Please note: for extreme cases of heatstroke, seek professional medical attention. Never risk it and always call 911 if a person cannot speak coherently, has passed out, or is unresponsive due to heat exhaustion.

As an avid cyclist who lives in Texas, I know about heatstroke. On a hundred mile ride in August years ago, I experienced the effects of heatstroke, the dizziness, the nausea, the disconnected feeling of light headedness, and disorientation. I fell off my bike and collapsed. But it was my fault, I was ill-prepared for the 110 degree day and the subsequent four and a half hours of fast paced cycling. To treat a victim of heatstroke, do the following:

1) Get some fluids in you immediately, but not a large amount, you do not want to shock your already fragile system with a huge slush of ice cold water. Odds are you will vomit right back up and only further dehydrate and exhaust yourself from the effort.. No Gatorade just yet, definitely no sodas or alcohol, just old fashioned water. If you are also overheated then you will want to take care to not shock/cramp your system with excessively cold water.
2) Lie down and take it easy relax, get the heart rate down get in the shade at least, if not indoors into some air conditioning. Remove any restrictive clothing, apply the tried and true cool washcloth to the forehead.
3) Once you've sipped down a pretty good amount of water and you are feeling better, go for the gatorade, reformax, and any other electrolyte replacement and lactic acid flush drink you want.
4) In severe cases you may need an IV drip, which would require a kind of help that you can only get from a hospital

Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are pretty simple to deal with in most cases, its when you get into extremes that you will have big issues. Follow these procedures and you will bounce back quicker than you think.

Learn more about this author, M.L. Brooke.
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