Heat related injuries in extreme desert conditions

Operating in extremely hot conditions creates a unique set of medical risks. In the link is the medical outline – for non medics, regarding those risks from the Namibia Ultra Marathon training guide.

DEHYDRATION
Dehydration is the most common heat related illness – in fact, it is thought that dehydration could be the single greatest threat to the health of an athlete. When training regularly and for long distances, fluid intake should be made a priority. You must drink fluids all day – not just during training. 

Don’t depend on feeling thirsty to tell you when to drink. Thirst is a late response of the body to fluid depletion. Once you feel thirsty, you are already low on fluids. The best indicator of proper fluid levels is urine output and colour. Ample urine that is light coloured to clear shows that the body has plenty of fluid. 

Dark urine means that the body is low on water, and is trying to conserve its supply by hoarding fluid which means that urine becomes more concentrated (thereby darker). 

Dehydration can be the cause of feelings of fatigue or exhaustion – at all times watch out for signs of dehydration and take on water regularly through out the day. 

Runners prepare themselves

Start line near Brandberg

Namibia Ultra Marathon

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News just in…Namibia Ultra Marathon completed

We’ve just heard from the Namibia Ultra Marathon race director Steve Clark, that everyone is now back in Swakopmund. Steve said the race was very tough with temperatures getting up to 42 ºc. Winner Darren Roberts was very surprised and shocked to hear he won the race but once it sunk in he was delighted. Tom Adams very nearly caught Darren up at the finish line which made it a nail-biting finish.

Namibia 24-hr Ultra Marathon Results are as follows:

1st Place – Darren Roberts 20hr 28

2nd Place – Tom Adams 20hr 29

3rd Place – Tom Maguire 21 hr 05

4th Place – Emma Rogan 21 hr 27 – First female to complete the Namibia 24-hr Ultra Marathon

5th Place – Jerry Haywood 22 hr 30

6th Place – Nick Tidbull 23 hr 17

7th Place – Nicholas Wright 23 hr 45

8th Place – Helen Skelton 23 hr 50 – BBC Blue Peter Presenter

9th Place – Adrian Crossley, Stuart Moore, Kellie Power & Michael Skakesheff 25 hr 07. These guys all crossed the line together holding hands, they were all just outside the 24 hour deadline but all were allowed to finish.

Dr Amy Hughes will when she’s back write up about the medical situations she was faced with on the race and how people coped with the extreme heat.

Desert Medicine Training Course | Namibia

Dr Sean Hudson explains why we’ve chosen Namibia to run our new Desert Medicine Course.

There truly aren’t enough superlatives to describe how beautiful Namibia is. Hence when we came to choose a destination for our new desert medicine course, there was only one possible choice. 

As a group, Expedition Medicine have been working, travelling, holidaying and honeymooning in Namibia for over 10 years. It has a quality which is becoming increasingly rare and difficult to find in Africa. It still remains exotic and predominantly unspoilt, tourism is increasing but slowly. 

The diversity of the country is its strength, whether you yearn for endless deserts, exotic mountains, huge dunes, canyons, rivers, a myriad of game parks or the most remarkable coastline in the whole of Africa, it is all here. All set to the backdrop of German efficiency, which has created a medical infrastructure which can support any expedition. 

Caroline and I first worked in the Namib as guides and medics in 1998 and fell in love with the country. We have returned many times and are very excited about the desert medicine course. It’s a beautiful location, with Brandberg as a backdrop, and the opportunity to encounter the remarkably adapted desert elephants which often can be found in the Uhab River. 

The team are quite exceptional, and I can’t wait to learn from them and their vast experience, in this and other desert environments around the world. If you want to camp in one of the oldest deserts in the world, in the shadow of a mountain which has been a refuge for desert nomads in hard times for over 6000 years, track elephant, learn how to survive and treat medical conditions common in this environment, then there is no question you would enjoy our trip to Namibia. 

Dr Sean Hudson

Find out more about the Expedition Medicine Desert Medicine training course in Namibia.