Heat Cramps: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

• Heat Cramps Overview
• Causes of Heat Cramps
• Symptoms of Heat Cramps
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Heat Cramp Treatment
• Home Remedies for Heat Cramps
• Preventing Heat Cramps

Heat cramps are painful, brief muscle cramps. Muscles may spasm or jerk involuntarily. Heat cramps can occur during exercise or work in a hot environment or begin a few hours later.

Heat cramps usually involve muscles that are fatigued by heavy work, such as calves, thighs, and shoulders.

• You are most at risk if you are doing work or activities in a hot environment — usually during the first few days of an activity you’re not used to.
• You are also at risk if you sweat a great deal during exercise and drink large amounts of water or other fluids that lack salt.

The exact cause of heat cramps is unknown. They are probably related to electrolyte problems. Electrolytes include various essential minerals, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. They are involved in chemical reactions in your muscles. An imbalance can cause problems.

Sweat contains a large amount of sodium, and drinking fluids with inadequate sodium content may result in a serious low-sodium condition called hyponatremia. Some factories have virtually eliminated heat cramps in their workers by supplying salt-enriched fluids.

Muscle spasms that are:

• Painful
• Involuntary
• Brief
• Intermittent
• Usually self-limited (go away on their own)

Heat cramps can be quite painful. Consider seeking medical attention if the symptoms do not go away with rest and after restoring fluid and electrolytes.

Call your doctor if these conditions develop:

• If you are unable to drink sufficient fluids because you have nausea or are vomiting, you may need IV rehydration with normal saline.
• Heat cramps may accompany heat exhaustion.
• If you have more severe symptoms of heat illness, including dizziness, fatigue, vomiting, headache, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, or a high temperature (greater than 104 degrees), get immediate medical care.

The doctor will check you for more severe heat illness and possibly provide you with IV fluid rehydration.

Heat cramps usually go away on their own, but you can try one of these home remedies:

• Rest in a cool place and drink a sports drink, which has electrolytes and salt, or drink cool water.
• Make your own salt solution by mixing 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon table salt dissolved in a quart of water.

Salt tablets by themselves should not be used. They can cause stomach upset and don’t adequately replace fluid volume lost.

If you work in a hot environment, you may experience heat cramps during the first few days on the job. Once you get used to the environment, and make sure you have adequate fluid replacement, you are less likely to have problems.

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Heat Cramps: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

• Heat Cramps Overview
• Causes of Heat Cramps
• Symptoms of Heat Cramps
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Heat Cramp Treatment
• Home Remedies for Heat Cramps
• Preventing Heat Cramps

Heat cramps are painful, brief muscle cramps. Muscles may spasm or jerk involuntarily. Heat cramps can occur during exercise or work in a hot environment or begin a few hours later.

Heat cramps usually involve muscles that are fatigued by heavy work, such as calves, thighs, and shoulders.

• You are most at risk if you are doing work or activities in a hot environment — usually during the first few days of an activity you’re not used to.
• You are also at risk if you sweat a great deal during exercise and drink large amounts of water or other fluids that lack salt.

The exact cause of heat cramps is unknown. They are probably related to electrolyte problems. Electrolytes include various essential minerals, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. They are involved in chemical reactions in your muscles. An imbalance can cause problems.

Sweat contains a large amount of sodium, and drinking fluids with inadequate sodium content may result in a serious low-sodium condition called hyponatremia. Some factories have virtually eliminated heat cramps in their workers by supplying salt-enriched fluids.

Muscle spasms that are:

• Painful
• Involuntary
• Brief
• Intermittent
• Usually self-limited (go away on their own)

Heat cramps can be quite painful. Consider seeking medical attention if the symptoms do not go away with rest and after restoring fluid and electrolytes.

Call your doctor if these conditions develop:

• If you are unable to drink sufficient fluids because you have nausea or are vomiting, you may need IV rehydration with normal saline.
• Heat cramps may accompany heat exhaustion.
• If you have more severe symptoms of heat illness, including dizziness, fatigue, vomiting, headache, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, or a high temperature (greater than 104 degrees), get immediate medical care.

The doctor will check you for more severe heat illness and possibly provide you with IV fluid rehydration.

Heat cramps usually go away on their own, but you can try one of these home remedies:

• Rest in a cool place and drink a sports drink, which has electrolytes and salt, or drink cool water.
• Make your own salt solution by mixing 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon table salt dissolved in a quart of water.

Salt tablets by themselves should not be used. They can cause stomach upset and don’t adequately replace fluid volume lost.

If you work in a hot environment, you may experience heat cramps during the first few days on the job. Once you get used to the environment, and make sure you have adequate fluid replacement, you are less likely to have problems.

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Today on WebMD

Recommended for You

Eat better and exercise smarter.

Sign up for the Food & Fitness newsletter.

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Heat: some tips

Heat and health: How to protect yourself from overheating and help a person affected by the heat?

Hot weather is a health hazard. When the ambient temperature exceeds 35 ° C, the mechanisms of thermoregulation are violated. As a result, quite unpleasant and even dangerous symptoms can appear. How to protect yourself from overheating and help a person affected by the heat? The most dangerous consequences of overheating are heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Their probability increases with high humidity.

Symptoms of heat exhaustion: pulse quickens, skin becomes clammy, thoughts become confused, head stops thinking, gait becomes unsteady. In very severe heat shock, especially at low latitudes, even cramps in the muscles of the arms and abdominals, as well as nausea, vomiting, and a feeling of weakness throughout the body, are possible. The first thing to do is to place a person in a cool place – in the shade, and preferably under the air conditioner. Then you should lay the victim on his back, put something under his feet and let him drink water in small but frequent sips. In severe cases, dissolve some salt and sugar in water: about half a teaspoon of salt and eight teaspoons of sugar per liter of water. This concentration will prevent dehydration of the body and, in addition, will have an anticonvulsant effect. Remember, even if a person seems to have completely regained good health, he needs complete rest for a while.

Heatstroke, a variation of which is sunstroke, requires immediate rescue action. The symptoms of stroke are similar to those of heat exhaustion, but they are more severe. Most often, a person’s temperature rises, sometimes above 40 °. The skin turns pale and becomes dry to the touch, the pulse and breathing quicken, consciousness fades. The patient often falls into oblivion. The human body in such a critical condition needs to be cooled down. But do not overdo it: immersion in ice water can cause shock and worsen the victim’s condition. It is better to wet or splash the body with cold water, or wrap it in a wet sheet, but do not allow chills. You can put pieces of ice in the armpits and in the inguinal region. Ventilation or fanning helps a lot. As soon as the body temperature approaches normal, cooling should be stopped, and the victim should be covered with a light cloth. When consciousness is restored, give water, as is done with heat exhaustion. Heatstroke can cause many serious complications, so after all the measures taken, the patient must be shown to the doctor.

In hot weather, you should not drink alcohol and fatty foods, limit the amount of meat in the diet, refrain from using cosmetics, deodorants and creams, and avoid emotional and physical stress. It is better to eat in the evening. People suffering from hypertension, atherosclerosis, obesity, endocrine diseases, heart failure should be especially careful.

The most insignificant consequence of the heat is prickly heat, or climatic hyperhidrosis, that is, a skin rash caused by blockage of the outlet channels of the sweat glands, most often in places of contact with clothing. It appears in the form of small bubbles and sometimes itches and itches quite strongly. Increased fluid intake exacerbates the symptoms of miliaria. The only effective remedy for it is a shower. In addition, it is recommended to change into dry and clean clothes. Rash in young children can be powdered with a special powder or starch.

The bright sun causes many eyes to hurt or even visual acuity decreases. Sunglasses are an effective prevention against painful symptoms. But if such happened, you need to sit in the shade, rinse your eyes with warm water, and then cover them with a dark dense material so that your vision is restored as quickly as possible.

Source: http://www.nkj.ru

Seizures in a dog, causes, treatment, first aid

Seizures in a dog is not a symptom that can be ignored. Uncontrolled muscle contractions, sometimes accompanied by foaming at the mouth, are almost always due to a serious injury or pathology. In any case, the owner needs to know how to provide first aid in case of an attack, and understand what signs need to visit the veterinarian not just in the near future – but as soon as possible!

From a physiological point of view, convulsions are involuntary muscle contractions that may be accompanied by loss of consciousness. Depending on the intensity, they can either cause minor discomfort or cause pain, often very severe. Seizures are:

• Clonic – short-term twitching of the limbs, followed by relaxation.
• Tonic – accompanied by stretching of the paws (mainly the hind legs) with a long-term preservation of the position.
• Epileptic – affect the whole body, and are accompanied by profuse salivation and loss of consciousness.

Seizures also include convulsions – short muscle contractions that occur when the animal is conscious.

There are many causes for seizures in dogs, and they are all serious. Most often, this symptom manifests itself in epilepsy – congenital (some breeds have a genetic predisposition to it) or acquired. In addition, the reasons veterinarians include:

• Intoxication. If arsenic or rat poison enters the body, convulsions may occur due to damage to the nervous system.
• inflammatory processes. May be the result of infectious and non-infectious diseases. In addition to convulsive muscle contractions, they are accompanied by an increase in temperature.
• Metabolic disorders. Most often, seizures develop with diabetes, but other metabolic pathologies can lead to the appearance of such a symptom.

Also, convulsive muscle contractions are observed in head and spine injuries, oncological diseases, heart diseases, etc.

First aid for convulsions or convulsions

The first thing to remember is that any seizure is a reason to visit the veterinary clinic. There can be no frivolous reasons here, by definition, therefore an examination by a doctor with subsequent treatment is mandatory.

What can the owner do?

• First, you need to carefully monitor the attack and record the symptoms (what muscles contract, whether the animal loses consciousness, whether foam comes from the mouth). This information will help the veterinarian diagnose the pathology faster.
• Secondly, if possible, the animal should be laid on a flat surface, placing something soft under its head (to avoid injury upon impact). It is advisable to lay the dog on its right side – so it will be easier for her to breathe.
• Thirdly, do not put your fingers in the mouth – the tongue of the animal lying on its side will not swallow, but it can injure you.

During a seizure, any noise is a strong irritant, and can provoke an increase in convulsions.