Are you under heat stress?

HAVING BOUTS of irritation? Can?t focus on your work? Feeling mental fatigue and exhaustion? Yes! Then you may be suffering from heat stress, which, doctors say, increases in hot and humid conditions.

HAVING BOUTS of irritation? Can’t focus on your work? Feeling mental fatigue and exhaustion?

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Yes! Then you may be suffering from heat stress, which, doctors say, increases in hot and humid conditions.

“Most people feel comfortable at air temperature changes ranging between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. When the air temperature or humidity gets higher, people feel uncomfortable. Such situations do not cause harm as long as the body can adjust to the extra heat. However, very hot conditions can lead to a variety of serious mental and physical problems,” says Dr Malay Singh, of Era Medical College.

Water is the best medium to keep the body temperature in the optimum range, whatever be the season. “Both in summer and during winter, body temperature can be balanced with a proper intake of water,” says Dr Vinod Jain of the General Surgery Department at KGMU.

Increased irritability, lack of concentration, loss of efficiency in mental task and fatigue and threat of exhaustion are some of the problem that could surround you.

“One must pay proper attention to the temperature in the surrounding.

Adequate water balance is as essential as a balanced diet for your body and in summer and monsoon particularly,” Dr Jain said.

The main source of heat gain is the body’s own internal heat. Called metabolic heat, it is generated within the body by the biochemical processes that “keep us alive and by the energy we use in physical activity.” The body exchanges heat with its surroundings mainly through radiation, breathing, and evaporation of sweat.