From record breaking heat to severe rain and damaging floods, South Florida has been hard hit by extreme weather over the last few months.

May was the hottest on record in South Florida, with temperatures reaching well into the 90s.

And when you factor in the humidity, the feels like temps reached 110 degrees plus.

This is what led officials to declare the year's first heat advisory.

Prolonged exposure to extreme heat poses many health risks, especially for the most vulnerable, including young children, the elderly, outside workers and the homeless.

Joining me now with more on heat related illnesses and ways to protect yourself is Doctor Elaine Diaz, medical director of care management at Baptist Health Baptist Hospital.

Doctor Diaz specializes in emergency care, and we're so glad to have you here on this topic.

Thank you.

Nice meeting you.

Nice meeting you as well.

So tell us who's at most risk for heat related illnesses and why.

So for heat related illnesses most at risk would be um, usually younger children like less than four, um, elderly people over usually 65 people who work out in the sun and are very exposed to the heat, um, because of their job, you know, that that they have they're exposed for long periods of time.

Um, certain people like with high blood pressure because of certain medications they take, people that are a little bit more overweight tend to, um, be able to, to retain heat for a little bit longer.

(Arlene) And we were talking earlier.

The heart condition can also contribute to those who are most vulnerable.

Right?

(Elaine) Correct.

(Arlene) Tell us a little bit more about that.

(Elaine) You know, they.

Take medications that tends to be like a diuretic.

And then they tend to go to the bathroom.

So they start out a little bit behind and dehydrated to begin with.

And obviously the heat causes you to be very dehydrated.

So you're already starting a little bit at a loss there.

(Arlene) Have you noticed an uptick in people coming in for heat related illnesses and emergencies?

(Elaine) There has been a bit of an uptick for for us in the Ed.

Um, you know, they come in from multiple things, from basic really bad sunburns to then the heat cramps that eventually you, if you don't take care of, could lead, obviously, to heat exhaustion and eventually to heat stroke if we don't notice these warning signs before.

(Arlene) So let's break down the differences between heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

But let's start off with exhaustion.

What are the signs?

(Elaine) So the signs.

Could be that you develop like pale skin.

You could get muscle cramps.

You can develop headache, you can have nausea vomiting.

You can get dizziness, fatigue.

Um, pretty much an elevated heart rate.

Those are the signs and symptoms that you can get from heat exhaustion.

(Arlene) Well so helpful.

So what would be the best way to treat this type of heat exhaustion that you've described?

(Elaine) With heat exhaustion, you would want to obviously come out of the heat, the exposure to the sun, you would want to.

If you're wearing a lot of layers of clothing, take some of that off.

If drink, obviously fluids and being fluids, being water and being like these sports drinks, you know, the powerades, the stuff that has electrolytes that we can replace back into our body.

(Arlene) And now let's move on to heat stroke, which is a medical emergency.

These warning signs are important to to know.

Tell us about that.

(Elaine) So for heat Stroke um, you could develop your skin turning really red.

You lose ability to sweat, which is a big a big factor here.

Right.

Um, you can seize, you can faint, you become confused.

Altered mental status.

Biggest difference between these two is that you would develop a temperature, a core body temperature of greater than 104, which you wouldn't see in heat exhaustion.

(Arlene) What do you do if you're in a situation and you believe someone's actually experiencing heat stroke?

(Elaine) So for heat stroke, it's pretty similar to heat exhaustion.

The problem that I guess the goal is not to let it get to that point.

So you'd want to get catch on to the signs of heat exhaustion before heat stroke, right?

So you'd want to, um, hydrate and do pretty much the same things that you would do by drinking some water, drinking the electrolytes, the sports drinks that we drink.

You would come out of the sun.

You would again, if you notice people like that, you would be able to put ice packs.

Um, you know, a lot of people use like, like the freezer vegetables.

You could put them under their armpits and their groin area in the back of the neck, because that would help reduce core body temperature quickly.

You can give them water, obviously, if they've fainted on you, if they've collapsed on you, if they're completely altered, you need to take them to the hospital.

At which point probably it's safer just not to do much and just get them quickly to the hospital.

But if they're able to speak to you and talk to you, the first line of treatment would always be to give water and hydrate.

(Arlene) Doctor Diaz, thank you so much for this wonderful information, South Floridians, all of us need it.

It’s been tremendously important.

Thank you so much.

(Elaine) It's been my pleasure.

Nice meeting you.

Thank you very much