What is Heat Exhaustion?

 

Everybody is familiar with sunburn, but few people understand what heat exhaustion or heat stroke is. Whether you have spent a long and glorious afternoon at the beach under the rays of the sun, or work in a hot and humid environment such as a manufacturing plant, a bakery,  or a construction site, everybody is at risk of heat exhaustion if they are not careful and aware of the signs that lead to it. However, when recognized and treated heat exhaustion can be completely cured, so what is most important is that you have a basic understanding of what it is, how it occurs, and how to take care of it. In today's article we're going to take a look at the facts so that you can best be ready to deal with it.

Prolonged exposure to heat can cause your body to fight hard to cool itself, which it does by rushing your blood to the surface of your skin. If this takes place for long enough then it can result in not enough blood reaching your muscles, organs and brains, so that your thought processes and mechanical abilities become impaired.

The people who are the most susceptible to heat exhaustion are the elderly, the young, the infirm, chronic alcoholics, and people with weak immune systems. Humidity also makes matters worse by reducing the effectiveness of your body's ability to cool itself through sweating, as the humidity will hamper your sweat's ability to evaporate.

Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and heat cramps are all different consequences of too much heat. Heat exhaustion and cramps occur when the body loses too much fluid through sweating and runs out of salt. Heat stroke however is much worse, and can take place when the body suffers from long, overly intense exposure to heat and ultimately loses its ability to cool itself. This causes the part of the brain that regulates heat to malfunction as it fails to do its job, and consequently your body quickly overheats and begins to take damage.

The way to treat heat exhaustion and stroke is simple. You need to immediately increase the amount of fluids you have in your body, and to also seek to ingest salt to replace lost sodium. A sports drinks that can help replace electrolytes is a good idea, but most importantly you need to get out of the sun and into a cold if not cool surrounding to lower your body temperature.

 

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