Resolved question:
I am a 48 year old woman. In good Health. I got overheated last year (as I coach and play beach volleyball in Texas, HOT). This is my 5th time to get overheated, and seems as though I get it much easier now.
I played volleyball on Saturday the 19th and got overheated after 1.5 hours. I put cold packs, ice bath etc. and felt better.. I then played this morining and felt chills, overheated again. This time I cannot cool my body down. I have been icing my head, back, neck, face all day, took a cool bath and still feel hot, (but no fever). What should I do?
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
Family Physician-GP
Hello,
Thank you for your query at DoctorSpring.com
I understand your concern.
What you seem to be having is Exertional Heat Illness which is common among athletes.
In this case, the hypothalamus, which is centre that takes care of thermoregulation in our body, can't cope up with the hot temperatures outside. Hence there are no real medications to treat this condition per se, apart from the other basic cooling measures and supportive treatment. In fact anti-pyretics can further cause more problems like acute kidney injury, which the patient is prone too in over heating.
You hav tried most of the basic measures. The last thing that you can try in just sit in a ice cold water tub till the overheating reduces. The aim is too bring down the temperature to below 100 degrees F. If it is already below that, then adeqaute rest and continuous cooling methods can be carried on, and slowly the pverheating will reduce. The concern starts if the temperature persists, for which the patient needs to go to the ER and at least get a continuous monitoring of the vitals till temperature comes down. You can check your temperature and if it is below 100 degree F, then there is nothing to worry about. The cooling methods you have tried, along with cool fluids to drink and sitting in ice cold water tub, are the only methids available to prevent overheating.
Try to avoid playing in the sun as far as possible. Because clearly, the hypothalamus is not able to function properly in high temperatures. So avoiding the triggering factor, or while playing, going on drinking eneegy fluids/ cold fluids intermittently can prevent further episodes.
Hope this was helpful,
Regards.