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Hypothermia
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Hypothermia is a condition of low body temperature below 95 degrees F. The body loses heat faster than it can be produced and, in severe cases, the body organs fail, including the heart and the victim dies. It is caused by exposure to cold weather, cold environments or immersion in cold bodies of water. The best way to treat hypothermia is to warm the body to a normal temperature and to prevent organ damage in the process.
The first symptom you'll see in hypothermia is shivering. Shivering is the body's way of trying to warm itself by making the muscles move in the shivering process. You can also become clumsy and have a loss of coordination. Slurred speech is not uncommon and you can stumble when walking. Your thinking can become confused or fuzzy. You can attempt to remove your clothes, thinking you are very hot and you can begin to become drowsy. You begin to have apathy around your condition and can experience a progressive loss of consciousness. Your pulse can become weaker and you can suffer from increasingly shallow breathing. You are often not aware of the condition as it is happening because you are confused and don't recognize what's going on.
Hypothermia doesn't have to be related to being outdoors in cold weather. You can become hypothermic indoors if you are elderly or very young and are exposed to cooler indoor weather. If the home is air conditioned or poorly heated, an older person can develop symptoms of hypothermia. There can just be increased confusion, dizziness, a lack of coordination, nausea, vomiting or tiredness. In babies, there can simply be cold skin that is bright red and low energy.
Causes of hypothermia include being outdoors in insufficient clothing, wearing wet clothing, being outdoors too long, immersion in cold water, poor heating of the home (elderly and babies) and air conditioning that is too cool (infants and the elderly).
You can lose body heat through a number of ways. For example, you can lose it through radiant heat loss through unprotected body areas, such as your head or hands. You can be in contact with something cold, such as snow or cold water and the heat is conducted through your body. In fact, heat is lost much faster this way than it is through radiated heat. If your clothes are wet, you lose body heat faster. Wind also removes heat from the body by carrying away the film of warm air from your body.
Risk factors for hypothermia include being 65 years or older. If you are older, you might have a condition that makes bringing up your body heat much harder. The judgment to dress properly might also be impaired and they lack the judgment to come out of the cold. People with a mental illness can have difficulty knowing when they are cold and they may not dress properly for the cold weather. Dementia patients can wander out in the cold and can become stranded or lost outdoors. Those who drink alcohol or use drugs may feel warm inside when, in fact, they can lose blood temperature faster. Intoxicated people can pass out in the outdoors so that they don't know their exposed to the cold. Those that have medical conditions like hypothyroidism, stroke, arthritis, malnutrition, trauma, spinal cord injuries, burns or disorders affecting sensation have a greater chance of getting hypothermic than other individuals. Certain medications, such as anti-psychotics and sedatives can impair the ability to regulate the body's temperature.
There are other weather-related injuries that can occur along with hypothermia. These include gangrene, frostbite, chilblains (damage to nerves and the small vessels of the hands and feet) and trench foot, in which the foot's nerves and small blood vessels are damaged due to being submerged in cold water.
The most basic treatment of hypothermia involves handling the patient in a gentle manner, moving the person to a warmer environment, getting rid of wet clothing and covering the person with warm blankets. You can warm blankets in the microwave quickly. Insulate the individual from the ground, which may be cold and can impair the warming process. You need to make sure the person is breathing well and try to use your body heat to warm the other person's body, especially if you are still out in the cold. Allow the person to drink warm beverages to bring up their internal temperature. Use dry compresses to the body that are warmed in a microwave or through another source. Aim for the head and neck with the warm compresses.
Doctors treat hypothermia using blood rewarming techniques such as hemodialysis. Warm IV fluids are given in order to warm the body from the inside. Warm humidified air is used to warm the lungs and the blood that flows through it. They can also put warm fluids into the bladder, the stomach or the colon in order to warm the body from the inside out.