Summer Heat in West Texas How to Keep Cool

Parts of West Texas are the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert. Desert means hot and dry and dry wind if any is blowing. This should help people decide what to wear and what to do to keep their bodies from dehydrating. But it is not the case. Many people die in this area because they are not prepared. Even a few hours out in the West Texas sun kills several people a year of heat stroke.

Heat stroke presents its self as feeling weak and in extreme cases goes all the way to a drunken state and can cause death. The body is constructed to work with fluids. Fluids move in all the circulatory system. Moving blood to important parts of the body and removing waste created by the indigestive process. Without fluid the body shuts down.

To protect yourself from this happening to you remember the fluid. You have two main choices; one is to drink more fluids or keep you body from using up the fluid. In other words drink lots or don't do anything that makes you sweat. If you are out in the direct sunlight you body only has one way to cool itself and that is sweating. Sweating uses up your fluids extremely fast. So they must be continually replenished.

Several types of activities cause the sweating and/or lack of fluids. In this area, ranching is a big part of the jobs done here. People are horseback for hours in the direct sun, working stock or riding fence. Even though you see them with long sleeve shirts, big hats, and bandanas, their bodies are losing fluid faster than they know. Old ranchers knew this and built tanks around their windmills not only for the stock to drink, but for the cowboys also.

Another popular sport in this area is swimming or visiting a local lake. Both are perfect culprits for deleting the body of the water that it needs. People boating forget to take water to drink and soon find themselves tired. It is the body's way of saying it needs fluid. They are aware that they feel better when they get in the shade and /or drink water. The body is adjusting and trying to stay going without the water.