Recently, the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University received a female patient in her fifties from Zhao County, Shijiazhuang. The doctor on duty said that the woman had a body temperature of over 40°C when she arrived at the hospital, was unconscious, and suffered from multiple organ failure. According to the family, the woman went to the field to spray pesticides in the afternoon. As a result, the weather was hot. After working for a few hours, the woman suddenly became unconscious, dizzy and vomited.

After the examination at the local hospital, the hospital ruled out brain disease and diagnosed severe heatstroke. The situation was urgent and asked to be transferred as soon as possible. After arriving at the second hospital, the above scene appeared. At this time, the patient’s blood pressure could no longer be measured. After first aid, the life was still not saved, and it was only about 10 hours from the onset of the disease to the death.

The doctor said that the woman’s heatstroke is not an isolated case. Generally, the heatstroke encountered is not severe, but if there are some chronic diseases or other abnormal people, once heatstroke, it may develop into severe heatstroke. At this time, it is necessary to reduce the body temperature as soon as possible. If it doesn’t come down within half an hour, it will be very dangerous.

However, some netizens said that the symptoms of heat stroke are sometimes similar to those of a hot cold in summer. How to distinguish the two?

How to distinguish between common cold and heat stroke in summer?

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, there are many diseases related to summer heat! Summer is a season of colds! In this era of abnormal climate, how to get along with the changing climate is a health-preserving skill. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, it is necessary to know how to “coexist with heat” in summer, so that it is possible to cultivate a physique that is immune to all evils.

First, different types of fever must be distinguished.

Hot cold is wind-heat in traditional Chinese medicine. However, in fact, there is no such term as cold in Chinese medicine, only wind-heat. Therefore, hot-cold is a folk saying of wind-heat.

The symptoms of wind-heat refer to the symptoms of a sore throat, fever, yellow phlegm, sticky nasal discharge, fever and other febrile symptoms, which are similar to the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection in modern medicine. The reason why people call it a fever is precisely because it has upper respiratory symptoms and is caused by a virus, so it is commonly known as a combination of Chinese and Western medicine.

This fever often occurs after a cold.

Most people are familiar with the term wind-cold, which refers to cold symptoms such as coughing, spitting up phlegm, and runny nose, etc. after catching a cold. From the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine, wind-heat and wind-cold are upper respiratory tract symptoms caused by the invasion of wind and external pathogens, but the symptoms of the two are somewhat different. Wind-heat tends to be hot, while wind-cold tends to be cold.

There are very few cases of pure wind cold and pure wind heat, and most of them are mixed. Therefore, the most common situation is to get wind-cold at the beginning due to the wind blowing and cold. Later, it may be accompanied by symptoms of fever and inflammation, and the symptoms turn to be febrile, so the proportion of wind-heat increases; that is to say, wind-heat and wind-cold refer to symptoms and the manifestations of the disease.

Why is it cold in summer? Because of the hot weather, everyone is used to drinking cold water, blowing air conditioners or turning on too strong electric fans. “If you drink cold, you will hurt the lungs.” The lungs here refer to the symptoms of the upper respiratory tract in Western medicine.

From the perspective of modern medicine, both must be caused by viruses, but the difference lies in the symptoms. Since it is a cold, the duration is generally not too long. Basically, there will be changes in about 3 days. The treatment is mostly symptomatic treatment. To relieve the symptoms of discomfort, the medication time will not be too long, basically limited to three days.

Heat stroke and large temperature difference in summer are heat symptoms, which will aggravate fever and colds

After talking about fever and cold, let’s look at heat stroke. The heat caused by what we generally call “the invasion of summer heat” is caused by the heat being stuffed in the body and difficult to dissipate, including commonly known as heatstroke, fever, or entering a very cold room from the outside, because the pores are instantly closed and the The heat is trapped in the body.

Heat stroke is not wind-heat, but people are often confused, but in fact, everyone can initially distinguish the difference from the symptoms, and also can distinguish the difference from the pulse.

Compared with heat syndrome (commonly known as heatstroke), although both have symptoms similar to fever, thirst and other febrile symptoms, in fact, the causes of the two are different, and heat syndrome and heatstroke do not have upper respiratory tract. Symptoms, so a preliminary distinction can be made by the presence or absence of upper respiratory symptoms.

We do a simple identification:

1. Fever and cold, with respiratory symptoms, such as yellow phlegm, cough, sore throat, etc., Chinese medicine believes that the pathology is the invasion of wind evil.

2. Heatstroke, with no symptoms of respiratory tract infection , is divided into three types according to the severity of the disease: Threatened Heatstroke, Mild Heatstroke and Severe Heatstroke.

Threatened heat stroke: The body temperature rises slightly, mainly manifested by head and face abnormalities such as profuse sweating, dizziness, headache, thirst, and vertigo, while the whole body may experience weakness in the limbs and uncoordinated movements. This situation is very easy to be confused with a hot cold, and if it is not dealt with in time, it will aggravate the heat stroke.

Mild heat stroke: The symptoms are more severe than those with aura, the body temperature continues to rise, which may exceed 38°C, and obvious systemic symptoms appear, such as redness, burning skin, etc. Some people begin to have symptoms of dehydration and become pale , blood pressure drop, clammy limbs, etc.

Severe heatstroke: The body temperature rises more obviously, and dizziness, convulsions, and fainting will also occur, that is, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. At this time, it is necessary to cool down as soon as possible, otherwise it will cause permanent brain damage or Kidney damage, possible disability or death.

A hot cold and heat stroke are similar in the early stage, and too much heat will also promote the occurrence and severity of a hot cold, resulting in a combination of the two, which is more likely to develop into severe heat stroke. Therefore, it is really important to be able to regulate the heat and effectively dissipate heat in summer. important.

What should I do if I have heat stroke?

As we said earlier, correct heat dissipation is an effective way to help relieve heatstroke, so what is effective heat dissipation?

In the event of heatstroke, first let the patient leave the high temperature environment, rest in a ventilated and cool place, undress, and at the same time let the patient sweat or urinate to expel the heat from the body. If the patient has symptoms such as dizziness, the patient’s feet can be slightly lift;

If the body is in a high temperature situation, you should cool down as soon as possible, apply ice compresses or wipe the head and neck, armpits, groin and other parts with alcohol, and the body temperature should drop below 38°C as soon as possible;

Supplement water. People with heat stroke will sweat, and sometimes sweating a lot will cause dehydration symptoms. At this time, you need to add water containing salt. If the dehydration is not serious, you can also add water by eating some watermelon fruits in moderation, drinking tea, and honey water. However, try to avoid ingesting water and food that is too cold, which can easily induce a cold and may also aggravate the condition;

In the end, it was found that it was severe heat stroke, and the condition was repeated, and if there was a tendency to aggravate, you should seek medical treatment as soon as possible. If the patient is in a coma, turn his head to one side and lie down to keep the airway open.