How do you deal with this extreme desert heat?! (Phoenix: movies, construction)

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by urbex

Your post insinuated that thsoe who don't tolerate heat are overweight, thus a generalization.

No, I did not. You read into my post what you wanted. And it's not an overgeneralization to begin with. It's a fact. You may tolerate the heat fine but if you lose weight, you would tolerate it even better. Instead of fighting the notion, perhaps you should consider weight loss as an option and see how you feel. The fact is 70% of our population falls into the overweight or obese category so the majority of us could probably lose some weight. Everyone thinks of all of these ways to tolerate the heat but they fail to think about weight loss as an option. I have a lot of patients who have lost weight and claim their summers are much more tolerable than they once were. Think about it, if you are carrying an additional 15-20 lbs (if not more) of pure adipose tissue, you really think that's not going to impact how you feel in the summer?

Walk into any oncology(cancer) clinic. See how their patients are dressed in the summer. They are wearing long sleeves and sweaters. Why? They are thin and emaciated due to their hypermetabolic state from the cancer and their chemotherapy which affects their appetite. They have very little body fat and thus they get more cold easily. Do you think that's just a coincidence that they all happen to wear heavier clothing than everyone else in the summer?

[urbex]

As someone who's trained in medicine, you should be well aware that just saying someone is overweight or obese is a highly flawed method of determining health condition, as are using the common methods of determining BMI. Since you want to use extremes as examples, body builders are a prime example of people who typically are in very good health, but their weight/BMI typically indicates some significant obesity. Even my buddies that are Ironman types are all at least overweight, if not downright obese according to those calculators.

If so much of this is centered around weight, what do you tell people living in the northern or high elevation areas who can't tolerate the cold? Eat more Big Macs and twinkies?

Even getting into "normal" people, there have been studies done that indicate being overweight is actually healthier, and less likely to result in death than "normal" people. JAMA Network | JAMA | Association of All-Cause Mortality With Overweight and Obesity Using Standard Body Mass Index Categories: *A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Then there is heat adaptation, especially in regards to exercise, and it's huge positive benefits on the body in terms of heat regulation, cardio and metabolic systems. Let me google that for you.

The short of it all is don't be the couch potatos that huddle next to the AC vents all summer long. Those of us who spend time outside, especially in the heat, acclimate to it much better than the people whining about how they can't leave the house because it's just too darn hot outside. Then also, as I said before, take someone who doesn't live here, and drop them off in the triple digit heat, and yes, they're going to feel like it's hell on earth because they haven't adapted to it.

I suspect that those of your clients that lost weight, and felt that the heat was easier to tolerate, had very little to do with their absolute weight, and much more to do with their vastly increased activity levels and much better cardiovascular health.

[DetroitN8V]

Fat guy vs. cardiologist. Hmmmm...

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by urbex

As someone who's trained in medicine, you should be well aware that just saying someone is overweight or obese is a highly flawed method of determining health condition, as are using the common methods of determining BMI. Since you want to use extremes as examples, body builders are a prime example of people who typically are in very good health, but their weight/BMI typically indicates some significant obesity. Even my buddies that are Ironman types are all at least overweight, if not downright obese according to those calculators.

If so much of this is centered around weight, what do you tell people living in the northern or high elevation areas who can't tolerate the cold? Eat more Big Macs and twinkies?

Even getting into "normal" people, there have been studies done that indicate being overweight is actually healthier, and less likely to result in death than "normal" people. JAMA Network | JAMA | Association of All-Cause Mortality With Overweight and Obesity Using Standard Body Mass Index Categories: *A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Then there is heat adaptation, especially in regards to exercise, and it's huge positive benefits on the body in terms of heat regulation, cardio and metabolic systems. Let me google that for you.

The short of it all is don't be the couch potatos that huddle next to the AC vents all summer long. Those of us who spend time outside, especially in the heat, acclimate to it much better than the people whining about how they can't leave the house because it's just too darn hot outside. Then also, as I said before, take someone who doesn't live here, and drop them off in the triple digit heat, and yes, they're going to feel like it's hell on earth because they haven't adapted to it.

I suspect that those of your clients that lost weight, and felt that the heat was easier to tolerate, had very little to do with their absolute weight, and much more to do with their vastly increased activity levels and much better cardiovascular health.

I don't really understand the point you are trying to make. 70% of the population meet overweight or obese guidelines per BMI. I'm aware of outliers such as body builders and athletes but what percentage of that population consists of these people? Are you somehow suggesting that half of that number consists of body builders and triathletes w/BMI exceeding 25? I'll be generous. Let's assume they make up 20% of the total population so that only 50% that have high body fat percentages. Is that somehow insignificant to you? And what percentage of the population consists of body builders and athletes? Not all body builders and athletes are lean. They may have a lot of muscle but they have a lot of fat too.

Furthermore, I would advise reading articles before quoting them. In it's conclusion, your JAMA article states "Relative to normal weight, both obesity (all grades) and grades 2 and 3 obesity were associated with significantly higher all-cause mortality". Therefore, a person with normal BMI has less all cause mortality when compared to someone obese. The article also states that "Grade 1 obesity overall was not associated with higher mortality, and overweight was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality." What they are saying is that grade 1 obesity as an independent risk factor does not increase one's risk of mortality overall. However, there are not many people who are obese and do not have one or more of the following risk factors: hypertension(high blood pressure), diabetes, hyperlipidemia(high cholesterol), and coronary artery disease. If you account for one or more of those risk factors, the mortality does increase. As a cardiologist and a physician in over 20 years of practice, I've NEVER seen an obese patient who didn't at least have high blood pressure and that was rare. In my experience, at least 50% of of my obese patients had diabetes or pre-diabetes(insulin resistance), high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia.


Finally, obesity is a risk factor for developing diabetes among other conditions. The risk of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or type 2 diabetes rises with increasing body weight. And Diabetes alone increases one's morbidity and mortality.

Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors, 2001. AUMokdad AH, Ford ES, Bowman BA, Dietz WH, Vinicor F, Bales VS, Marks JS SO JAMA. 2003;289(1):76.

Obesity has long been associated with an increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). In a meta-analysis of studies assessing the impact of body weight on CHD, there was a 29 percent increase in CHD for each five-unit increase in body mass index (BMI).

[urbex]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Fat guy vs. cardiologist. Hmmmm...

Fat guy who has no problems "tolerating" the heat In fact, I was even the guy that had concerns about exercising in the heat...until I did it. Got pretty easy pretty quick, and now I'm one of the few guys at work that doesn't complain about walking the mile of black top out here.

[LagunaMom]

As bad as it gets here, I remember the last time I flew to my birthplace of Chicago. It was 90 degrees with a 90% humidity in the airport. I thought I was gonna die.
The prize for misery, however, goes to the fabulous town of New Orleans. The humidity was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

[urbex]

Originally Posted by LagunaMom

As bad as it gets here, I remember the last time I flew to my birthplace of Chicago. It was 90 degrees with a 90% humidity in the airport. I thought I was gonna die.
The prize for misery, however, goes to the fabulous town of New Orleans. The humidity was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

Nothing quite like that feeling of drowning on land, is there?

[Ponderosa]

120.0 at Casa Mia right now. I took a walk for a couple blocks to get the feel of it. It's warm.

[AZBradley]

If 120 is warm for you, when does it get hot?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by AZBradley

If 120 is warm for you, when does it get hot?

That was a little tongue in cheek. I was carrying a set of keys with me and when I got back after maybe 10 minutes the keys were actually too hot to touch. It is nasty, nasty.

I was here in 1990 for the 122 record. I played in a volleyball tournament that night outside. It was still 118 degrees. I think my old self would drop dead if I tried that now, but life does go on in spite of what to some would think unbearable temps.