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Why should we not use alcohol to treat heat exhaustion or stroke?


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     According to what I've been reading, when we drink alcohol, it diates our capillaries, and that's essentially what causes the warm feeling we get. However, because of this, the feeling is an illusion. Well, technically, you are actually feeling a warmer sensation, but it's only because the blood is coming closer to the surface of the skin, which means that it's actually cooling down quicker because more of it is coming closer to the surface of the skin.

 

     This has the result of lowering the core temperature faster. So, that's essentially why I'm wondering why it's not advisable to use it to treat heat exhaustion or stroke. If the person isn't conscious or otherwise able to swallow, obviously giving them anything that must be swallowed would be bad. However, under heat exhaustion, frequently the person is in a frame of mind that they can swallow, and alcohol, when sufficiently diluted and pure enough, I imagine it could be administered through an IV.

 

     And of course, any survivalist knows that alcohol evaporates quicker than water, which makes it a good rub for cooling off on a hot day when you feel you need something more than your sweat and you don't want to waste your water. 

 

     Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone knows why we are told not to use Alcohol to help lower the core-temperature. It doesn't take much. I know a single tablespoon of Everclear, which is half an oz of 95% alcohol is enough to make me start to feel that warm sensation of my blood coming closer to the surface.

 

     I was thinking maybe it's because it's not controlled once it's ingested, meaning even when the person is back down to a normal temperature, the alcohol in their system will continue to cause the release of heat from the body more rapidly raising the risk of going too far and the person ending up in hypothermia before we realize what's going on. However, maybe that would be bad in cold environment, but would that risk still be so great on a warm day when you don't have much more than shade and waving your shirt to blow air on them to help cool the person down?

 

     Is it the risk of an altered state of mind and a couple or so oz's of hard alcohol having a greater impact due to the severe dehydration that so often accompanies heat exhaustion and stroke?

 

     Is it because it would be harder to read the person when they are finally doing better becaus the alcohol might disguise an underlying issue due to the fact that it does have an affect on the mind? In other words, might it be that we could confuse their state of mind as being from the alcohol rather than it being from what it really is, some underlying issue?

 

     I understand that asking someone this question in order to get a good answer to give me might make you look stupid, so you're welcome to take what I've posted here and print it out and show it to someone if you would like. Shoot, even if you are someone in charge, and you simply want to address this in some kind of educational discussion, by all means, I don't mind.

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I can't remember where, and don't have time to find it right now, but I believe there was a study that found an increase in core temp after prolonged alcohol ingestion. I recall maybe a sleep study? Anyway, I think the conclusion was that alcohol may have an effect on the hypothalamus. I try and find it later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a former corpsman for my USMC brethren, they would have loved me if I hooked them up with some ETOH after a hot field Op! Fall out of a hump? Here's some Jim Beam. Tough day of PT in 110 degree weather? Take a shot of Cuervo.

 

Sounds about right..

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...

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