest foods (e.g. nuts)
7) Avoid cooking in the afternoon (between 12PM – 3 PM)
8) Don’t wear dark and heavy clothes
9) Don’t play in vicinity of any dams/deep water bodies. Sometime people misjudge depth and they panic. Sometimes dams release water. So, at least pay heed to their sirens and warnings.

Sunstroke Treatment
I am not a doctor or any personnel from health department. If health professionals from DD @mas143forever @JassuBhai @marketdimer @drjpatwa @batguy143 @MSDfan can shade some lights on this matter then it would be really really great. 🙂🙂🙂 I will just copy paste some points from some health related sites, which most people know already but let’s fact check those things. 🙏🙏🙏

Symptoms
Throbbing headache, Dizziness and light-headedness, Lack of sweating despite the heat, (Red, hot, and dry skin), Muscle weakness or cramps, Nausea and vomiting, Rapid heartbeat, which may be either strong or weak, (Rapid, shallow breathing), (Behavioral changes such as confusion, disorientation, or staggering Seizures), Unconsciousness (Copied from https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/heat-stroke...)

The inability to sweat and initiate evaporative heat loss leads to increase in core body temperature. (Heat exhaustion is associated with fatigue, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, malaise, hypotension and tachycardia and signs of dehydration with core temperature varying from 37 °C to 39 °C. Infants and newborns may be too hot to touch and drowsy during the day and older children (having played outdoors) may be brought by their parents with adult-like complaints. Unless rehydration is initiated and intravascular volume corrected, it can progressively worsen leading to heatstroke.
Other milder manifestations of heat-related stress are heat cramps and heat syncope. Heat cramps (painful and spasmodic contractions of the skeletal muscles) occur in individuals who are doing heavy muscular work in high temperature and humidity due to loss of circulatory sodium and chloride. Heat syncope occurs when standing in the sun due to vasodilatation and pooling of blood in lower limbs leading to reduced cardiac output and is common among armed forces, police personnel and school students.) (entire thing in the brackets is copied from http://www.nmji.in/article.asp?issn=0970-258X;y...).

Potentially Vulnerable People
Outdoor workers such as vegetable vendors, auto repair mechanics, drivers of bicycle rickshaws, autorickshaws and cabs, self-employed artisans, wage labourers, construction workers, police personnel and roadside kiosk operators, are somewhat susceptible, but usually take care of themselves and avoid a heatstroke.
Those especially vulnerable to heatstroke are: (The elderly, children especially infants, and pregnant women), (Patients on drugs such as diuretics, vasoconstrictors, beta- blockers, anticholinergics, calcium channel blockers, thyroxine, benzodiazepines, antipsychotic drugs), (Patients admitted with fever, chronic cardiac, respiratory and neurological illnesses, history of alcohol abuse, presence of skin diseases which impair sweating), (Heatstroke can be superimposed on other illnesses such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI) and alcohol withdrawal) , (Individuals not physiologically adapted and not systematically prepared for heat but exposed unexpectedly to high ambient temperatures are especially vulnerable. For example, summer tourists, those who had to walk or stand in a queue unexpectedly in the hot sun, inexperienced sportsperson participating in social sports events especially in hot weather.)
Above two paras are copied from http://www.nmji.in/article.asp?issn=0970-258X;y...

First Aid for Sun Stroke
1) Take the affected person to a cool shady place, remove unnecessary clothings
2) Fan air and use ice. Put couple of ice in a poly bag and use the ice pack on arm pits, groin area, neck and back. Do not use ice for older patients, young children, patients with chronic illness, or anyone whose heat stroke occurred without vigorous exercise. Doing so can be dangerous
3) Consult hospital/ health professional immediately (Source for points under First Aid for Sun Stroke is: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/heat-stroke...)

Couple things that might prevent sunstroke https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/...

By @JassuBhai 🙂
“Keep you body adequately hydrated, with coconut water, nimbu shikanji (lemonade), kerry panna (कैरी की छाछ कहते हैं शायद). Seasonal fruits should be taken, but as fresh only. Avoid consuming cut pieces of fruits road-side.
• Diarrhoea and vomitting are very common. Avoid street food and take freshly cooked food. Curd is very good add-on to keep your gut healthy. For diarrhoea, ORS is the primary treatment. To make it at home, boil and then cool 1 ltr water to room temperature and then add 6 table spoon sugar, 1 table spoon salt to it. Rice water, unsweetened yogurt are good options too. Avoid sweetened fruit juice/soft drinks/tea during the diarrhoea.
• Don’t do heavy workout in hot environment as it will make you sweat a lot and will lead to excessive electrolytes loss, eventually resulting in muscle cramps. Again, ORS comes handy in these situations. Intravenous saline is the choice for worsening cases.
• Another condition that can occur is – Heat collapse/Syncope, when the person collapses without increase in body temperature. It is preceded by exposure to excessive heat and unsuitable clothings. Face becomes pale, colder skin. Put the patients to rest and they mostly recover. But, take opinion from a doctor as it can result in heart failure too.
• Third condition is heat stroke, where there is absence of sweating but the core temperature reaches over 41°C. This is a emergency. Predisposing factors are high temperature and humidity and the person show sudden onset of symptoms, such as headache/vomitting/mental confusion/muscle cramps/restlessness/thirst, rapid pulse, neurological disturbances like psychosis, convulsions, even coma. One can try removing the clothes of patient, sprinkle the water and blow rapid air with fan so that the core body temperature starts to come low by evaporation effect. (Remember, heat stroke is an emergency, rush to hospital without any delay).”