Extreme heat and its impact on San Diego's most vulnerable

KPBS On Demand is supported by AAA. AAA offers personalized customer service to help with switching auto insurance coverage designed around a driver's specific needs, along with ways to bundle policies or insure multiple vehicles. Learn more at AAA.com.

[upbeat music] Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindmon. On this episode of KPBS Midday Edition, we are in an extreme heat wave. We'll talk about the impact on your health and those most vulnerable. This is KPBS Midday Edition, connecting our communities through conversation. [upbeat music] So extreme temperatures are expected to last through Thursday at least, and the triple digits are having a real impact on people's health. In fact, 911 has seen an increase in heart-related calls, especially, uh, since mid-September, and that's not including the most recent heat wave. So what do you need to know about how heat affects the body and who is most vulnerable? Well, I'm here with Dr. Lindsey Yurman. She's a geriatrician with UC San Diego Health. Dr. Yurman, welcome to Midday.

Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Glad to have you here. Listen, recent data shows that 911, um, has gotten more than 300 heat-related calls since mid-September, as we mentioned. What have you heard from your colleagues? Are they seeing more hospital visits because of the heat?

My colleagues in the ED are reporting a generally higher volume of ED visits. However, it doesn't necessarily show up as heat. Uh, it may show up as a, you know, heart event, kidney disease, uh, asthma exacerbation, fall, or dehydration. So the actual numbers are hard to tally, but yeah, heat can cause a number of things that can increase ED visits.

Hmm. Well, tell me, I mean, how does extreme heat impact the body? What happens physiologically?

So physiologically, it's helpful to understand how we maintain normal temperature. We cool ourselves normally by sweating and by sending blood to the skin. So when it's very hot or humid, that system gets overwhelmed, and the heart, kidneys, and brain are the organs that are most vulnerable. So, you know, again, cooling depends on sweat evaporating, and in humid heat, sweat doesn't evaporate well, so the body has to work much harder to stay at normal temperature. For the heart, that means that the heart has to pump harder, which for someone that has a preexisting heart condition, that can push it over the edge, um, into heart failure or an arrhythmia. With kidneys, um, sweating plus not drinking enough can lead to dehydration, um, especially if people are on medications like diuretics. And how it affects the brain, if the brain is overheated, we see that as confusion, delirium, dizziness, and falls. And in older adults, new confusion is often the first sign. Uh, so that's a little bit about how heat impacts the body.

Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, tell me, you mentioned older f- older people. Who's most vulnerable to extreme heat, and why?

Yeah. So older adults are at the top of my list, of course. [chuckles] I'm a geriatrician. Uh, and, uh, uh, before I talk about why older adults are at higher risk, I also want to point out that, um, babies and young children, people with chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood