Wellness Wednesday with Dr. Patrick Olivieri from the ER at Desert Springs

Joanna from iHeartRadio and Sunny 106.5 in Las Vegas talks with Dr. Patrick Olivieri about heat safety.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Wellness Wednesday on Sunny Window sixpoint five, sponsored by the Valley Health
System. On with me today isdoctor Patrick OLIVERI, the medical director for
the ER at Desert Springs and researchdirector for Emergency Medicine, and we'll be
talking about all things summer heat safetyon Wellness Wednesday today. Thank you so

(00:20):
much for being here, Thanks forhaving me join. I'm glad to be
here. How long you've been intown? So moved here in twenty seventeen
from New York and New Jersey,Okay, and I absolutely love it here.
It's a good community to work andlive in. Huh. It's incredible
passionate about taking care of the patientshere, and I'm very happy. I
love to hear that. And I'mglad to hear that you decided to stay
here in Las Vegas despite how hotwe can get compared to the East Coast.

(00:45):
So that's why we want to talkabout summer heat safety. You know,
we're about to get really hot,really fast here in Las Vegas.
What are some common signs and symptomsof heat related illness and how can individuals
recognize and respond to those effectively?Yeah, there's really two big entities that
are important for the public to beaware of acknowledge. The first one is

(01:06):
heat exhaustion. So you might havesome minor cramping, fatigue, headache,
dizziness, and this is typically builtup over a couple days of being outside
not drinking enough water. If youhave any of those symptoms, he wants
you to get out of the sun, get hydrated, stay cool, and
assess yourself for a couple minutes.Yeah, it's not bad to take a

(01:27):
break, right, Never bad totake a break. Yeah. It's hard
for people, i think sometimes toadmit that maybe they pushed it too far,
especially for those people who recently movedhere or recently up to their exercise
activity. It's really difficult absolutely.Now, what are those signs or symptoms
maybe of early heat related illness thatpeople could recognize or hopefully be able to

(01:48):
recognize in time to get treatment effectively. Here's the biggest thing to be aware
of. The difference between heat exhaustionand heat stroke is that confusion, altered
mental status, something else off.So instead of just feeling fatigued, the
loved one you're with is actually passingout. They're getting confused, they're not
making sense. That's a true medicalemergency. Don't overthink that. Yeah,

(02:12):
I mean, listen, there's gotto be a lot of tips for people
to stay hydrated, right, Imean here in Vegas, most people have
you know, water with them atall times. But besides you know,
just drinking water, any other practicaltips that people can kind of, you
know, implement to stay hydrated.Hydrated during the hot summer days is in
the best medicine we have is prevention. So avoiding the heat that dehydrates you

(02:35):
during the peak hours let's say tenam to four pm, wearing light,
loose fitting clothing. If you dohave long hair, keeping it away from
your neck so you can have thatradiant heat transfer. And then being aware
of what beverages you drink. Notall hydrations create the same. Sure,
caffeine and alcohol doesn't really count asmuch as you'd like it to. Sure,

(02:58):
sugar sweetened beverages like soda juices don'talways count the same as your sports
drinks and your waters. Right,I was gonna say, just because you
add ice to your coffee doesn't meanthat should be probably what you're drinking during
these hot summer months. Now,let's get back to water though, and
intake you know, how much watershould a person typically aim to drink to
prevent dehydration, especially during the peaksummer months. We'd say three quarters of

(03:21):
a gallon, which is about twelvecups of water a day. And that's
a little more than those eight cupsa day you hear most commonly online.
A lot of people don't know thedry heat in Vegas. It's not that
we don't sweat, it's that assoon as we sweat, it gets evaporated
into the desert. So we areconstantly, constantly losing fluids and that's incredibly
dangerous and incredibly uncomfortable. Yeah,definitely, And sometimes people don't realize they're

(03:46):
going through heat related illnesses until it'stoo late. Now, what are the
best practices you would suggest for protectingoneself from harmful UV rays while enjoying their
time outdoors here in Vegas this summer? You know, I think what you're
putting on your skin as a barrierprotection is incredibly important. Yeah. So
something that has both UVA and UVBOkay, you might see that written on

(04:10):
a bottle is broad spectrum protection.Okay. Good to know SPF fifteen or
SPF thirty above that the gains areminimal, But you want to apply to
your skin thirty minutes before you gooutside so it's fully covered and reapply often.
Good to know. So is ita myth in terms of the sps
seventy fives out there? Like thosedon't work double the time just because they're

(04:32):
a higher number, right, Yeah, absolutely not. Okay, there are
some very very minimal maybe ninety sevenpercent of raisor blocked with SPF thirty and
ninety eight percent or blocked with SPFfifty. Wow, you're not getting that
same return for your bucks if youjust put on whatever's at home, get
some sort of protection there, sure, and reapply they were off, that's

(04:55):
sure away, yep, and you'rejumping the pool to cool off, but
you need to reapply when you getout. Now, what can individuals ensure
in terms of their safety? Specifically, you know, vulnerable populations like the
elderly, young children, and evenpets during you know, periods of extreme
heat. So these are the populationsthat are most vulnerable. Let's look at

(05:15):
children. Now, children are shorter, they have more body surface area.
They're more like a baseball. Adultsare more like a bat, they're taller.
What that means these kids who arerunning around all the time. Is
they are losing sweat from most oftheir body. They're getting dehydrated very very
quickly. You need to protect themand you need to keep them hydra.
You need to keep them uncovered.You need to make sure they can stay

(05:38):
protected from the sun and get alot, a lot of fluids. Good
to know. That's as opposed toelderly patients who often have comorbidities. Maybe
their doctors have told them to limittheir salt or water intake. Okay,
and as we get above sixty five, we actually stop wanting to drink as
much naturally. Sure, being mindfulof your vulnerable family members, your vulnerable

(05:59):
neighbors, your loved ones doing franklya daily check in when it gets to
that triple digit temperatures is definitely reallyreally important. Yeah, No, had
to keep that in mind. Petsare part of the family. Yes,
they are hydrated, make sure they'rehappy. They're not going to drink too
much. Yeah, if you seethem drinking a lot, that's okay.
SPF for pets or no, youknow, no, they have their natural

(06:20):
protection. Good to know. No, what are some practical tips for recognizing
early signs of heat exhaustion or heatstroke, and what immediate action should be
taken if someone is starting to showthose symptoms. You know, I don't
want people to get stressed about tryingto help their family members and loved ones.
If the person you're with doesn't lookright, they look off, bring

(06:42):
to the hospital. There are medicinesthat interact with the heat and dehydration in
ways that we're going to check forpatients who are elderly can get UTIs and
heat exhaustion. It's hard to tellwhat their fever and temperature is really from.
Okay, So if they don't lookright, bring them to the er
in the hospital. If you dowant to help differentiate heat exhaustion and heat

(07:03):
stroke, it's that confusion, seemingoff, seeming confused, passing out that's
the precursor to the seizures, thetrue strokes, and the medical emergencies that
unfortunately kill over one thousand people ayear in the US. Wow is it
that high? Yeah? And it'syou know, people aren't having these emergencies

(07:24):
in December, January, February,right for those hottest one hundred and thirty
days, we're looking at ten peoplea day. Wow, Yeah, that
number is way too high. Now, one other question I have is here
in the valley. You know,we love Las Vegas because it's a twenty
four hour town, Lots to do, lots of fun to be had.
You know, any tips for peoplewho are out there, you know,

(07:46):
celebrating this summer or anything else tokeep top of mind when it comes to,
you know, protecting themselves against heatrelated illnesses. Now, prevention is
the best thing we have here.So once you're already trying to recognize heat
stroke, it's good to do,but there was such an opportunity before that
be boring for lack of better words. Yeah, water, have that ice,

(08:07):
take breaks from the sun if youhave to be outside, have a
buddy system, especially for your olderloved ones, your for the young kids,
watch out, check in often.It's good for our social relationships,
it's good for our health. Butit's all about prevention this summer. Absolutely
well, thank you so much forthe information this week on Wellness Wednesday in

(08:28):
terms of summer heat safety. Anythingelse you want to remind the Las Vegas
Valley about headed into these really hotmonths this summer, do your best to
prevent these emergencies. But ori eersare open twenty four to seven. So,
if you're worried about an emergency chestpain, confusion, stroke, please
come in. We want to takecare of you, we want to make
sure you're okay. So again,open twenty four to seven if you're worried