François Puisieux warns of the risks for the elderly

France is facing high temperatures and a heat peak could be reached on Monday July 18. In the 11 p.m. of Franceinfo on Saturday July 16, François Puisieux, medical manager of the gerontology clinic at the Lille University Hospital (Nord), reports that in France, “Emergency physicians have said it widely: elderly people are now arriving for dehydration. This is a real risk to be taken into account”he points out.

François Puisieux also explains the risks posed by this high heat, especially among the elderly. “The consequences can be more or less significant drops in blood pressure, which can also be the cause of falls with potentially fractures. But also, dehydration can cause confusional disorders where all of a sudden, the elderly person is very lost in time, in space, sometimes speaks incoherently Also, dehydration can have a very negative effect on kidney function, altering kidney function and that can lead to the accumulation of drugs in the blood and also increase the risk of adverse effects in a kind of iatrogenic cascade”he explains.