Heat Stroke Symptoms & Treatment: Essential Guide to Stay Safe

Heat stroke is a life-threatening medical emergency that needs immediate treatment. Your chances of getting a heat stroke increase if you are constantly exposed to a high temperature surrounding you for a long period. It can also happen in cases where your body temperature rises to abnormal levels while exercising.

The initial symptoms of a heat stroke include headaches, vomiting, irritability, and confusion. Fainting, seizures, flushed (pale) skin, and rapid drops or sudden rises in your blood pressure are the other more serious heat stroke symptoms.

Therefore, in the sections below, we have provided a detailed description of excessive heat symptoms along with the heat stroke treatment options, as well as what you can do at home for immediate first aid.

Hence, the early identification of heat stroke symptoms is essential to staying safe against greater health risks, regardless of age and gender.

What Is Heat Stroke?

Exposing your body to high temperatures for a long time or getting physically exhausted because of excessive heat results in overheating your body. When this overheating crosses a certain limit, and your body's temperature rises above 40 degrees Celsius, it results in a heat stroke.

Heat stroke is one of the most life-threatening medical conditions among other heat-related illnesses. The most cases of heat stroke are observed during the summer season.

That is why it is essential to have an in-depth understanding of heat stroke symptoms so that you and your loved ones can stay safe from the risk of death due to it during hot weather conditions. ²

Symptoms Of Heat Stroke

People often get confused between the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. While both conditions require timely treatment, a heat stroke is the more severe form of heat injury.

Hence, one way to differentiate between the two is to check your body's temperature. If your temperature increases above 38 degrees Celsius, it indicates heat exhaustion. However, if the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius, then it is a symptom of heat stroke. ³

1. Mild Heat Stroke Symptoms

Mild heat stroke symptoms include—

Headache
Dizziness
Nausea
Vomiting
Confusion ⁴

Also called sunstroke symptoms (sunstroke is another name for a heat stroke), these symptoms can develop into severe heat stroke symptoms, which can even lead to death if not taken seriously. Therefore, it is crucial to get immediate heat stroke treatment, regardless of the severity of your sunstroke symptoms.

2. Excessive Heat Symptoms That Call for Immediate Medical Attention

Along with the above-mentioned sunstroke symptoms, a person about to have a heat stroke is likely to show excessive heat symptoms, too.

Excessive heat symptoms are nothing but extreme heat stroke symptoms that require immediate medical attention. These include—

2.1. Anhidrosis

Anhidrosis is a condition in which you have dehydrated skin that does not sweat. It is a classic symptom of non-exertional heat stroke. ⁵

2.2. Changes in Sweating Patterns

When your heat stroke is caused by hot weather, touching the skin will give you an overly hot sensation and a dry texture.

On the other hand, if the primary cause of your heat stroke is excessive physical activity, such as high-intensity exercise, then your skin texture will become dry and sometimes slightly moist. These alterations in sweating are one of the most common and easily detectable heat stroke symptoms.

2.3. Altered Mental States and Behavioural Changes

These include—

Confusion
Agitation
Slurred speech
Irritability
Delirium (mental disorientation)
Seizures
Coma

2. 4. Other Serious Heat Stroke Symptoms

Other sunstroke symptoms that should not be ignored include—

Body weakness
Loss of consciousness
Fainting
Flushed skin
Low urine output
Excessively fast heart rate (or rapid breathing)
Sudden blood pressure changes, ranging from extremely low to extremely high levels
Continued sweating even after stopping the exercise

Diagnosing Heat Stroke

A proper diagnosis is one of the most vital steps in heat stroke treatment. A typical diagnosis involves analysing your heat stroke symptoms. This is followed by taking your temperature and performing a comprehensive physical examination to conclude.

Generally, the following tests are taken during diagnosis to suggest the right treatment for heat stroke—

1. The Rectal Temperature Test

When you're having a heat stroke, your mouth or forehead might not be able to provide your body temperature as accurately as your rectal temperature. Rectal temperature gives the exact temperature at which your body's core is.

2. A Urine Test

Having dark-coloured urine is a common sunstroke symptom. Therefore, a urine test is used to determine this, along with analysing the functioning of your kidneys.

3. A Blood Test

A blood test checks the amount of the following blood contents to determine whether your central nervous system (CNS) has undergone any damage:

In case of emergencies, when you cannot take yourself or your loved one to the hospital for a diagnosis, you can also book a blood test at home.

Immediate Treatment and First Aid

The basic principle of heat stroke treatment is to cool your body and bring its temperature down to normal body temperature. To do this, the following treatment techniques are applied to reduce excessive heat symptoms immediately—

1. Cold Water Immersion

The best technique to decrease your body's core temperature is to give you a bath with cold water or ice water. The faster you can immerse your body into an ice water bath, the lesser will be your chances of undergoing organ damage or death due to heat stroke.

Hence, cold water immersion is the best heat stroke treatment when it comes to immediate steps that you can take.

2. Evaporation Method

While the mist deposits cold water on your skin, the warm air from the fan evaporates it. This leads to the cooling of your skin.

3. At-Home First Aid Methods

While you wait for medical care to reach you, you can take the following steps to deal with heat stroke symptoms at home:

Long-Term Treatment and Recovery

Once you arrive at a medical facility, the heat stroke treatments that you can expect include—

1. Cooling Blanket

A cooling blanket is a special type of blanket that is wrapped around your body to initiate lowering of its temperature. This is accompanied by the application of ice to minimise the heat stroke symptoms on major body organs like—

2. Cold-Water Lavage

This is a more precise method used for the treatment of heat stroke. In this method, thin and flexible tubes called catheters are inserted into your body to initiate its internal cooling. The catheters make their way, either through your rectum or through your throat, and the body cavities are filled with cold water using these passages.

3. Other Treatment Options for Heat Stroke

4. What To Do During Recovery?

After you have undergone a heat stroke, your body is likely to undergo temperature-related changes for at least a few weeks. During this time, here are two things that you must keep in mind—

Apart from this, you must also minimise your exposure to extremely hot weather and take the right precautions when under direct heat.

All in all, you must never avoid heat stroke symptoms, regardless of how mild they seem to be. One way to stay safe against heat-related illnesses is to take a complete body checkup package every once in a while. This test can give you an overview of your current health status, which can help determine what you can improve for the best fitness in the long run.