This is officially the hottest summer in recorded history, probably the hottest in thousands of years. People live in hot climates but they are used to it. People also die in hot climates.
I will provide some useful guidelines below but it is remarkable how little research has been done on staying cool, especially for seniors who have less ability to move around or naturally control their body temperature.
Unfortunately, a lot of Northwest homes have no AC because it is expensive but also because it really hasn't been needed but this year we are facing the threat the French see every year in Paris where thousands of elderly die of the heat.
But even in a budget one-room apartment which many elderly survive in it is perfectly possible to stay cool enough to avoid heatstroke, it just takes some planning and knowledge.
Please post this information as many places as you can and use it to educate any elderly friends or relatives.
It can also save you money if you do have AC because you may not need to keep the house as cool.
First, people seem to have died in apartments that must have running water and almost certainly refrigerators of some sort.
So make it a scheduled practice to run cold water in the sink and tub or shower.
Even without AC or a fan bathing in cool water or keeping your clothes damp or even wet will provide some cooling and a cool bath or shower should be scheduled every day at the hottest part of the day.
Given any kind of refrigerator you can keep wet cloths or water to pour on wet cloths which you can wrap around your neck where there is a lot of blood flow close to the skin.
Drinking water should not actually be very, just cool enough that you enjoy drinking it.
You should have an alarm to remind you to drink water every hour.
How about alcohol? In the winter you are told not to drink alcohol to get warm because it increases blood flow to the skin causing you to feel warm but actually reducing your core temperature.
I'm not saying you should drink some alcohol to stay cool but think about that advice you always hear about alcohol and cold weather.
If you can't afford AC then you may not have much in the way of food options but then even if you have money you might not be able to get AC for one reason or another, such as having no way to install it or short supply.
But diet can help you stay cooler.
For example, the infamous British tea sandwich, cucumber, is a good lunchtime meal.
Have you noticed that the hotter the climate the spicier the traditional diet? That is because really spicy food makes you sweat and the elderly often have trouble sweating.
In fact, if it is hot and you are at risk of heatstroke the first thing which happens is you stop sweating.
Curry, hot pepper (capsaicin), hot pepper sauce, even ginger can help you stay cool.
Don't neglect salt. You need more salt in hot weather, not just because you have to keep replacing the salt you excrete but also because it makes you thirsty making it easier to keep hydrated.
Ice tea which contains tannin (the brown residue on your cup) is astringent. Hot tea works but cold or ice tea is probably even better.
Also, don't forget that the same foods you are told to eat to keep blood sugar low - whole grains, fat (including mayo and butter), and especially protein of any sort take a lot of energy to digest.
People climbing Mt. Everest or other cold mountains eat butter in hot chocolate to generate heat.
So when it is too hot out you should, if you aren't diabetic or on a critically important diet, you should reduce your meat and fish intake.
