Heat Stroke Treatment Questions and Answers

Heat exhaustion is the first sign your body is asking for help to start cooling down, if it becomes worse your body can lead to heat stroke or sun stroke and start to cause major damage. If you believe you have signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke, visit our Urgent Care to start getting treated immediately. Call our office today or walk-in to our clinic.

What Causes Heat Stroke?

Heatstroke is caused when your body is overheating from the sun or long exposure to high temperatures. Heat stroke can be minor or cause major damage. Heat stroke requires medical emergency treatment if it becomes severe, and if left untreated can turn worse and quickly damage to your internal organs. However, it can still strike even if you have shown no previous signs of heat injury.

Heatstroke causes usually occur as a result of:

• Exposure to a high-temperature environment
  Heatstroke can be caused from being in a severely warm environment which can lead to the body’s core temperature to rise.
• Strenuous activity
  Heatstroke is also caused by an increase in the body’s core temperature by being brought on by a lot of physical activity in hot weather.
• Wearing excessive clothing
  Prevention of letting your body sweat and have access to evaporate to cool down your body can also cause heat stroke.
• Drinking excessive amount of alcohol
  Drinking alcohol can also affect your body’s inability to regulate your core body temperature
• Becoming severely dehydrated
  Not being able to drink enough water to help replenish the fluids you have lost throughout the day from sweating can also cause heat stroke

How Do You Treat Heat Stroke?

Depends where you go to treat your heat stroke, if you apply at home remedies before going to an urgent care, you can do the following:

• Resting in a cool place, with air-conditioning or a shady spot with a fan
• Drink cold fluids, and stick to water or sports drinks
• Wear loose fitting clothing to help your body sweat and let the sweat evaporate
• Take a cool shower or bath, or put several towels in cold water and soak them onto your skin

However, if your heat stroke is severe, you will need to get to an urgent care or the emergency room to have it treated. A few things an urgent care or an emergency room can do to help treat heat stroke that is different from at home remedies are:

• Immerse you in cold water
  A bath of cold or even ice water has been proven to be the most effective way of lowering your bodies core temperature.
• Use evaporation cooling techniques

Healthcare professionals may try to lower the body temperature using evaporation cooling techniques by misting cool water over your entire body while warm air if fanned over you, causing the water to evaporate and cool your skin

• Pack you with ice and cooling blankets

Wrapping you with special cooling blankets and inserting ice packs near your groin, neck, back and armpits to help lower your bodies temperature

• Medication to stop the shivering

If the above treatments make you shiver, your doctor may provide a muscle relaxant medication to help stop the shivering.

What Happens To Your Body During Heat Stroke?

Many suffer from heat-related sickness when the body’s core temperature starts to go into overdrive. Heat stroke is considered one of the most severe forms of heat-induced illness. A few symptoms of heatstroke include:

• Dizziness
• Light-headedness
• Weakness
• Clumsiness
• Poor coordination
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Blurred vision
• Muscle aches
• Nausea
• Vomiting

Under some conditions, sweating is not enough. If a person’s body temperature rises too fast, it can cause damage to your brain or other vital organs. Other issues that can limit your body’s ability to regulate temperatures include old age, youth (0-4) obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn and substance use. If heat stroke goes untreated, it can develop your organs and other vital parts of the body to be damaged and become worse.

What Is The Difference Between Heat Stroke And Sun Stroke?

Heat stroke and sun stroke are considered the same thing, they just have different terms to use. However, heat exhaustion is the first sign of your body leading to heat stroke. If your body starts to develop signs of heat exhaustion, make sure to get somewhere cool and let your body cool down with water by drinking and splashing it on yourself.

Symptoms to look out for when it comes to heat exhaustion:

• General weakness
• Increased heavy sweating
• Weak but faster pulse
• Increasing heart rate
• Nausea or vomiting ensues
• Possible fainting
• Pale, cold and clammy skin

If you or someone you know is showing signs or symptoms of heat stroke or sun stroke visit an urgent care like AFC Urgent Care Riverview, FL. We serve patients from Riverview FL, Bloomingdale FL, Adamsville FL, Valrico FL, East Tampa FL, Gibsonton FL, and Brandon FL.

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