It’s hot, but we feel quite good and we’re like “strong”? If you are old, it does not change anything. What is needed is to measure how much he does at home. The magic number: 26°C to be maintained indoors. Above that, serious consideration should be given to finding an air-conditioned place.
What there is to know
In 2020, 585 people died from extreme heat in British Columbia.
The heat in 2022 killed more than 60,000 people in Europe, according to a study published a few weeks ago in NatureMedicine by French and Barcelona researchers.
The authorities here must prepare and ensure that any elderly or vulnerable person has access to air conditioning at home or near their home, pleads a team of Canadian researchers. No, it’s not green, but it saves lives, they insist.
This is one of the key messages that Glen Kenny, holder of the University of Ottawa Research Chair in Environmental Physiology, wants people to take away from the study he has just released on the effects of heat – and air conditioning – on the elderly.
Professor Kenny and his team subjected 40 adults aged 64 to 79 to a simulated 9-hour heat wave at 37°C. They were then divided into two groups, one enjoying a two-hour rest in an air-conditioned room, the other not.
Result: those who were in an air-conditioned room for two hours had better cardiovascular functions than the others, whose psychological state had also deteriorated.
The researchers found that access to an air-conditioned place for a few hours “is successful in reducing body temperature and limiting deleterious effects on the heart”.
However, this protective effect is temporary: once they are no longer in an air-conditioned place, the elderly person is again quickly weakened by the heat.
However, do not think that these air-conditioned refuges are useless, on the contrary. They are essential, emphasizes Professor Kenny in an interview, “but the elderly who leave should be advised that once they return home, even if they feel more refreshed and invigorated, this is not the time to garden and resume their usual activities. They remain vulnerable to heat.
The study by Mr. Kenny and his team notes that according to the literature on the subject, older people who go to air-conditioned places have a 66% lower risk of dying from the heat.
Age, this key factor
As we get older, says Kenny, the reality is there, unrelenting: the body’s defense mechanisms are less able to protect us from the heat. For example, we will produce less sweat and our blood pressure will be more affected by high temperatures.
Nobody likes to think they’re vulnerable. An elderly person who is not ill will think that it is the neighbor who is in danger and not him, since he is a former football player.
Glen Kenny, University of Ottawa Research Chair in Environmental Physiology
But during hot weather, insists this expert, a good state of health is not enough to protect us. It is the age on the meter that is crucial.
We often avoid disturbing others, but here, it is not about that. No question either of optimal cognitive functions or not.
The reality, Professor Kenny points out, is that older people are more overwhelmed by the heat than they think. And above all, they are unaware that their condition is more likely to deteriorate often suddenly. It’s fine for a few hours, and all of a sudden just going to the bathroom is suddenly too demanding: “you can feel dizzy, fall and break your hip”.
Elderly people who die during heat waves are therefore certainly not all alone, isolated or suffering from dementia. Among these are probably also people who were normally very fit and thought they could withstand the weather well.
“When an elderly loved one tells you that they are not hot, that everything is fine and that you should not worry, do not settle for that answer. Ask him to tell you exactly what the thermostat indicates, ”insists Mr. Kenny, who also notes that the fans do not offer real protection to the elderly.
During heat waves, what if an elderly person is unable to leave their home or flatly refuses to do so? If this is the case, Mr. Kenny replies that the public authorities must then be informed of the situation.
British Columbia, where air conditioning was much less common than in Quebec (summers were historically less hot there), is now more aware of the importance of protecting vulnerable people. The authorities have just announced the distribution of 8,000 air conditioners to people with low incomes and vulnerable to heat.