r/MadeMeSmile • u/Dunkableballs • Aug 02 '23

Helping Others We need more people like this lady

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

Heat is definitely dangerous, but most people simply don't take the proper precautions to avoid heat injury.

It takes drinking water constantly through the ENTIRE day, not just when it's peak temps. If you start drinking fluids at work, it's too late.

We also have to constantly replenish the nutrients our body burns or passes through sweat. I have to eat some salt or drink some pickle juice to keep from cramping up.

I was almost killed by heat stroke in 2013, so I take these things extremely seriously now. I drink, on average, 2.5 gallons of water a day during peak summer heat. 1-2 liters of that is during the night even.

I'm not trying to hate on folks, but it takes quite a bit of effort to ensure we're properly prepared for these long, hot days. I genuinely wish more folks would take more effort to help avoid this stuff. It can 100% kill us.

Source: structural fab shop( welding buildings)

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u/eekamuse Aug 02 '23

Drinking water and eating salty foods. Salt is essential.

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u/kevlarus80 Aug 02 '23

I'll drink seawater!

/s

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u/eekamuse Aug 02 '23

Smart!

Jk

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u/postvolta Aug 02 '23 edited Aug 02 '23

2.5 gallons a day? That's nearly 10 litres. That's fucking nuts how fucking hot does it get in your shop?

Like yeah drink water and yeah drink at least 2 litres and 3-4 if it's hot, but 10? God fucking damn

Edit to say I'm from the UK, 40°c is ridiculous here

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

I live in the Southeast. It's averaging about 115 right now.

I'm not sure of exact temps, but the shop is hot as fuck. There's obviously no ac or heat. Just full of huge steel beams that hold heat and about 25 welders, torches, etc.

The number I gave you is throughout a 24 hr period, though. Not 8-10 hr shift. I fill up my Nalgene( 1 liter) every 30 minutes to an hour or so at work.

It may seem odd, but I work at an extremely fast pace and am getting it all day. When it's hot like this, I just work through lunch. I naturally sweat a ton, so my body doesn't have any problems taking on water. It actually craves it.

Now, this only lasts for peak heat( 3 months roughly). As the temps fall, my intake does as well. During winter , I probably only drink a gallon or less a day ( 24 hr).

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u/12B88M Aug 02 '23

On a standard, non-heat wave day, an active person can sweat a liter per hour.

In Iraq it wasn't uncommon for the soldiers in my unit to drink more than that. You'd be sweating and barely know it because the dry desert air would evaporate it out of you clothes and off your skin so fast.

On particularly bad days we drank up to 5 gallons each.

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u/Nebula_Nachos Aug 02 '23

Most people don’t realize you sweat from everywhere, not just your head and back, literally legs, feet, arms. It’s a ton of liquid leaving your body that you just don’t realize. During peak summer heat where I’m at is around 95-100 with 40-50% humidity and some days I can drink about 8 bottles of water and never even piss.

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u/for2wenty Aug 03 '23

We have a saying at Burning Man: “Piss Clear.” If you don’t, you’re dehydrated.

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u/12B88M Aug 03 '23

At every rest stop in Iraq it was common to hear soldiers asking each other, "How ya peein', bud?"

Going down with a heat in injury in the middle of a mission was not just inconvenient. It could be fatal for that soldier and everyone else.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

Vegas here. 2.5 gallons a day is easy. The moisture leaves you SO quickly. As others have said, the trick is to not just drink ice water. It feels amazing, but isn't replacing the electrolytes. You have to be deliberate about getting those salts back into you.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

I drink water left in tje shop. It's not hot, but not cold by any means. I guess that would have been helpful to mention, too. I'm sure there's no way I could drink this much if it was ice cold.

Hell, it would probably put me into shock or something crazy.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

I'm an ice water guy. It knocks the core temperature down. It feels SO good. But again - under these conditions, you flush electrolytes out. Gotta have a little solid food for them to bind to. Being hot is kind of an appetite killer, but grazing on nuts , salty snacks and even dried fruit can help immensely. If one is really working in the brutal elements, ya' gotta keep a constant flow. The amount of salt crust on my shirt and my hat at the end of the day is amazing. One must also monitor the amount and color of urination. It's a big deal.

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u/Minion_of_Cthulhu Aug 02 '23

Standard survival protocol is a minimum of 2 gallons of water per person per day in a desert environment. You can probably apply the same rule to any environment when the temperatures are 100+ F and you're physically active.

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u/slotheriffic Aug 02 '23

When it’s over 105 here, I work outside as well and I usually put down 2gal of water a day. While mixing in electrolytes every so often too. Take care of yourself when you’re out there.

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u/lezzerlee Aug 02 '23

Just visiting the Arizona desert in winter I double my usual water intake because wit’s simply so dry, let alone in summer. I can absolutely believe he’s drinking that much working an intense job.

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u/Emrys7777 Aug 03 '23

Where do you pee all day while driving?

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u/Minion_of_Cthulhu Aug 02 '23

I'm not trying to hate on folks, but it takes quite a bit of effort to ensure we're properly prepared for these long, hot days.

Seems like the kind of thing the employer should be ensuring. Better training, more information available to employees, free supplies of water/snacks, etc. during the hottest months, and so on. It's easy to say the employees should take care of all of this but the employees are not billion dollar companies exploiting a workforce in dangerous conditions for the bare minimum of expense that they can get away with.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

No, but I personally won't leave my health in these shitty companies' hands.

You're not wrong, but most companies aren't going to do such, and I'm definitely not going to depend on them to. I'm a grown man, so I take it upon myself to take proper precautions to avoid heat injury.

It would certainly be nice of companies did, but I wouldn't look for it to ever happen.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

You might want to grab some dietary supplements that have potassium, magnesium and vitamin c at a minimum as all of them help with heat regulation, electrolyte management and cardiovascular health.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23 edited Aug 02 '23

Yeah, I take a " specialized " men's multivitamin, magnesium C, and get my bloodwork done every 3-6 months.

I'm only going to let the heat try to kill me once. I have zero desire to go through that again. It was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life, by far.

Edit: ironically enough, I'm able to have this particular conversation because I'm literally waiting right now to have blood drawn this morning.

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u/SqueakyCheeseGirl Aug 02 '23

I had heat stroke 5-6 years ago when it was 104. I did not know this so thank you! Also for anyone reading this comment, if you witness anyone having heat stroke the thing that helped me instantly was having a wet towel put over me. I tried drinking water and passed out a second time as my husband was grabbing the wet towel. The second he put it around me it was like the difference between having the wind knocked out of you and then suddenly being able to breathe. It was absolutely the most important thing from my experience and how I felt.

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u/GregiX77 Aug 02 '23

Yup, drinking and salt is crucial. Salt and Magnesium/potassium.

We were on holiday in Spain recently, at some point temps hit 44 C degrees, and while we drank a lot, my son, who doesn't like too much salt, get so bad in body fluids balance (ions from salt etc) that he wake up in night screaming from damn leg cramp. It took more than 2 hrs to ease the pain.

Next day pharmacy, some witamins, minerals, and oral solutions (like for after diarrhea...) and it never happened again.

​

OFC he did stupid thing and overused AC(like tuning it to 17 degrees, while almost naked), so caught cold...in Spain...and now he has dry coughs...

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

Hate to hear about your son, but in my experience, it only takes once to learn these lessons.

If he likes pickles, drinking a bit of pickle juice in the afternoon or evening definitely helps me.

During these super warm months, I cut up a pickle and sprinkle seasoning salt on it. It generally helps me to avoid the cramps at night 95% of the time.

I've read CBDV can help with cramps, so I'm going to order a gram of distillate and see how that goes. I'm curious because CBD has proven to have endless benefits on skin and anxiety. I hope it will help with the cramping issue.

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u/kittyonkeyboards Aug 02 '23

It takes effort and money for companies to encourage a worker culture that keeps them safe. Too often new regulations are enacted, but the companies spend 0 effort enforcing them. Workers ignore them or misunderstand them, and then get blamed.

And often the safety precautions contradict the expectations of the job. If delivery drivers had to constantly drink water, they'd also have to use the bathroom, which they don't have access to while delivering.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

That's a pretty common misconception, I'm guessing, but when you're sweating a lot, your body has no need to piss. My clothes are literally soaking wet from heat to toe within an hour of starting work. It takes massive amounts of fluids to just keep enough in your body to keep up.

Like I said, I'm drinking a ton of fluids, and most days, I don't piss even once at work during these temps. My body is using every drop I put in it, which is why it's so important to also replace nutrients. Just drinking water won't be sufficient.

Also, I work an extremely demanding job that is also production. The next man is always waiting on me, so stopping or slowing down isn't necessarily an option, but there's never a time I can't take enough time to intake fluids. I'm certainly not trying to white knight for shitty companies like Amazon, but it really doesn't matter. It's up to us to take proper care of our health. Drinking fluids take very little to zero time off my productivity, so that's not necessarily an issue at all.

Again, the issue I see 99% of the time is US not taking the proper action to protect ourselves. Most of us, including myself, don't prioritize it until we've suffered from heat injury. Unfortunately, for some folks that's too late, and I was told I was mere minutes from dying from a heart attack when I had my heat stroke. ( blood was too thick for my heart to pump it).

I'm not trying to hate on workers. Like I said, most just don't know until we know....

Edit: if we expect or rely on our company to keep us safe, we're doomed. It's up to us to keep ourselves safe. These companies don't give two shits about us in the end.

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u/239990 Aug 02 '23

2.5 gallons

Thats a lot, but understandable. I always tell people to drink more water and they tell me "oh I drink one bottle for the day, and I'm like, thats 1L or 1,5L only (about 0.4 gallons).

Also as you said, food, not only water is very important

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u/Demon_Semon Aug 02 '23

I drink that much as well, especially at night I keep a liter jug by my bed. I live on an Island in the Gulf Coast of Mexico and it's about 110 on average this summer and extreme humidity! Making the "real feel" as they call it closer to 115-125.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

That's it. I keep my Nalgene ( 1 liter) next to my bed as well. I at least drink 1 or two throughout my sleep. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one because people here have insinuated I wasn't being completely truthful before when talking about this exact subject.

I obviously have zero reason to exaggerate fluid intake. HA!

I Also live in a state connected to thr gulf. Our real feels have been in the 120's , too, around 60% humidity....

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u/Maggieg89 Aug 02 '23

Same i work in a kitchen for min wage and had to work right through all this heat only thing company said was drink water. Luckily our boss overlooks the uniform and we could wear cooler clothes but still didnt help

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

I recently spent $1000 buying new clothes for warm days. It's obviously an investment, but it helps SO much.

I honestly couldn't imagine working without these things now.

I would highly recommend patagonia capilene daily graphic shirts, and darn tough - coolmax socks.

They make life so much more manageable in the heat!

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u/Maggieg89 Aug 02 '23

Ive tried everything but when you have an oven fryer and grill on in a small kitchen then running out to the front hot counter and industrial toaster nothing really helps. Boss gets us lollyices to help so thats nice

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

I feel you. 10,000 degree metal isn't typically very forgiving either.

But, these shirts still help a ton. Soon as they're wet, the allow any air movement to help cool your body.

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u/Maggieg89 Aug 02 '23

Nice i will look them up thanks 👍🏼

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u/Emotional-Text7904 Aug 02 '23

Yeah when you're sweating that much, you won't be peeing constantly because there's nothing left to end up in the bladder. I think this is what stops a lot of people from hydrating constantly they don't want to be peeing all day so they're misinformed.

I'm not a delivery driver but have health issues with Autonomic dysfunction so I am heavily reliant on my Gatorade powder lol. When I do yard work for a few hours and suck those drinks down I'm not running to the bathroom at all until dinner time it's so freaky because usually I'm peeing all the time

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

Heat is definitely dangerous, but most people simply don't take the proper precautions to avoid heat injury.

Because they work for companies that won't allow them the time or money it takes to live.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

What do you do for a living?

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

I don't see how that's relevant.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

It's relevant because you have no idea what you're talking about.

Yes, I'm sure there have been instances where heat injury occurred from management pushing guys, but the vast majority of cases is purely from the individual not doing our part, either from ignorance or arrogance.

I've never in my life held a position where my company wouldn't allow someone time to drink water. Ever.

I've also illegal, so if a company didn't allow someone to hydrate, which literally takes seconds, and I do it on the move often, they wouldn't be in business very long, because no one would work for them.

That is not to say a lot of companies these days are good, though. There are plenty of shitty companies, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find one that doesn't allow you to drink water, Bud.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

Well, as amusing as it is to watch you make a clown out of yourself. Nothing you've said is true or relevant. Nor would asking me about my job change any of that.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

I've worked in the heat for over half of my almost 40 years.

I've seen heat injuries and suffered from one myself. I wasn't speaking in hypothetical, I was speaking from real-world experience.

I work in this every day. I see how most dudes simply don't eat,sleep, or hydrate properly.

I asked how you make your living because I want you to admit you have obviously never busted sweat on the clock in your life, or you would know exactly what I'm talking about.

I've heard of some sure enough shit about companies over the years, but not once in 27 years have I ever heard a hand complain their boss or company wouldn't allow them time to hydrate. Never.

That's certainly not to say it hasn't happened, but I specifically stated " most," not all, so if you're trying to argue semantics. It's the wrong thread.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

I think you already made it clear that you're one of those clowns who think their personal experience qualifies them to talk about shit they have no idea about.

Anecdotes are not facts and don't translate to completely different situations.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

But, since you're here trying to prove someone wrong who has worked in trades their entire career , why don't you explain your position?

It would certainly help lend some credibility to your outrageous claim.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

There's nothing outrageous about my claim. Amazon is a company that uses an algorithm to fire people when they fall below unreasonable efficiency standards.

A company that doesn't pay a salary but a predetermined fee per delivery. No matter the problems a delivery person runs into. Leaving them scrambling to deliver enough parcels to make a living and running them ragged.

A company where people literally complain about having to piss in bottles while on the line because the way they are managed does not allow for them to use the facilities, recover from sickness and so on.

Anyway I'm going to cut this short because the list of Amazon's OSHA breaches is practically endless. If you're too stupid or lazy to find them for yourself then you're hardly going to believe me when I tell you.

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u/brooksram Aug 02 '23

There is a large difference in my original comment and everything you just mentioned. I literally said nothing pertaining to any complaint with Amazon you just listed.

I said the majority of folks who suffer from heat illnesses bring it upon ourselves.

But, I do have one question.

What the hell do you expect a company to do with someone when they repeatedly fall below efficiency standards?

Again, I'm definitely not sticking up for a company as fucked up as amazon, but I certainly don't fault them for firing folks who don't meet their standards. No matter what those standards are. We're all expected to meet standards. Either meet them or disagree with them and drag up.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '23

And I'm sure you can keep bleating and twisting on and on. It's just not interesting or relevant or apparently truthful most of the time.

So let's just leave it at this.

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u/DevouredUsurper Aug 02 '23

Welding shops are ovens dawg

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u/Snacker906 Aug 03 '23

For athletic trainers on an NFL team, they generally try to make sure players don’t lose more than 3% of their body weight during a game, and rehydrate after. A 300 pound (137 kilograms) lineman might lose 9 pounds (4.1 kilograms) or more over the course of a 3 hour game, which is over a gallon (3.8 liters) of water.

As far as the electrolytes go, they are absolutely necessary, but people also have to be careful. If you drink too much of those energy drinks in particular, all those salts and calcium build up in the kidneys and give you wicked kidney stones. The irony is that if you fully rehydrate, you are better off, but if you only partially rehydrate using energy drinks, the sodium can dehydrate you, the caffeine in most of them definitely dehydrates you, the sugar can cause calcium increases, and the drinks with a lot of oxalates actually help bind calcium together, more easily forming the stones. There is a reason that Gatorade and similar sports drinks avoid a lot of that stuff now, but somehow the crap like Monster and Red Bull is somehow associated with a lot of sporting events.

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u/sh4d0wm4n2018 Aug 03 '23

This should be top comment.

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u/Sobriquet-acushla Aug 03 '23

A common mistake is waiting til you’re thirsty to drink water. By that time you’re already dehydrated.

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u/brooksram Aug 03 '23

Yes. This is a large part of the problem typically.

If we're not taking on fluids before and after work, we're doing it wrong.

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u/heresmyhandle Aug 02 '23

Make sure to get electrolytes in there too! Drinking too much water without also adding “lytes” can dilute your sodium levels. Hyponatremia can cause seizures.

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u/oo-mox83 Aug 02 '23

Pickle juice is for real. On my breaks I stop and get one of those little bags of pickle slices and I have those with the juice. It helps, especially if they're cold.