Hypo & hyperthermia

Hyperthermia is where your core body temperature goes higher than “normal’. If we take 98.6 degrees F as normal, then a temperature of 100 degrees F or higher is a fever regardless of if it is caused by your body fighting off an infection or if the ambient temperature is high. The all around easiest treatment to lower your body temperature is to increase your intake of WATER. This will help regulate your body temperature. You can also spray down with water either with a hose or spray bottle and if need be, a fan will help cool them off. You may run low on electrolytes – see the section on re-hydration drink. This works regardless of the cause and includes heat exhaustion, heat or sun stroke, heat prostration are all related to hyperthermia and dehydration. For fevers caused by illness you may need other than water to treat the under lying issues.

Hypothermia is when your core body temperature goes below ‘normal’. If we take 98.6 degrees F as normal, then a temperature of 97 degrees F or lower is included. This too can be caused by illness or more likely ambient conditions. Most people when they think of hypothermia think about ‘freezing to death’ or dying of exposure that the ambient temperature is 32 degrees F. Right? …. Nope that is wrong. While it does happen at those temperatures too, the average ambient temperature when someone experiences hypothermia is around 55 degrees F. The people get wet either from rain, falling into ponds or by activity that causes them to sweet.
Movement of the air around them causes the water to evaporate cooling the person down.

Levels of hypothermia can be classed as;
They feel cold to themselves.
They are shivering – Even at this point they are capable of re-warming themselves if fed and watered.
They are violently shivering – it is dangerous to feed or water them. But they most likely will be able to re-warm if kept dry in a warm room. Do not leave them alone. Keep them under observation.
They are so cold that they stop shivering. This is deadly as they are no longer able to re-warm themselves. They WILL die if you do not intervene.

Regardless of why their core temperature is too low the field treatment is basically the same and depends on their alertness level.

Get the patient into a warmer environment.
Get them out of wet or damp clothing. And dry them off.
If they are alert get them into dry clothing especially the head
If they are alert get warm fluids with calories into them, cocoa is good as are soups and thin stews. However coffee and alcohol are especially harmful as they dehydrate you and alcohol dilates the blood vessels in your skin which leads to faster heat loss.
If they are not alert enough or are shaking too much to hold the mug or feed themselves then they are too debilitated to safely consume it. Now is NOT the time to chance them choking!
At this point they need to be actively warmed. Electric blankets help IF available and IF there is power for them. Hot water bottles are NOT the best as they can be too hot and burn the person and they cool off too fast.