MOULTRIE — Skip the soda, alcohol and sugar during these dog days, local health practitioners emphasize, and get out of the heat if possible.

“We do urge anyone who experiences symptoms associated with severe heat exhaustion or heat stroke to get emergency medical attention immediately,” said Dr. Jacqueline Grant, director of Georgia Health District 8, Unit 2.

From 1979 to 2002, excessive heat exposure caused 8,966 deaths in the U.S. During this period, more people in this country died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined, public health district information said.

Blainette Hanson, nurse practitioner at the Ellenton Clinic, reported three farmworkers with heat-related stress who came into the clinic Wednesday. Luckily, they came in before they went into heat exhaustion, she said.

Those three are an indication of an emerging problem this week due to the scorching heat, and Hanson is concerned.

“Not only is the heat very, very high, but it’s very humid. So the body can’t evaporate the sweat to cool off. We have long daylight hours now. The heat doesn’t even get below 80 at night in some of these places, so you add humidity in air, you get your heat index really high, then our workers in the field need to take a lot of water, but they have a habit of drinking soda,” Hanson said.

Ice water in hot conditions has a tendency to cause abdominal cramps, but soda doesn’t do that as much, she said. However, soda causes the body to be dry and often contains caffeine, which elevates heart rates, and sugar, which the body immediately converts to energy which creates heat and causes a body to be drier than if it hadn’t consumed sugar, she said. The same story goes for alcohol.

In the field, workers have water and Gatorade, she said but they’re working long rows and have their hands full, so they tend to not carry drinks with them to hydrate. On top of that, produce workers must bend down over black plastic rows, which create extremely hot conditions, especially on the vulnerable area of the face, she said.“I tell the workers all the time, ‘Look at your hands and see how callused they are. If you’re not wearing eye protection, what are you doing to your eyes?’” Hanson said.

The clinic advises workers to wear loose, light-colored clothes; avoid working in the middle of the day; seek shade whenever they can and lay off soda, she said.

“If they start feeling effects of the heat — if they’re sweaty and their pupils are large and they’re weak, that is a sign they need to quit and go in the shade and drink water,” she said, cautioning not to drink so much water as to vomit.

“Outside workers are at great risk,” Hanson said. “I think it’s going to get worse in the next few weeks.”

Altogether in Colquitt Regional Medical Center’s emergency room and health clinics there were four “near misses” for heat exhaustion this week, said CRMC spokesperson Nicole Gilbert.

“We have seen and treated quite a few heat-related illnesses,” said Dena Zinker, RN director of the CRMC emergency room. “No definitive heat strokes but cases relating to the heat with symptoms such as cramping, nausea and vomiting.”

Heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness, reported information from the Southwest Public Health District. It occurs when the body becomes unable to control its temperature. The body’s temperature will rise rapidly while the sweating mechanism fails and the body becomes unable to cool down.

Body temperature can rise to 106 degrees or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. Heat stroke can cause death or permanent disability if emergency treatment is not provided.

Public health officials urge the public to seek air conditioning whenever possible. If a person’s home does not have air conditioning, they advise spending a few hours in a store or public library. Individuals can also beat the heat by staying hydrated and taking cool showers, they said.

Those at particular risk are the elderly, children and people with certain medical conditions, such as heart disease.