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American Morning
Tips For Exercising in Hot Weather
Aired July 30, 2002 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: These are the lazy hazy days of summer, but before you head out and enjoy a little fun in the sun, you might want to know a bit about what causes that haze and whether or not it is healthy to be outside.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to clear the air for us on today's House Call.
Good morning. Welcome to town.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
ZAHN: Your favorite city, the city he blasts every time he visits.
Are you liking the place better than the last time?
GUPTA: I love New York, absolutely. It's a little hazy outside, though. I'm concerned about the haze, though.
ZAHN: What is in the haze?
GUPTA: Because there's a lot of particles. And by the way, it's in Atlanta, too. Most cities have a lot of haze in them, a lot of particles in the air. Those particles, just looking at it, you probably know it is going to be bad for your lungs. Breathing that in, people say that they have a hard time actually breathing sometimes when they're seeing this haze. We're finding out now, it's actually bad for the heart as well. I guess not entirely surprising, but a new article actually has come out that says exactly what happens when you're breathing this stuff in, and they find that these particles actually get into your lungs, actually sometimes get into some of the blood vessels leading to your heart, break off some of the plaques, possibly causing blockages of the arteries, possibly causing abnormal rhythms of the heart, both very concerning things.
They actually looked at a bunch of people with heart disease, and found that 44 percent of them, within two hours after breathing significantly polluted air, the sort of air that you see coming out of tailpipes, the sort of air you see coming out of smokestacks, started to have troubles with heart disease, increasing the risk of heart attack by about 44 percent, so a real concern here from the pollution, it is it not just, it doesn't just look bad, Paula. This is something that can actually be quite deadly, especially if you're someone with heart disease.
ZAHN: What are we supposed do about it? That means not exercising in the heat, in hazy conditions?
GUPTA: I don't know that the messages are any new here, because you look at these ozone alerts. We hear about them, we get a lot of them in Atlanta. You shouldn't be exercising -- nobody should be exercising outside, whether you have heart disease or not.
What we do know now, if you have heart disease, you probably really shouldn't be exercising outside as a general rule. Stay inside air-conditioned type locations. Malls are a great place. You don't need to be a member of an expensive health club necessarily to be able to do that, but just going to the mall, getting your walk in, at least something like that, but especially on the days where high ozone alerts, everyone is potentially at risk. And like I said, it doesn't just look bad. You feel the difficulty with your breathing. If you have heart disease, you have a three times greater likelihood of actually decreasing the blood flow to your heart.
ZAHN: but if we decide if safe to exercise, what do we need to keep in mind, in the heat and in the haze?
GUPTA: Well, there are some tips, and we can actually put up some of the tips here, the sort commonsensical sort of things. You just want to basically do all the things there, wear loose clothing, wear a hat, sunscreen, Drink lots of fluid. That is something we talked about before, Paula. I know it's been a little controversial.
ZAHN: A little controversial. One minute you tell us to drown ourselves; the next minute you tell us we have drowned ourselves.
GUPTA: I drink lots of water every day. I try and drink a gallon. I think it's important. On these hot days, you want to be making sure that you drink plenty of fluids. It's good for your heart. It's good for your overall hydration picture.
ZAHN: There is a controversy over whether you're better off drinking water or sports drinks. I read somewhere this morning that the sugar in the sports drinks can cause your stomach to cramp.
GUPTA: Yes, absolutely. I read that same story -- we probably read the same thing. Here's the thing, the sports drinks are marketed very, very effectively actually.
ZAHN: They taste good, too.
GUPTA: They taste good. But your body, in order to sweat enough to lose the amount of sodium that sport drinks are replacing, you would have to do something like the iron man, where you're actually exercising for 12 1/2, 13 hours straight. For most people, water's going to be just fine. It'll replace everything you need, and your body will actually accommodate all the losses of sodium and potassium, and things like that.
Now if your someone who gets cramps after exercising and stuff like that, you might need a little bit more potassium and sodium. You could eat bananas, you could drink sports drink, but most part, most people will just need water for regular exercise.
ZAHN: Because I like you so much, I think I need to make a personal house call. A gallon? You're drowning yourself, according to that latest study. Doctor, be careful.
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