A new Stanford study found older adults can face heat beyond their bodies’ ability to cope at far lower temperatures than younger people as the planet warms
I’m normally quite good at listening to my body’s signs, but I can’t deal with heat at all. I don’t know if it comes on too quickly for me to adjust or if I’m just not built for it (all of my ancestors came from a cold, wet rock).
When I try to build up my heat tolerance, I run into a delayed onset of symptoms, which makes it hard not to overdo it. I’ll feel mostly fine until I go to eat my next meal, then I have zero appetite (which can last for hours to days, so I can’t just fast). I try eating melons, cucumbers, citrus, and drinking a lot of water, which appears to work for preventing dehydration, but it doesn’t work to provoke hunger. If I force something more substantial down anyway, I puke. If I just eat what I can when I can (I eat mostly at night in the summer), I lose too much weight.
Can you explain what signs exactly you look for that tell you you need to take a break/slow down?
Genetics certainly play a factor. Looking at other places genetics play a major role though, it doesn’t seem to be more limiting than fractions of a percentage point at the top of the best performers.
Epigenetics certainly plays a much bigger factor. The most important pieces of information being what your parents were exposed to and what you were exposed to at a young age.
You might just be an outlier too. This can happen no matter where or who you are.
It’s going to be very hard to acclimate yourself to heat if you can’t feel or sense when you are reaching your limit. Do you have trouble sensing when you are thirsty or hungry?
Like, will you think “I’m a little thirsty” but then when you get the water to your lips your body takes over and you ravenously gulp down the whole thing? Do you get tired or angry because you are hungry, without feeling hunger pains? Do you sweat excessively or too little compared to others?
I’m normally quite good at listening to my body’s signs, but I can’t deal with heat at all. I don’t know if it comes on too quickly for me to adjust or if I’m just not built for it (all of my ancestors came from a cold, wet rock).
When I try to build up my heat tolerance, I run into a delayed onset of symptoms, which makes it hard not to overdo it. I’ll feel mostly fine until I go to eat my next meal, then I have zero appetite (which can last for hours to days, so I can’t just fast). I try eating melons, cucumbers, citrus, and drinking a lot of water, which appears to work for preventing dehydration, but it doesn’t work to provoke hunger. If I force something more substantial down anyway, I puke. If I just eat what I can when I can (I eat mostly at night in the summer), I lose too much weight.
Can you explain what signs exactly you look for that tell you you need to take a break/slow down?
Genetics certainly play a factor. Looking at other places genetics play a major role though, it doesn’t seem to be more limiting than fractions of a percentage point at the top of the best performers.
Epigenetics certainly plays a much bigger factor. The most important pieces of information being what your parents were exposed to and what you were exposed to at a young age.
You might just be an outlier too. This can happen no matter where or who you are.
It’s going to be very hard to acclimate yourself to heat if you can’t feel or sense when you are reaching your limit. Do you have trouble sensing when you are thirsty or hungry?
Like, will you think “I’m a little thirsty” but then when you get the water to your lips your body takes over and you ravenously gulp down the whole thing? Do you get tired or angry because you are hungry, without feeling hunger pains? Do you sweat excessively or too little compared to others?
I remember that video had quite a lot of good information https://youtu.be/B3bBvPXPCyg?is=ZGU06vzwgrQX6udo (farmers ways of dealing with heat stress)