Tips for helping older adults prevent heat-related illness and injuries
During hot summer months, everyone should take care to protect themselves from heat-related illnesses and injuries. During this time, our elderly loved-ones, friends and neighbors (people age 65 and older) are more susceptible to heat-related illnesses and injuries, because:
- Elderly people do not adjust as well as young people to sudden changes in temperature.
- They are more likely to have a chronic medical condition that upsets normal body responses to heat.
- They are more likely to take prescription medicines that impair the body's ability to regulate its temperature or that inhibit perspiration.