Let’s talk about two things that will ruin a perfectly good summer
day faster than a sudden thunderstorm: heat rash and sunburn. One
is a prickly little nuisance. The other is a fiery betrayal of your own good sense.
Both are avoidable. Both will make you miserable. And both are very, very funny
in retrospect (but not at 2:00 AM when you can’t stop scratching).

Heat Rash (a.k.a. Prickly Heat)

You’ve been outside. It’s humid. You’re wearing that nice cotton
shirt, but the collar is a little snug. Or you’ve been sitting in your favorite
patio chair with the plastic weave that doesn’t breathe. Later, you notice a patch
of tiny red bumps on your neck, your chest, or inside your elbows. It itches. It
prickles. It feels like a thousand ants having a very aggressive meeting on your
skin.

That’s heat rash. It happens when sweat ducts get clogged. The
sweat can’t get out, so it backs up under the skin and causes inflammation. Your
body’s cooling system has a traffic jam.

The cure (and it’s easy):

• Get
  cool and dry. Go inside. Air conditioning is your best friend. A fan helps
  too.
• Take
  a cool shower and pat dry (don’t rub, rubbing makes it angrier).
• Wear
  loose, breathable clothing. Cotton and linen are your summer superheroes.
  Polyester is the villain.
• Do NOT
  use heavy creams or ointments. They’ll clog the ducts more. Calamine lotion
  or a light hydrocortisone cream (the 1% stuff) can help with itching, but ask
  your pharmacist first.
• Stay
  out of the heat until the rash fades. Usually 24 to 48 hours.

Heat rash is annoying, but it’s not dangerous. Consider it your
body’s passive-aggressive way of saying, “You should have gone inside an hour ago,
Doris.”

Sunburn (The One You Really Want to Avoid)

Ah, sunburn. The great equalizer. You think, “I’ll just be out
for twenty minutes.” Twenty minutes turns into two hours because the neighbor started
telling you about their grandson’s orthodontia. And now you look like a lobster
that went to a tanning salon.

Here’s the thing about sun exposure as a senior. Your skin is
thinner. It’s been through a lot, decades of birthdays, gravity, and that one unfortunate
tanning oil incident in 1975. It heals more slowly now. And sunburn isn’t just painful;
it’s a genuine injury. It raises your risk of skin infections, dehydration, and
even heat exhaustion because your skin loses its ability to regulate temperature
when it’s fried.

So let’s prevent it with three absurdly simple rules:

1. Sunscreen
   isn’t optional. SPF 30 or higher. Broad spectrum. Put it on thirty minutes
   before you go out. Reapply every two hours, or immediately after sweating or
   swimming. Yes, it’s annoying. Yes, it smells like a coconut factory. Do it
   anyway.
2. The
   sun is meanest between 10 AM and 4 PM. That’s when it’s directly overhead,
   laughing at your floppy hat. If you can garden or walk before 10 AM or after
   4 PM, you’ll get the same fresh air with about half the UV damage.
3. Cover
   up like you’re going to rob a bank. Wide-brimmed hat. Long sleeves made
   of lightweight, light-colored fabric. Sunglasses (your eyes can get sunburned
   too, yes, really). There’s a reason people in hot climates have worn robes
   for thousands of years. Shade is power.

If you do get burned (because we all slip up sometimes):

• Cool baths
  or cool compresses. No ice directly on the skin.
• Aloe vera
  gel. Keep it in the fridge for extra soothing.
• Drink extra
  water. Sunburn pulls fluid to the skin’s surface, leaving the rest of you dehydrated.
• Ibuprofen
  can help with pain and inflammation.
• If you
  get blisters, don’t pop them. That’s a bandage your body made. And if you have
  fever, chills, or feel nauseous, call your doctor.

A little prevention keeps the Dog Days from turning into the
“Why Did I Do That Days.” Be smarter than Sirius. Slather on that sunscreen. Your
future self, the un-lobstered, non-itchy one, will thank you.

Originally Published on https://boomersnotsenior.blogspot.com/

Royce Shook Blogger

I served as a teacher, a teacher on Call, a Department Head, a District Curriculum, Specialist, a Program Coordinator, and a Provincial Curriculum Coordinator over a forty year career. In addition, I was the Department Head for Curriculum and Instruction, as well as a professor both online and in person at the University of Phoenix (Canada) from 2000-2010.

I also worked with Special Needs students. I gave workshops on curriculum development and staff training before I fully retired