What is heat exhaustion and heat stroke?

Heat Exhaustion:

This condition takes place when people carry out physical activities like working or playing in hot and humid places as it leads to sweating. Thus bodily fluids get lost and the body gets overheated. In this condition an individual’s body temperature increases but does not exceed 104 F.

 

Heat stroke:

Heat stroke is a medical condition which is considered as life threatening. In this condition an individual’s cooling system, which also controls the brain temperature, stops working. This obviously results in increasing internal temperature of the body. This temperature may shoot up to more than 105 F causing damage to the brain or to any of the organs in your body.

 

Heat exhaustion symptoms:

After being in hot or humid conditions for a prolonged duration one may suffer from heat exhaustion and the symptoms of this could be as follows:

 

• Frequent complaints of headache and weakness.
• Increased thirst.
• Sweating heavily.
• Cramps in muscles.
• Feelings of nausea and vomiting.
• Weakness and fatigue.
• Persisting unsteadiness and dizziness.
• Increased pulse rate.

If you notice some or all of these symptoms, seek medical attention without delay.

Heat stroke symptoms:

Here are the symptoms of heat stroke:

• Body temperature as high as 105 F.
• Dry skin with no sweat at all.
• Fast and troubled breathing.
• Frequent vomiting.
• Increased or decreased blood pressure.
• Fast and irregular heartbeats.
• Bafflement and confusion.
• Fainting – this could be the first symptom in older people.
• Seizures.

These are the symptoms of heat stroke and if you find any of these persisting then contact your health care provider right away. Remember that untreated heat stroke can lead to coma so it is important to treat this condition immediately.

Treatment for heat exhaustion:

It may take just one minute to recognize heat exhaustion but it will take several minutes to treat this condition.

• First of all remember that if one person can get affected by heat exhaustion in such a place; so can another – so take precautions to keep yourself safe.
• Confirm that the patient is breathing and take him or her to a cooler place right away.
• Remove unwanted clothing to cool down the heat.
• If the patient is conscious and can swallow, make him or her drink fluids.
• If the patient is unconscious and cannot listen to you, contact 911 immediately.
• If the patient stops sweating and is unconscious then this condition is leading him or her to heat stroke so now he or she needs to be treated for heat stroke.

Treatment for heat stroke:

• Follow all instructions as for heat exhaustion and call 911 without delay.
• Apply ice on the patient’s armpits, neck and back.
• Take all possible and aggressive actions to cool the patient.
• Make sure to admit the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.
• Once admitted he or she is to be treated in the Critical Care unit. To bring down the body temperature, continuous sponging with tepid water is to be done. Also he or she is to be wrapped in a wet sheet and is to be placed close to the fan. Thus the body temperature is brought down.

After treating heat exhaustion the patient may recover in few hours and in heat stroke it may take a few days.