How to manage heat stroke in summer? How to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion
Heat and its exposure could lead to heatstroke, where the body’s temperature rises above 104 Degree Fahrenheit (40 Degree) Celsius. This is a type of overheating that could be a life-threatening problem, endangering your brain and organs. On the other hand, heat stroke is also known as sunstroke. This condition drastically impacts your body temperature and results in overheating causing brain damage and organ failures, endangering your life in a short period of time. Therefore, it’s extremely important to understand the preventive methods to treat heat stroke as quickly as possible. It naturally poses a threat to our body, causing the worst form of hypothermia.
Different types of heat strokes
Heat stroke can be defined into different aspects of hypothermia, where your body’s condition changes as per the state of heatstroke. Listed below are two different types:-
- Exertional Heat Stroke is the result of physical overexertion in hot and humid weather. This type of heat stroke can be easily treated at the right time or by letting the body cool down for a few minutes. It only lasts for a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes.
- Non-exertional Heat stroke is the classic heat stroke that happens due to overexposure to harmful UV rays in sunlight. It can deeply affect your brain and body temperature by exceeding the normal 40-degree Celsius mark.
Therefore, the necessity to treat heat stroke victims is as important as treating second-degree burn victims because it drastically impacts on your brain as well as internal organs. So here we are going to discuss some of the most common symptoms of heat stroke and how you can treat it safely?
What causes heat stroke?
Heat stroke is a common problem in summer days when scorching heat and rise in temperature affect you from outside as well as inside. So it’s really important to understand the vital cause of heat strokes and how you can avoid it safely? Heat stroke means that your body cannot cool itself. In other words, your body is absorbing more heat than it releases cold sweat, resulting in an extreme form of hypothermia called heat strokes.
The very first organ that is responsible for not maintaining your inner body temperature is the hypothalamus, a specialized organ for bodily functions. It basically sets your body temperature to 98.6 degree Fahrenheit (37 degree Celsius). But as your body temperature rises to 104 degree Fahrenheit, you start experiencing the listed below symptoms.
Heat stroke symptoms you should look for
As per the doctor’s heat stroke is a medical emergency that requires immediate attention of a health expert. Therefore, listed below a some of the most common symptoms of heat strokes that you can identify and immediately visit to the doctor’s office for treatment:-
- Anhidrosis (in this condition you can become dry, and it doesn’t sweat as it should be, which is the common symptom of heat stroke)
- Ataxia (is a common problem with movements and coordination, so much so that a person cannot walk in a straight line during heat stroke)
- Delirium (a common symptom in heat stroke where you feel disoriented and confused as your brain starts buzzing around)
- Low or high blood pressure causes a sense of panic attack.
- Nausea and vomiting may also occur as your body starts flushing down excess water as soon as the body temperature rises instantly.
Why do heat strokes always happen on summer days?
This might be a great question that you should ask your weatherman because summer days have always been hot and dry for everyone. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people are getting sunstroke and suffering from heat exposures to a great extent. So it’s astounding that despite every alarm in sign, we tend to ignore everything and go outside like a casual day. The rising temperature seems to add extra heat to our body’s cooling system, making it work at extreme levels and breaking the boiling point of our mind. So you can easily guess the only way to escape from sunstroke is knowing about heat stroke and its treatment for an immediate solution.
Heat stroke treatments for summer
Firstly, you have to understand that heat stroke is a medical emergency that requires immediate help. So if you have called the ambulance and waiting for it to arrive, then follow these listed below steps for the immediate treatment of a person:-
- You should apply on the neck under the armpit and groin area for immediate cooling effects because these are the specific areas from where most of the body’s heat is generated. Cooling down the heat stimulants area is the primary task that anyone should do.
- Make them drink some sports drink or electrolytes which are high in potassium to keep their blood pressure low and body cool down for a few minutes.
- Assist them to lay in a cold and ventilated environment, giving them a cold sheet for instant polling effect.
- Try to pour iced scored water all, let them take a cold water bath immediately for relief purposes.
- Take them in a cold and isolated environment where the room temperature is 22 degree Celsius.
- Try to monitor their breathing and cardiovascular movements to avoid any cardiac arrest or organ failures.
- Try to remove any tight-fitting clothes or sports wear during cold baths that respect their ventilation system.
These are some of the most common guidelines that should be followed properly if anyone has been sun stroked in any place. This might be the best help that you can give to the person, and simply wait for the health experts to arrive on time and give them a brief report on the patient’s conditions.