Heat stroke is a serious form of injury from heat and it’s considered a medical emergency. It’s advised to call 911 immediately and if you know first aid, to use it until paramedics are here. It’s that bad.
But there are many ways to treat it and prevent it from happening to you. Here are some things to keep in mind with heatstroke.
What Exactly Is Heatstroke?
Heatstroke or sunstroke is often a result of progression from other heat injuries like heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat syncope. Heatstroke can also hit you even when you show no other signs in the past of heat injury.
Furthermore, heatstroke can cause quite a bit of damage. It can kill or cause damage to brain cells along with damaging other internal organs. You find heat stroke mainly targeting individuals over 50, however, it can show up in young athletes as well.
How Do You Get Heatstroke?
In order to prevent heatstroke, it’s important to know what it is but also how you could catch it as well. With heat stroke, you catch it when you are exposed to high temperatures for extended periods of times.
Essentially heatstroke is caught when your body temperatures rise and your body fails to control your temperature. Medically speaking, heatstroke is when your body temperature is greater than 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius).
Symptoms of heat stroke are having nausea, throbbing headaches, dizziness, dry skin, muscle weakness, lack of sweat despite warm temperatures, rapid heartbeat, muscle weakness, seizures, fainting, or falling into a coma.
How To Prevent Heatstroke
The symptoms of heatstroke are dangerous which is why when someone is suffering from heatstroke it’s advised to be cautious when treating them. Furthermore, there are many actions that you can do to avoid heatstroke altogether. Here are some things to consider.
First wear light-colored, loose clothing along with a hat. Going for lightweight clothing helps in a variety of ways as when we are getting into the warmer seasons you want to wear something lighter. Furthermore, any darker colored clothing will absorb more heat which means a rise in body temperature.
Apply some sunscreen. Make sure that the sun protection factor is 30 or higher. As much as it’s important to get the suns rays you don’t want to cook yourself.
Drink a lot of fluids. It’s recommended to drink eight glasses of water a day, however, it doesn’t hurt to drink more in particularly warmer days. Furthermore be careful of sports drinks and certain water brands. In some cases, some beverages contain salt which makes you dehydrate faster and actually doesn’t hydrate you at all.
Take extra precautions when working out outside. It’s advised to drink 24 fluid ounces two hours before any kind of exercise outdoors. During exercising, it’s recommended to drink 8 ounces every 20 minutes, even when you aren’t feeling thirsty.
If you are feeling unwell, consider canceling or rescheduling outdoors activities. Temperatures drop down later on in the day and they are also low in the early morning. Consider doing your activities during those times when the sun isn’t high in the sky.