As temperatures and humidity soar outside, what's happening inside the human body can become a life-or-death battle decided by just a few degrees. The critical danger point outdoors for illness and death from relentless heat is several degrees lower than experts once thought, say researchers who put people in hot boxes to see what happens to them.
Heat waves can raise your body temperature The body's resting core temperature is typically about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That's only 7 degrees away from catastrophe in the form of heatstroke, said Ollie Jay, a professor of heat and health at the University of Sydney in Australia, where he runs the thermoergonomics laboratory. Dr.
But those aren't always around. So emergency rooms pump patients with cool fluids intravenously, spray them with misters, put ice packs in armpits and groins and place them on a chilling mat with cold water running inside it. Sometimes it doesn't work. 'We call it the silent killer because it's not this kind of visually dramatic event,' Jay said. 'It's insidious. It's hidden.