Beat the Heat: How to Recognize and React to Heat Exhaustion and Heatstroke

Heat Exhaustion vs. Heatstroke: What Are the Warning Signs and How Should You React?

With global temperatures continuing to increase, so are the threats, prevalence, and severity of some conditions such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. All of these conditions may be severe, and life-threatening in some cases if not addressed and managed correctly. Learning the differences between heat exhaustion and heat stroke, how to get basic information about signals that switch from one case to the other, and how to treat it appropriately go quite a long way in making a huge positive impact.

Summertime Heat-Related Illnesses: Why They Occur

Heat injuries on the other hand are conditions that arise when the body’s means of regulating heat namely sweating and blood flow is inhibited by environmental temperatures. The body normally requires heat dissipation and this is achieved through sweating where the moisture cools the skin surface by evaporation. Blood vessels also expand in order to allow much-needed circulation to the skin, whereby heat may easily be released. However, when environmental temperatures are high or when the humidity levels are high, these natural coolers get impaired, and incidences of heat-related diseases result.

Understanding Heat Exhaustion