Author: Ozren Podnar |
Cool down in hot sunny days with drinks, compresses and aromatherapy |
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Sunstroke is a condition caused by excessive exposure of the head to the sun, when the whole organism adapts to cool down that overheated part of the body.
This emergency situation stimulates the body to quickly send the "colder" blood from other parts in order to resolve the problem of overheating, which in turn causes many unpleasant, and sometimes highly dangerous consequences.
If the overheating continues, the influx of fresh blood will go on, which will make the blood vessels and the brain swell.
The symptoms of this condition resemble a brain concussion. More severe cases of sunstroke may cause loss of consciousness and, in extreme cases, coma or death, which means it is necessary to act urgently.
The most frequent symptoms of sunstroke:
- dry skin
- strong facial flushing
- elevated temperature
- confusion
- headache and vertigo
- sensitivity to light
- nausea
If you experience sunstroke, go and see a doctor. If you are uncapable of doing so, call him on the phone or ask someone to take you to the nearest clinic.
If medical help is unavailable or far away, apply simple home-made treatments like cooling in cold water and drinking plenty of cold beverages.
Lower the temperature and drink a lot of water or tea in order to make up for the lost liquid.
These tips will help you in case of hyperthermic fatigue (exhaustion), which does not occur necessarily due to an excessive exposure to the sun, but also because of the loss of liquid, notably water and sodium. The most frequent culprit for this is sweating.
Signs of heat fatigue are:
- visible profuse sweating (sticky, pale and moist skin)
- loss of apetite
- confusion
- vomiting
- nausea
- elevated temperature
- vertigo and headache
- spasms in arms, legs and stomach
- accelerated breathing
- irregular heart rate
- loss of consciousness
In heatstroke, significantly more dangerious condition, the organism goes into shock, the body temperature reaches or exceeds 40 degrees,while all the other symptoms like nausea, vomiting, faster heart rate and headache are stronger and more prominent.
In all cases – sunstroke, heat fatigue and heatstroke – the most important thing is withdraw to the shade and then apply some of the well-known tips for whole-body cooling and fluid supplementation.
Next we'll show you how traditional remedies can help you recover quickly and efficiently from the consequences of sunbathing and heat.
Bath, shower and compresses for quick cooling down
Pour cold or cool water into a bathtub and sit in it for five to ten minutes.
A cold bath should lower your temperature fast. If you don't have a bathtub, a cold or a cool shower could do the job as well.
Compresses from wet towells, wrapping the body in a moist blanket and sprinkling the body with water may also be helpful.
If you start shivering from cold water, use tepid water whose temperature does not exceed 30 degrees Celsius.
In a hospital environment, the doctor may give you a muscle relaxant to relieve shivering.
Doctors also use evaporation, a treatment during which they spray the patient's skin with cool water and then blow dry it with hot air.
The hot air cause the water to evaporate from the skin surface whereby it cools it down and brings the organism back to thermal balance.
Fruits and vegetables as cooling aids
Red hot chili pepper lowers the fever and alleviates the headache caused by an excessive exposure to the sun.
Pour half a teaspoon of hot pepper in a cup of hot water. Take one tablespoon of this mixture and pour it into a glass of water.
Slowly sip as you drink it. This mixture should relieve your sunstroke symptoms.
Eat much fresh fruits and vegetables, specially those rich in water like watermelon, lemon, orange and cucumber.
Enrich your diet with protein sources like nuts, legumes and olive oil.
Eat buttermilk made of yogurt. This food cools down, but is useful for general health.
Avoid food rich in salt because an excess of salt could impede sweat production.
Speedy recovery with aromatherapy
Essential oils may help a sunstroke victim to recover more quickly after most of the symptoms have passed.
The most effective oil against sunstroke is lavender essential oil. Dillute it with a base oil such as almond, sesame or jojoba.
Gently rub this dillute oil into the palms, soles and the chest of the person affected with sunstroke.
Another solution is to mix lavender oil with aloe vera.
Exploit the cooling effect of this mixture and apply it to the same spots as the dilluted lavender oil – palms, soles and chest.
Other beneficial essential oils are rosemary and basil. They should also be diluted with a base oil before being applied to the skin.
Home-made oil from raw onion
Another oil that helps alleviate the problems caused by sunstroke is obtained from ordinary fresh raw onion.
Squeeze the juice from two large onions and spread it over the palms and the soles of the person affected by sunstroke and heat fatigue.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy experts recommend homeopathic preparations such as Glonoin 30.
Give the patient one dose every 15 minutes, until improvement of the symptoms.
If the patient does not respond to this preparation, replace it with Belladonna 30.
Give the patient one dose every 15 minutes.
Clothes factor
Apart from avoiding scorching summer sun, act preventively against sunstroke by wearing light and comfortable clothes that allows the skin to breath.
Choose flax and cotton clothes and stay away from synthetics.
Use hats and caps. Children and infants absolutely must wear them.
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