MS and heat intolerance
Why are we sensitive to heat?
MS damages the protective sheath around nerve cells in your brain and spinal cord. These nerve signals to your body don’t always work. Heat slows these signals even more. MS can also affect your brain that controls your body’s temperature.
An elevated temperature further impairs ability of a demyelinated nerve to conduct electrical impulses activities like sunbathing, excise, taking a very hot shower or bath can have the same effect.
Many people with MS experience these symptoms when the weather is very hot or humid and it will last temporarily until they or their body cool down.
The symptoms that can get worse are fatigue, pain, trouble thinking, blurred vision, muscle weakness, balance problems and walking that sometimes makes a person feel like they want to fall.
The following can help:
– Stay in the shade
– Spray yourself with cooling mist
– Stay in a air-condition environment or fans on you.
– Cooling products as vests neck wraps that you keep wet.
– Wear lightweight, loose, breathable clothing.
– Drink cold fluids and eat popsicles.
Coroner’s warning after Christchurch MS patient dies in soaring heat
The Chief Coroner is warning people with multiple sclerosis to take care in the heat after a woman died in Christchurch on Wednesday.
The woman, in her early 60s, died from hyperthermia after overheating in Wednesday’s high temperatures. People living with multiple sclerosis can struggle to control their body’s temperature in hot weather.
Judge Deborah Marshall advises people with multiple sclerosis, or other illnesses that make them susceptible to overheating, to keep an eye on any symptoms that may be worsening in the hot weather.
“Following this death, I feel it is important to remind people of the dangers of overheating due to the high temperatures expected in the coming days and to take all necessary precautions.”