During hot weather, it can be easy to overheat.
Although heat exhaustion is not usually serious – as long as you can cool yourself down – heatstroke is a medical emergency which requires immediate treatment.
Heat exhaustion happens when your body becomes too hot and struggles to regulate its temperature.
An obvious sign is excessive sweating, as well as feeling very hot and unwell – which is your body’s way of warning you to cool down, fast.
Other symptoms include:
Young children, who might not be able to tell you about how they are feeling, may become floppy and sleepy.
Heat exhaustion can affect anyone, including fit and healthy people – especially if they have done strenuous exercise in high temperatures or have been drinking alcohol in the sun all day.
It can come on quickly, over minutes, or gradually, over hours.
Heat exhaustion can turn into heatstroke, which is a medical emergency. It means your body can no longer manage the heat and your core temperature is rising too high. You should get urgent medical help.
The signs to watch for and quickly act on:
Older adults and young infants, as well as people with long-term health conditions, are particularly at risk.
The body’s ability to regulate its temperature is not fully developed in the young and may be reduced by illness, medications or other factors in older adults. Being overweight or obese may also make it harder to cool down.
If someone has heat exhaustion:
Stay with them until they are better.
They should start to cool down and feel better within 30 minutes.
If they do not improve after 30 minutes of rest, and you think they may have heatstroke, you should get urgent medical help. Call 999 immediately.
