Hot weather across much of the state has health officials issuing cautions. Stephanie Marquis with the state Department of Health Services reminds us to keep tabs on older neighbors and family members, and people with chronic health concerns. "Their medical condition can upset the body's normal responses to heat, or the medicines that they're taking can really impair the body's ability to regulate its temperature, or allow you to perspire."
Marquis says even healthy people need to take it easy, whenever there are sustained periods with temperatures above ninety degrees. "Construction workers outside, people that work in hot environments such as a bakery, or farmers or firefighters, people in factories, all of those people may be at risk as well" says Marquis, because they may not be paying attention to the heat.
Symptoms such as dry, hot skin, dizziness, nausea, headaches and chills all point to heat stroke , which requires immediate medical attention. The best advice is to stay someplace cool and shady, and if you have to be outdoors, drink plenty of water.
