As the weather forecasts have already sent out the unbelievable news that Delhi and other states are soon to enter the red alert zone of reaching 50°C in temperature, this summer has surely made people go crazy to abandon coolers and purchase air conditioners as soon as possible!
When even Bollywood’s King of Romance, Shah Rukh Khan, very recently fell prey to the unavoidable heat stroke, there’s no way the common folks wouldn’t face the monstrosity of the deadly heat waves.
As per a conversation with a leading media agency, Dr M Wali, a senior consultant of the Department of Internal Medicine at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, talked about the consequences of dehydration and heat stroke: “Dehydration and extreme heat can affect you adversely if you are over 50 and have co-morbidities like hypertension and diabetes.”
So, what happens when a human body is exposed to severe heat and sweating? To this, the doctor shared, “The body goes into a fight and flight mode. Its sympathetic nervous system gets activated, which means the body senses a crisis situation and releases stress hormones. With less water, the blood volume goes down, the blood thickens and there is greater stress on the heart and blood vessels to pump more blood to the peripheries so that the skin can radiate the heat quickly.”
“During a heat stroke, the body can no longer control its temperature. The sweating mechanism and evaporation fail and the body is unable to cool down. When heat stroke occurs, the body temperature can rise to 104°F or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. That’s why one has to bring down the body temperature by administering saline drips, keeping the affected person in an air-conditioned environment and giving them a cold compress with ice packs against the neck, under the arms and in the groin area, where large blood vessels lie close to the skin surface. This will stabilise the body temperature,” he added.
Even though there’s no way to hide from the dangers, of the summer’s heat waves and heat strokes lurking around every corner, be it outdoors or indoors, it’s definitely important to keep ourselves dehydrated. After all, nobody wants to fall prey to these summer monsters and become weaker. So, health-wise, it’s beneficial for us to not forget to drink fresh fruit juices (lemon juice, watermelon juice, ‘bael sharbat’) and of course, cool, chilled water and energy fluids!
And not to forget that apart from staying in AC rooms (when indoors), one can take a bath to prevent our bodies from sweating profusely and heating up, ultimately leading to dehydration. Also, it’s better to stay indoors as much as possible, wear light, shaded clothes and use fewer gadgets than usual.
It won’t be long until the temperatures of every state in India hit 58°C (the hottest temperature ever recorded in Libya by the World Meteorological Organization Assessment of the Purported World Record) and our planet will be left all scorched up without any trace of life.