Summer's heat, as enjoyable as it may be, can also be a health hazard. It can lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and according to one study, more hospitalizations.
Five-year-old Victoria Poole knows that the heat can hurt. Earlier this summer, she began to feel unwell during a hot afternoon at an amusement park.
"My head started to hurt and when we got into the change room, I started to throw up," the tot recalls.
Her mother Barbara realized something was very wrong.
"She wasn't moving, she wasn't responding. She just seemed really, really tired and wanted to be lying down, didn't want to participate in any conversations with me -- really lethargic," she remembers.
Victoria was suffering from heat exhaustion and needed emergency infusions of fluid to bring her back.
At least two deaths in Ontario are linked to record high temperatures so far this year.
Parts of the U.S. are buckling under extreme heat. Two heat waves in southeastern Europe have broken records, killing hundreds of people.
When heat waves hit, many people end up in the hospital, particularly children and seniors. A new study from Italian researchers finds that the longer the heat wave lasts, the more new patients hospitals will see.
Researchers led by Dr. Giuseppe Mastrangelo of Italy's University of Padova tracked hospitalizations among people age 75 and older. They tracked admissions during five heat waves in Italy's Veneto region during 2002 and 2003.
"At least four consecutive hot, humid days were required to observe a major increase in hospital admissions," write Mastrangelo and colleagues.
For instance, elders' hospitalizations for heat-related conditions more than doubled and their hospitalizations for respiratory diseases rose by about 50 per cent when heat waves lasted for at least four days.
Heat waves that struck later in the summer didn't appear to lead to fewer hospitalizations than heat waves that hit earlier in the season, suggesting that, contrary to popular belief, people don't get used to the heat as the summer progresses.
Paramedics see the effects of heat all the time.
"Heat is a killer," says Toronto EMS worker Dean Shaddock. "It is actually the No. 1 weather-related killer. It kills more people than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods -- all those things put together. And it is more insidious in its impact on people and their health."
Dr. Nalin K. Ahluwalia of York Central Hospital says people with chronic conditions are most at risk.
"People who have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, even people with psychiatric problems have a deterioration of their conditions because of the heat," he notes.
Researchers predict more extreme heat because of climate change, boosting heat-related illness and deaths around the world, including here in Canada.
"If scientists are correct, we are going to see a greater number of heat days and heat waves and it will impact people and hospitalizations," says Ahluwalia.
Victoria Poole has learned her lesson: take heat seriously and drink plenty of fluids: "I don't want to be dehydrated so I am going to drink some water right now!"
With a report from CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
