Like every year when summer rolls around, there’s a laundry list of dos and don’ts to stay safe all season long.
This year, of course, is no different, but the recommendations by Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Associate Medical Doctor Sundeep Shukla can put to bed some question marks of how to be healthy in the summer sun.
It is always important to drink water throughout the day, but during the summer it is even more necessary to try and stay hydrated.
Shukla says water isn’t necessarily enough though. He recommends a sports drink of your choice. He suggests to drink a sports drink, full with the right sugars and salts to rehydrate a person, before going outside.
The emergency medical doctor says he’s seen an uptick in people coming into the hospital who are dehydrated lately. They sometimes say they thought they were hydrated, but water was not sufficient — especially if they’ve become overheated while in a place without air conditioning.
It is not just a marketing ploy: it is smart to buy new sunscreen every year.
Shukla says that sunscreen expires and often important to buy new sunscreen from year to year if you want to get the best out of the product.
He recommends anything from SPF 30 to 50 as a good way to protect against UVA and UVB rays. Shukla says SPF 50 will typically block up to 98 percent of UVB rays, and a similar percentage for UVA rays. Both rays are harmful to the skin, and Shukla advises to make sure that when you buy sunscreen that it says it covers for types of rays.
Meanwhile higher SPF’s work better, but aren’t necessarily the best use of your money, he says.
“You may not get bang for your buck if you get SPF 100 but I don’t discourage,” buying it, Shukla said.
Barbecues are prime places for a food illness to arise. What food? No, not undercooked hotdogs and hamburgers.
Rather Shukla he mostly sees people contract a food illness, like a Staph Infection, from eating pasta or potato salad that’s been left out too long under the sun.
“The potato salad is the one we see quite often,” Shukla said.
If you are enjoying a potato salad or something similar at a barbecue, he recommends to make sure to either have it served on ice or brought back into the refrigerator or a cooler shortly after serving it. Otherwise you risk having bacteria proliferate very easily in the dish.
Shukla suggests people refresh themselves with how to do CPR.
Recently it has been recommended by health professions to focus on hands-only CPR, instead of including the traditional mouth-to-mouth condition of it. Shukla says this is because the old technique was delaying maximum blood flow to the heart.
People should focus on conducting two inches compressions to the chest at a rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute (to the rhythm of a song like “Staying Alive” or “Gangnam Style”).
Fireworks may be fun, but proper safety procedures need to be followed, Shukla reminds.
He says people should make sure they have the right eye protection. Eyeglasses are not sufficient, because the sides are exposed. Sunglasses may be a cool look, but “it’s not cool when you have an eye injury,” Shukla said.
Wear goggles like you were sawing or doing other type of wood or metal work. Anything that protects the entire eye area is what is most recommended.
He suggests to keep children away from fireworks and to make sure a fire extinguisher is always on hand.
“These are things that are precautionary but people don’t necessarily think about it,” Shukla said.
As for lawn mowing, Shukla says to make sure people wear closed-toed shoes.
“I’ve seen people who are my friends who lawn mow with flip flops on and they’ve lost toes because of that reason,” Shukla said.
He also says if the lawn mower breaks down, it is not reccomended to try to restart it yourself. He says he sees people who have stuck their hand in to fix it, sometimes losing fingers, and while others may try to use a stick. Instead get help from a professional to play it safe.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264