Staying warm is not only important for comfort, it can also directly affect your health. Persistent exposure to cold temperatures can lead to hypothermia, which is a medical condition where the body’s core temperature dips lower than 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
If left untreated, hypothermia can cause major health effects, including loss of life. However, the condition can be effectively treated by medical staff using several methods.
A person is considered to have mild hypothermia if their body temperature ranges from 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. In this case, doctors will often use a more conservative approach to bring the core body temperature back to the proper level.
This process is known as passive rewarming, and it can be as simple as providing a person with hot fluids to drink and wrapping them in heated blankets. Rewarming shock, which is when a person’s blood pressure decreases drastically after rewarming, is not likely with mild hypothermia, but doctors can prescribe cardioactive inotropic medication to reduce the risk of shock.
While risk factors like being very old or young can increase the risk of hypothermia, keep in mind that this condition can affect anyone. Fortunately, hypothermia is easy to avoid when you take the right steps:
It may be possible to treat mild forms of hypothermia with first aid, but it is still a good idea to receive medical attention. A doctor can use advanced warming techniques if it is determined that hypothermia is more serious than originally thought.