The long holidays, long awaited by children and their parents, are finally coming. But with them, the "bobos" of the beach can also be back. Heat stroke, jellyfish sting or hydrocution ... are you sure you know what to do to avoid them and how to react? Dr Jimmy Mohamed, columnist in Sans Rendez-Vous, the health program of Europe 1, every day from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., gives you some advice.
Real heat stroke is very rare
If you have spent the afternoon in full sun, without a hat, and when you return home, you have a slight fever - 38 ° or 38.5 ° - do not panic: it is certainly not sunstroke. The real heat stroke causes a high fever (40 °), with vomiting and discomfort that occurs during exposure.
Heat stroke affects in most cases young children, babies - who depend on adults for hydration - and the elderly. Normally, if you hydrate yourself properly when you expose yourself to the sun, heat stroke is exceptional.
No pee on the jellyfish sting
If you are stung by a jellyfish at the beach, contrary to popular belief, there is no need to pee on the wound. It should be rinsed with sea water and especially not with clear water which could cause the tentacles hanging on your skin to explode, releasing even more poison.
You can then apply dry sand to the wound and then scrape gently with a piece of cardboard to remove the tentacles. Finally, know that the venom of the jellyfish is thermolabile, that is to say that it is sensitive to heat. You can therefore approach a cigarette, taking care not to burn yourself, to destroy it.
The myth of 2 hours to avoid hydrocution
If you too, your parents prohibited you during all your childhood from going to bathe after lunch "to avoid hydrocution", you risk to blame them a little ... Hydrocution, it is this discomfort that can occur when you enter the sea or the pool.
But the proximity of the meal is only taken into account for 1% of the hydrocutions, assures Dr. Jimmy Mohamed. What causes hydrocution is the sudden change in temperature between the outside environment, when you are by the pool or on the beach, and the moment when you are going to enter cooler water.
So whether you have eaten a little, a lot or not at all, what matters is to gradually get into the water and gradually wet your body parts to get used to the change in temperature.