July 2026
Heat exhaustion vs heat stroke
The twenty minutes that separate a bad afternoon from an ambulance.
Doctor Key West, a local health column
The Column · July 2026
Heat exhaustion vs heat stroke
The two conditions look alike for exactly the twenty minutes that decide everything. Here is how to tell them apart before anyone needs an ambulance.
By nine most July mornings I have already heard the day's first sunburn story, usually from someone who swears the burn arrived through a cloud. I practice medicine on this island, and the island practices on my patients: heat that outworks the thermometer, sun that bounces off the water and collects twice, salt water that forgives nothing left uncleaned, mosquitoes with a documented history, and Duval Street filing its own casualty reports every weekend morning.
This column is my answer. I am Jason Pirozzolo, a physician here in Key West, and I write up the health questions this place actually generates: the January man o' war lines on Smathers Beach, the Half Marathon knees that same month, the spring break shoulders, the Fantasy Fest sunscreen arithmetic in October, the snorkel scrapes off the rocks at Fort Zachary Taylor. Not clinic brochures. Columns, written the way I would explain things across a kitchen table, with the safety math done honestly underneath.
The numbers running in the band above are live: the current heat index, today's UV, the barometer's mood, pulled from the government feeds while you read. When the strip says the island is dangerous, believe it over your vacation schedule. The longer reading of what those numbers mean lives at this week on the island.
The latest three
July 2026
Sunburn and sun safety in the Keys
Why the worst burns here happen by late morning, and what actually fixes one.
July 2026
Dehydration in paradise
The tax the humidity collects, and how to pay it in water instead of plans.
The whole column, by season
Summer heat and sun
The season that runs the clinic from May to October. Heat illness, burn arithmetic, water debts, and what the glare does to eyes: these four are the core curriculum for anyone planning to be outdoors here between breakfast and dinner.
- July 2026 Heat exhaustion vs heat stroke The twenty minutes that separate a bad afternoon from an ambulance.
- July 2026 Sunburn and sun safety in the Keys Why the worst burns here happen by late morning, and what actually fixes one.
- July 2026 Dehydration in paradise The tax the humidity collects, and how to pay it in water instead of plans.
- July 2026 Sand, sun, and your eyes Photokeratitis is sunburn of the eye, and a day on the water doubles the dose.
On and in the water
The ocean is the whole point of the trip, and it keeps its own rulebook. Stings, spines, scrapes, and the sunscreen debate, handled with first aid that works and plain honesty about what is myth.
- July 2026 Jellyfish stings: first aid that works Seawater rinse, tentacles off, hot water. The folklore stays on the dock.
- July 2026 Sea urchin stings and spines The hot soak, the graspable spines, and the purple stain that fools everyone.
- July 2026 Coral scrapes and saltwater cuts Warm water cuts infect fast here. Clean them like you mean it, on day one.
- July 2026 Reef safe sunscreen, honestly What the label promises, what the science says, and what the reef actually gets.
Bugs and bites
One column, because one mosquito matters here more than all the others put together. The island's dengue history is real, and so is the fix, and most of it happens on your own porch.
- July 2026 Mosquitoes and dengue in the Keys Mostly an itch, occasionally dengue. The bucket on your porch is the battleground.
Everyday island life
Duval Street is a cardiology stress test with better music. The morning-after column tells the truth about recovery, folklore included.
- July 2026 Hangover honesty on Duval What helps, what is folklore, and when it is not a hangover at all.
This column is written by Jason Pirozzolo, DO, a physician who lives and practices in Key West, and every word of it is education rather than medical advice. By day I run an orthopedics practice here on the island, which is a disclosure and, on paddleboard weekends, an occupational hazard: the full story is on the about page and the fine print lives in the medical disclaimer.