2023-06-12 16:21:21
- Michelle Roberts
- Health reporter, BBC News
During hot weather, you can easily experience symptoms of hyperthermia.
With temperatures in your city of 40°C (104°F), it is difficult to keep your body at its normal 37°C.
The advice here: keep calm and slow your movement to keep your body hydrated!
Heat exhaustion is usually not dangerous, and you can hydrate yourself, but heatstroke is a medical emergency that requires medical attention.
Here’s what you should know and do to avoid them.
Heat stroke or heat exhaustion?
Heat exhaustion occurs when your body becomes too hot and struggles to regulate your temperature and adapt to the temperature of the environment around you.
This may affect any person, even healthy people, especially if they do strenuous exercise in high temperatures, or drink alcohol in the sun all day. You may get it quickly within minutes, or gradually over hours.
And the symptoms you will feel are the alarm bells that your body sends to alert you to the need for rapid hydration.
An obvious sign is excessive sweating, as well as feeling uncomfortably hot.
Other symptoms include:
- Headache
- Vertigo and restlessness
- Loss of appetite and feeling nauseous
- Cramps in the arms, legs and stomach
- rapid breathing or pulse
- Body temperature is 38°C or higher
- Feeling very thirsty
As for young children, who may not be able to express to you how they feel, symptoms may appear in the form of fatigue and sleepiness.
Heat exhaustion can turn into heatstroke, which is an emergency. This means that your body can no longer control heat, and your normal temperature rises dramatically. Then you need urgent medical help.
Signs you should look out for and act quickly:
- Feeling unwell following 30 minutes of resting in a cool place and drinking plenty of water
- Not sweating even when feeling very hot
- temperature of 40°C or higher
- Rapid breathing or shortness of breath
- Feeling confused
- Epileptic fit)
- Unconsciousness
- Not Responding
The elderly and infants, as well as those with chronic diseases, are at particular risk.
The body’s ability to regulate its own temperature is not fully developed in young children, and in older people the ability may be reduced due to illness, medication, or other factors. Being overweight or obese can also make it difficult for the body to cool down.
What should be done
If someone around you is suffering from heat exhaustion:
- Help him get some rest in a cool place, such as an air-conditioned room or a shady place
- Have him take off any unnecessary clothing to expose as much skin as possible
- Moisturise his skin! Use whatever cold wet sponge or cloth you have available, splash water on it, use cold compresses around the neck and armpits, or wrap it in a cold, damp sheet
- Use a fan to ventilate and focus it on his wet body. This will help the water evaporate, thus cooling his skin
- Make sure he drinks water and a sports or rehydration drink
- Stay with him until he gets better.
These steps can help a person with heat exhaustion cool down and feel better within 30 minutes. In case of any doubt, seek help immediately.
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