The public should be cautious when visiting hot springs or taking hot baths in chilly weather, the Health Promotion Administration said on Friday.
Administration officials said that hot springs are more popular during cold weather, while adding that care must be taken.
People at hot springs should not spend more than 15 minutes in the water and should rise slowly, as blood vessels in hot water expand, causing a drop in blood pressure, which could cause them to faint if they climb out of the water too quickly, the officials said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
People should frequently hydrate before and after they spend time in hot springs, they added.
Those with diabetes, hypertension or hyperlipidemia should be especially careful about the temperature of the water, they said.
People should not go in water that exceeds 40°C, or rapidly switch between hot and cold water, which causes blood vessels to suddenly expand and contract, possibly inducing a heart attack or stroke, the officials said.
People with diabetes can easily be burned, as they are often less sensitive to temperatures due to damaged sensory nerves, they said.
Soaking in hot springs after a meal should be avoided, as alcohol and spicy foods combined with the hot temperature can increase the heart rate, sometimes leading to a heart attack or stroke, they said.
People should seek their doctor’s advice before visiting a hot spring and should never go to a hot spring alone, they added.
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday said that chilly weather is expected throughout Taiwan today and tomorrow, with nighttime temperatures falling considerably from daytime temperatures.
In related news, Da Chien General Hospital vice dean Tsai Chien-tsung (蔡建宗) on Friday said that Miaoli’s Da Chien General Hospital and Wei Kung Hospital admitted 12 people for carbon monoxide poisoning over the past 15 days.
The people were given hyperbaric oxygen therapy and have recovered, the hospitals said.
Carbon monoxide prevents the conjoining of hemoglobin and oxygen, leading to a lower oxygen concentration in the bloodstream, Tsai said.
Those with less severe cases of carbon monoxide poisoning can experience mild vertigo or dizziness, while severe cases can cause nausea and sleepiness, and the most severe cases can lead to a loss of consciousness, he added.
Carbon monoxide is generated when fuel in a machine — such as a vehicle or heater — is not completely burned, said Wu Jen-chuan (吳人權), a physician at Wei Kung Hospital.
The gas is colorless and odorless, leading many to be exposed without realizing it, Wu added.
Additional reporting by CNA
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching