WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN RUNNING OR JOGGING IN THE HEAT: BRUTAL CHICAGO MARATHON TEACHES PEOPLE EXERCISE STREET SMARTS
Forty five thousand people signed up to race in the Chicago Marathon 2007. Only 35,000 of the masses that had converged on Chicago from the four corners of the Earth actually started. As the wail of ambulance sirens filled the air it soon became apparent that this Marathon was going to be different. A new entrant in the Marathon would throw a wrench in the works. She was Mother Nature.
The October Marathoners were confronted by a record combination of heat and humidity for which many were not well prepared.
The Chicago Tribune wrote "As athletes work harder, blood that should be sent to the skin's surface to cool through sweating is instead used to keep the muscles working, said Mark Gorelick, assistant professor in San Francisco State's Department of Kinesiology. This leads the body to sacrifice its ability to reduce its core temperature". ( A doctor at a downtown ER said he had seen a Marathon patient with a core temperature of 107 degrees).
"There are three major heat illnesses: heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Dehydration is the main culprit".
"HEAT CRAMPS cause sharp, stabbing pain and muscle aches, said Terry Vanden Hoek, associate professor in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago.HEAT EXHAUSTION is characterized by dizziness, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headache and signs of confusion. When the body reaches the most severe level, HEATSTROKE, its cooling mechanism has shut down, Vanden Hoek said. The body temperature reaches 103 or 104 degrees, which can cause seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, cardiac arrest and death".
Trying to make up for lost body fluids during running people can actually over drink water and dilute their blood. This can result in HYPONATREMIA (low sodium level in the blood). The concentration of sodium in the blood falls below normal levels. This is called dilutional hyponatremia. Syptoms of hyponatremia include:
