I nearly died just from drinking WATER to cool down in heatwave – why you should be careful when trying to beat the heat
A PARCHED man who nearly died after glugging water to cool down in a heatwave is warning others not to repeat his mistake.
Adam Schaub was working in 37C heat when he decided to take a break from the scorching climes.
He glugged two ice-cold bottles of water and then sat in an air conditioned truck cab.
Posting a warning on Facebook back in 2018, Adam said: “Cold water is good, so how could it be bad?
“Well yesterday, I found out.”
But once inside the cab, Adam suddenly started to feel “strange” and then began seeing spots.
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“My stomach got extremely nauseous and my hands and feet started tingling,” said Adam, from Houston, Texas.
He made a break for the door but before he knew it, he was face down on the ground.
Adam’s terrified dad charged over, rolled him over and wiped his face down.
With his eyes in the back of his head, Adam didn’t come round for a few minutes – paramedics were called.
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Once there Adam was told something he thought he would never hear – cold water had sent his body into shock.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical director of Patient.info, told The Sun, Adam appears to have experienced an extreme case of “ice cream head”.
She explained: “If you drink something very cold, very quickly, the cold on the roof of your mouth stimulates the nerves around there.
“That in turn leads to rapid contraction, then expanding of the tiny blood vessels in your sinuses.”
The brain interrupts the messages from these nerves as coming from your forehead, because the same nerve supplies your forehead.
Once this happens, you usually get a sudden pain, but it can make you feel lightheaded.
“All the symptoms he’s describing sounds like the run-up to a fainting episode, which is often due to a lack of blood in the brain”, the doc added.
Dr Jarvis said it is not uncommon for people to feel unwell due to drinking cold fluids too quickly.
And she recommended Brits to avoid it all together.
Following the incident, Adam was told the best thing to do if you want to cool down is to drink cold water, but only in sips.
While room temperature water is better if you need fast rehydration.
The warning comes as Britain is gripped by a scorching heatwave which has seen highs of 35C in some areas.
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An amber weather warning has been in place since Thursday and is due to end today.
Next week will see the welcome arrival of rainfall after weeks of dry spells which resulted in the driest July since 1935.
THERMAL SHOCK
What happens when a human goes into thermal shock?
Cold water shock causes blood vessels in the skin to quickly constrict and causes a person’s heart rate to increase.
As blood pressure goes up, the heart has to work harder and is put under strain. It can lead to cardiac arrest in people of any age.
In some cases, cold water shock can lead to drowning if you’re in the water because the sudden cooling of the skin by the water can cause people to gasp.