Heatstroke / Summer Heat
Overview
Heatstroke is an acute externally-contracted heat disease caused by summer heat or summer heat combined with dampness. It manifests as high fever, sweating, thirst, fatigue, and in severe cases, coma or convulsions. Summer heat is a yang pathogen, scorching and dispersing, easily consuming qi and damaging fluids; it often combines with dampness, causing chest oppression, nausea, and heaviness. The disease is located in the qi level; severe cases may involve the pericardium, presenting as summer heat clouding the heart or stirring internal wind. Differentiate from stroke and pestilential dysentery.
Pattern differentiation (clinical patterns)
Summer Heat Damaging Qi
Body heat with profuse sweating, irritability and thirst, shortness of breath and fatigue, mental weariness, red tongue with scanty fluid, and a vacuous rapid pulse.
Clear summer heat and boost qi; nourish yin and generate fluids.
Summer Heat and Dampness Encumbering
Lingering heat that is not high, unsmooth sweating, heaviness of the head as if wrapped, chest oppression and epigastric stuffiness, nausea and poor appetite, loose stools, white greasy tongue coating, and a soggy rapid pulse.
Clear summer heat and transform dampness; diffuse and free the qi mechanism.
Summer Heat Clouding the Heart
High fever with agitation, coma and delirium, or sudden collapse with loss of consciousness, convulsions, red crimson tongue, and a surging rapid or thin rapid pulse.
Clear the heart and open the orifices; cool the nutrient level and resolve toxin.
Connections
Daily care & prevention
Move the patient to a cool, ventilated place immediately, loosen clothing, and replenish with light salt water, watermelon juice, or mung bean soup to clear summer heat and generate fluids. Apply cold towels to the forehead, axillae, and groin, or use guasha and pinching therapy to release summer heat. Diet should be light; avoid spicy and greasy foods. During recovery, avoid sun exposure and overexertion; drink tea with American ginseng and ophiopogon to boost qi and nourish yin.
When to seek medical care
If there is persistent high fever (temperature >40°C), confusion, convulsions, coma, absence of sweating with dry hot skin, or profuse sweating with cold limbs and faint pulse, this indicates severe heatstroke (heat stroke or heat exhaustion) and requires immediate emergency medical attention.