Dr. Robert Meade: Health Dangers from Rising Heat

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Robert Meade, an expert in thermal physiology, discuss the dangers posed to human health by the rising heat. Dr Meade explains that extreme heat is a combination of air temperature and humidity, which can strain the body's ability to regulate temperature. He notes that older adults and women may be more vulnerable to heat stress due to reduced sweating and cardiovascular function. They talk about the differences between heat stress and heat stroke and how to identify symptoms to keep an eye on if you are in a hot environment. The discussion highlights the challenges of accurately measuring heat-related deaths and the importance of adaptive strategies, such as cool roofs and reflective pavements, to mitigate heat stress. Dr. Meade also mentions an ongoing study in India on the heat stress experienced by informal workers.

 Key Takeaways:

• Heat stress is more than just temperature and humidity. Activity, clothing, location, and anything else that impedes and impacts the body can change the level of heat stress.

• What constitutes extreme heat will vary from person to person. 

• Evaporative cooling is impacted by humidity - it's much harder to evaporate fluid from the skin into the air when there's already a lot of moisture in the air.

• The impacts of heat on the body are difficult to correctly identify in hospitals or medical records.

"The response the body takes to help maintain safe internal body temperatures implicates many bodily systems. Heat has a kind of widespread cascading effects that are just really hard to correctly identify." —  Dr. Robert Meade

Connect with Dr. Robert Meade:

Professional Bio: https://hsph.harvard.edu/profile/robert-meade/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-meade-09536520a 

X: https://x.com/robertdmeade 

Connect with Therese:

Website: www.criticallyspeaking.net

Threads: @critically_speaking

Email: [email protected]

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