If you were planning a midday run this weekend, put it down. Even fit, healthy, well-trained people are landing in European hospitals as a record-breaking heatwave grinds on, and emergency officials in London and Paris want runners to hear the message loud and clear, according to BBC News.
The London Ambulance Service had its busiest day on record on Wednesday, when temperatures in the UK capital climbed into the mid-30s Celsius. Calls for life-threatening emergencies were up 50 percent compared with a typical Wednesday in June. Cardiac arrests rose by roughly 30 percent.
Paris is seeing the same pattern. The city’s ambulance service reported four times the normal number of cardiac arrests over a single 24-hour stretch. Official death counts linked to the heatwave have not yet been released.
“I am thinking especially about the youth,” Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire told French television, warning residents not to believe they are “invulnerable.” “I saw 100 or so joggers on the street. Frankly, that’s irresponsible.”
France’s Health Minister, Stéphanie Rist, made the same point, noting that “young people are also suffering from cardiac arrests.”
Why is this hitting fit people too? Heat forces the heart to work overtime. To cool you down, your body redirects blood toward the surface of your skin, where sweat can do its job. The harder you push, the harder your heart has to pump. Add dehydration and the strain climbs higher still.
Heat exhaustion can come on within minutes after a hard effort, or build slowly over a few hours. Left unchecked, it turns into heatstroke, a medical emergency. Warning signs include fast breathing, confusion, collapse or loss of consciousness. Anyone showing those signs needs immediate help.
The hot nights are part of the problem too. Temperatures in many European cities have stayed elevated long after sunset, which means the body never gets a proper window to recover before the next day’s heat.
Then there is the weekend’s other risk: alcohol. England plays Panama in the World Cup on Saturday, pubs will be packed, and the timing is awful. Alcohol is a diuretic. It makes you urinate more, while the heat is already pulling fluid out of you through sweat. Combine the two and you fall behind on hydration fast.
“This dehydration double whammy makes it even more important to drink plenty of water and stay as hydrated as possible throughout the day,” Alcohol Change UK said.
Paris is taking a stricter approach. From noon through the night on both Friday and Saturday, drinking alcohol in public will be banned across the city.
Craig Harman, chief operating officer at the London Ambulance Service, says football fans should pace their pints with water.
“I’m saying to people I need you to drink water even when you’re not thirsty, staying out of the sun during the hottest parts of the day, and particularly not exercising outside and putting your body under additional heat and strain,” Harman said.
For runners, the advice is straightforward. Skip the workout, or move it to the very early morning or late evening, when the air has cooled. Carry more water than you think you need. Drink before you feel thirsty. If you are watching the match, alternate beers with water. For a full game plan for hot months, the summer running guide covers it.
Most runners pride themselves on training through anything. This week, the smartest move is the boring one. Take the rest day. The small but real risk of a cardiac event climbs when heat, dehydration and hard effort stack up at once. Don’t be the joggers in Mayor Grégoire’s tally.
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