The human body is amazing in its own way. Under the right conditions, it can help you perform spectacular feats and lets you live gloriously. Unfortunately, if you find yourself facing heat exhaustion – you risk losing the ability to function normally and in extreme conditions, it could be lethal. The internal temperature of your body factors in both your surrounding environment and the heat emanating from you at any particular time. The basic temperature at which your body can normally function is 37 C or 98.7F. Anything above or below can cause you to feel ill since your body is not able to regulate heat gain or loss properly. In the case of heat exhaustion, your body finds that it is unable to keep you cool by losing the amount of heat required to keep you healthy.
Conditions that Cause Heat Exhaustion
To better understand how your body fails at this form of regulation, it is important to keep in mind the conditions where such a failure can occur:
• Dehydration: Your body needs to sweat to regulate your internal temperature. If you fail to supply it with the needed amount of fluids on a daily basis, you could easily find yourself unable to operate smoothly. Alternatively, extreme conditions that require excessive sweating can also cause dehydration. It is important to ensure that you effectively replace the water loss through sweating with adequate fluids to prevent dehydration.
• Medications and alcohol: Certain forms of medicine force water out of the body. A common example of such forms of medication are diuretics (Interestingly, caffeine also has diuretic properties). Similarly, alcohol forces the body to lose water, especially when consumed in larger quantities. It is important to understand the side effects of whatever medications you consume and limit alcohol intake to prevent heat exhaustion. Regulating your water intake can help towards preventing this form of dehydration.
• Humidity: Temperatures, where sweating becomes difficult due to the temperature and weather conditions, can prevent the body from cooling off as it needs to. Since your body can no longer effectively sweat to keep you cool, heat exhaustion becomes more likely.
• Obesity: If you weigh more than the normal weight index, then such conditions reduce the body’s effectiveness in regulating heat loss.
If you or somebody you know is dehydrated and needs immediate help, or if you are just interested in learning more about heat exhaustion – get in touch with The Orthopedic Center in Tulsa today!
Give us a call at 918-582-6800, or visit us at any one of our three locations in Tulsa. The Cushing-Cimarron Healthcare Center is at 2340 E Main Street, Cushing, OK – 74023. The Midtown Tulsa Centre is at 1809 E, 13th Street, Tulsa, OK 74014 and the South Tulsa Centre is at 8803 S, 101 ST E. Avenue, Tulsa, OK, 74133.
