Some Don’t Like it Hot
Published Jul 19, 2006
Summer’s here, and temperatures across the country are soaring. Whether it’s due to global warming or just natural conditions, things seem to be really heating up. This raises the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which is a life-threatening medical emergency, so it’s worth our while to review the symptoms and treatments of excessive heat exposure.
Heat exhaustion usually occurs after strenuous exertion in hot, humid conditions. It is caused by loss of fluids and salts due to excessive sweating, the body’s normal mechanism for cooling itself down. Humidity adds to the problem because it makes it more difficult to sweat, which can increase the body’s internal temperature. Symptoms, which can be hard to recognize without awareness, include paleness, sweating, dizziness or feeling faint, headache, weakness, thirst and nausea.
For mild cases of heat exhaustion, treatment consists of:
- resting in a cool shaded area,
- drinking fluids such as sports drinks to replace salt (eating salty snacks can help too, but do not drink beverages containing alcohol or caffeine),
- and loosening or removing clothes.
If a person with heat exhaustion develops abnormal mental status (such as dizziness or confusion), chest or abdominal pain, vomiting or inability to drink fluids, they should be taken to a hospital for immediate treatment.
Heat stroke occurs when a person’s cooling mechanisms stop working. It most often happens during prolonged periods of hot weather in people who cannot control their environment, such as infants, elderly and people who are bedridden. The body’s temperature rises to 104 degrees or higher, which can cause damage to internal organs including the brain. The symptoms can include markedly abnormal mental status (including dizziness, confusion or delirium) or unconsciousness, flushed, hot and dry skin and markedly elevated body temperature.
Heat stroke is a medical emergency requiring urgent treatment in a hospital. While waiting for medical assistance to arrive, you can:
- move the person to a cooler environment,
- place him or her in a cool bath (if conscious or monitored continuously),
- cover with wet sheets, apply cool water and fan the body to promote evaporation, and/or apply ice packs to the neck, groin and underarms.
The best way to deal with heat exhaustion or heat stroke is to prevent them from happening in the first place. You can do this by avoiding prolonged exposure to excessive heat and/or strenuous activity during especially hot times. In addition to taking rest breaks, make sure you consume large amounts of fluids – it’s a lot better to err on the high side than on the low side in terms of drinking fluids during hot weather.
Awareness of these heat-related conditions is as important as avoiding excessive heat and drinking fluids, especially if you or someone you know fits in the higher risk categories – infants, the elderly, the chronically ill or bedridden. But when the weather is hot like it is now, heat exhaustion and heat stroke can also happen to people who are not at high risk, so watch for early signs of problems in anyone who has been too active or too long in the sun, such as athletes.