ARKANSAS, USA — As temperatures continue to rise, so does the risk of serious medical issues due to the heat.
Heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are all names for how your body responds when it gets too hot.
“The lesser is, of course, the heat cramps,” said Dr. Hugh Jackson, medical director of Mercy’s emergency department. “As you have some … maladaptation to heat, we tend to progress from sort of a cramping-type sensation to fatigue.”
Heat cramps and heat exhaustion happen when the body gets too hot and has trouble cooling itself. This could result in fatigue, muscle cramps, excessive sweating, or no sweating at all.
“We commonly will talk to people about sweating or the absence of that, and then it can progress all the way to where, if you do manage to have some elevated temperature and you deteriorate, you can actually have neurological dysfunction that appears much like a stroke to the fact that you can even collapse and in uncommon circumstances, die,” said Dr. Jackson.
Dr. Jackson said there are signs to watch for long before heat affects the body.
“If you find that you're getting fatigued more easily than you would expect with normal activities … or if you're sweating and all sudden you stop, that's not actually all that common,” said Dr. Jackson.
If you experience those symptoms along with dizziness, nausea, or shortness of breath, Dr. Jackson said you should get out of the heat, drink some fluid, and rest for a while.
He added that you may not realize how the heat will affect you.
“If we go out and do activities, and it's warmer, and we have even good general health, one can deteriorate because you don't adapt to it quite so well,” Dr. Jackson said.
“If you add to that mix, people that might be at higher risk, for instance, certain medications that might dehydrate us, blood pressure medications, or if we have other chronic medical illnesses, heart disease, diabetes, these types of things, certainly the older folks in our population are always at some increased risk, that can create a problem.”
Dr. Jackson said the best way to avoid heat-related illnesses is to prevent undue exposure to heat.
If you have to be in the heat, he advises finding shade when possible, staying in a well-ventilated area, drinking lots of fluids, and minimizing physical exertion.
“If you add those things up, you can get to a point where it’s very difficult to adapt, and if you don’t seek help fairly soon, you can have some really negative consequences, most of which could be prevented,” Dr. Jackson said.
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