If You're Not Sweating, It Could be Heatstroke
Know the signs of heatstroke. The most important is the least obvious: You stop sweating.
Heat illnesses don’t hit suddenly. They progress over hours or even days. The first warning sign may be heat cramps. If you ignore those, you may progress to what doctors call heat exhaustion.
Heat exhaustion is characterized by excessive thirst, heavy sweating, nausea, and lightheadedness. These symptoms are your body telling you to get out of the heat, relax, and rehydrate.
The most serious of the heat illnesses is heatstroke, sometimes called sunstroke. In heatstroke, the body’s temperature has reached 104 degrees. The most noticeable difference between heat exhaustion and heatstroke is that the body stops sweating.
Symptoms of heatstroke are hot, dry skin, rapid heartbeat, and mental changes such as disorientation or confusion.
Heatstroke is a medical emergency and requires immediate attention. If you see someone with these symptoms, call 911 and in the meantime try to bring down the body temperature with ice packs to the groin and armpits or a cold bath if that is possible.
Untreated, heatstroke can cause permanent brain damage.
Children and older adults are at greater risk of heatstroke, so is anyone who has experienced heat exhaustion in the last ten days.