Heat Stroke Tips

Heat Stroke is a severe condition caused by impairment of the body'stemperature-regulating abilities, resulting from prolongedexposure to excessive heat and characterized by cessation of sweating,severe headache, high fever, hot dry skin, and in serious cases collapseand coma.

With temperatures rising in the East and Midwest, the number ofdeaths attributed to excessive heat exposure is pretty high. But mosttragedies can be avoided by taking a few precautions.

Humans need about two weeks to acclimatize to a dramatic change intemperature. When the body is unable to cope with excessive heat,the result is heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Last Updated - 27th November 2005

Cause of Heat Stroke

Heat stroke occurs when the body becomes unable to control its temperature:the body's temperature rises rapidly, the sweating mechanism fails,and the body is unable to cool down. Body temperature may rise to106°F or higher within 10-15 minutes. Heat stroke can cause deathor permanent disability if emergency treatment is not given.

Recognizing Heat Stroke

Warning signs of heat stroke vary but may include:

The most important measures to prevent heat strokes are to avoid becomingdehydrated, and to avoid vigorous physical activities in hot and humidweather. If you have to perform physical activities in hot weather, drinkplenty of fluids (such as water and Gatorade), but avoid alcohol, coffee,and tea which may lead to dehydration. Take frequent breaks to hydrateyourself. Wear hats, and light colored, and light and loose clothes.

Tips to beat the heat .

Run cold water over your inside wrists.
Evaporative cooling in its simplest form - wet your t-shirt, wringit out, wear it. Simple and effective.
Set a bowl of ice or cold water in front of a moving fan.
Add a 2-5 drops of essential oil of peppermint to a footbath ofcool water or to a spritzer bottle filled with witchhazel &pure distilled/mineral water. A little peppermint oil goes a longway, but avoid the eyes.
Dampen your clothing.
Use a wet washcloth on your forehead. Move it often to help releaseheat.
Keep doors to bedrooms, baths, laundry, etc., shut during theday and cool the actual living space in use. If bedroom blinds areclosed during the day and the door is kept shut, it's easy to coolit in the evening by opening the door an hour before you plan toretire.
Hang roll-up blinds over the OUTSIDE of east and south windows.You still get light and most of the view but shade the glass.
Put your feet in a basin of cool (not cold) water.
Lie on the floor, preferably hard surfaced.
Keep a supply of damp washcloths in plastic bags in the freezerfor cooling off. Put 5 or 6 of them in separate bags and use themto cool down. Wash them with your regular towel load and stick themback in the freezer rather than drying them on the line.
Be lazy. When the temperature soars, sit.
Wear loose, light - colored, cotton clothing.
Drink water, and plenty of it. It's cheap preventative medicine.
Avoid caffeine, alcohol and stress.
Eat light, as in fruits and raw vegetables. Go easy on protein;it increases your body's heat production.
Sprinkled cotton sheets with water before she went to bedon hot nights.
Body heat is lost through the head, so do away with long hair,hair spray and 'updos' for the summer. Keep your hair short andfreely moving to allow heat to escape.
There is no better personal air conditioning at any price than:a wetted white cotton dishtowel or diaper tied from forehead tonape of neck, and long enough to drape covering the head to or pastthe shoulders. If you wear a brimmed hat to shade nose and cheeks,just place that on top. Any slightest air movement's a delight withthis renewable, recyclable evaporative cooler. Just re-wet fromyour water bottle when you stop to rehydrate your innards.
Make a simple icepack, (small plastic bag and a handful of iceworks just fine) and wear it on top of your head. You may wish toput a cloth underneath the pack. If you are moving around, a hatwill hold the pack in place, and keep the sun off your head as well.Most body heat is lost through the head so this really helps coolyour entire body! This works beautifully at home, in the car, andeven in direct sun.
Keep a spray bottle filled with water and "spritz" your head andneck as needed.
Close all the windows in your house except the one in the roomyou're in, then place a fan in a window away from the open windowand direct it to blow outside. This pulls the air in from outsideand creates a nice breeze for you.
If the heat becomes unbearable, go to the movies or the mall.Practically every public space has air conditioning which you canaccess for little or no cost.
Keep the windows closed and the curtains drawn. Use the microwaveoven instead of the conventional oven as much as possible (conventionaloven lets off a lot of heat along with microwave saving a lot onenergy cost). Turn air conditioner on one day, off the next anduse fans, on the next, and again off with fans.
Keeping room-darkening blinds pulled which reflect more sun andheat, turn off the air conditioner, but turn the fan on rather thanon automatic. That will pull up cool air from basement or will circulatethe air from cool-air returns which usually are at floor level whereair is cooler.
Compact fluorescent, although not giving off as nice a light,use much less electricity and put off much less heat than incandescent.
Unplug your tv and vcr at night and when they're not in use. Also,shutdown your computer. Those screens, both the tv and computergenerate a lot of heat, and waste a lot of electricity preparingto come on when the button is pushed.