Diet taboos after heat stroke

Don’t eat iced drinks or foods that are below 10℃, don’t eat heavy foods that are high in oil and spicy, don’t just eat a lot of sweets to replenish energy, don’t take warm and dry supplements right after the break, and don’t drink a lot of pure water at once. Don’t think this is alarmist. Last week I just met a young man at a community summer health free clinic. As soon as I finished giving him some education, I turned around and drank half a bottle of iced Coke. That night, I went to the emergency room because of stomach cramps, vomiting and abdominal pain.

The easiest pitfall is actually iced drinks. After all, when you have a heat stroke, your whole body will be hot and your throat will be on fire. Everyone wants to try the refreshing feeling of holding an iced Coke and gnawing on iced watermelon. There are two factions quarreling fiercely on the Internet. One faction says you should never touch ice, as it will cause "cold evil to enter the body" and cause the disease. The other faction says that foreigners who suffer from heat stroke eat ice packs. How can they be so particular? If you read the 2023 version of the "China Occupational Heatstroke Prevention and Treatment Guidelines", you will know that there is no requirement to drink hot drinks, but it is clearly forbidden to drink drinks below 10°C. The reason is very simple. During heatstroke, the temperature inside your body is very high, and the gastrointestinal mucosa is in a state of congestion and edema. Suddenly pouring an ice drink with several degrees below zero is like pouring cold water on a red-hot glass. It can cause cramps, abdominal pain and vomiting in mild cases, and directly induce gastrointestinal bleeding in severe cases. Those who say they are fine after drinking ice are mostly young people whose gastrointestinal function is particularly strong. They may be able to withstand mild heat stroke, but if you are prone to stomachaches, or are elderly or children, you really should not take this risk.

Oh, by the way, there are still many people who feel that they have no appetite due to heatstroke, so they need to eat something sweet to appetize, either boiling a large pot of mung bean soup with half a can of sugar, or eating half a watermelon. This is also a misunderstanding that is easily overlooked. Last month, I received a 62-year-old aunt from the emergency department. She had been lying at home for three days after a heatstroke and relied on sweet mung bean soup. When she came in, she was so weak that she couldn't stand. A blood test revealed that sodium and potassium were both extremely low, which is a typical electrolyte imbalance. If you think about it, a large amount of sugar entering the body will increase the plasma osmotic pressure, which will "suck" the water out of the cells and aggravate dehydration. Moreover, there is almost no electrolytes such as sodium and potassium lost through sweating in sweet foods. If you replenish it for a long time, you will only replenish calories. Of course, the more you eat, the softer you will become. That doesn’t mean you can’t be sweet at all. It’s okay to put one or two rock sugars in the mung bean soup for seasoning. It’s okay to eat one or two pieces of room-temperature watermelon at a time. Just don’t make it too sweet and don’t eat it as a meal.

There are also some elders who believe that "heat stroke is a deficiency and must be replenished." They stew ginseng soup, cook astragalus chicken, and even pour red ginseng water into their children to replenish their vitality just two days after recovering. This is an operation that adds fuel to the fire. Last week, an aunt fed her grandson just half a bowl of red ginseng soup after he had just woken up from heatstroke. That afternoon, the child had a nosebleed and his body temperature spiked to 38°C. The essence of heatstroke is that the body produces more heat than it dissipates, and internal heat accumulates in the body and cannot be dissipated. These warm and dry supplements are equivalent to adding a handful of dry wood to the fire that is about to be suppressed. If you really want to take supplements, you have to wait until the symptoms of dizziness and nausea have completely disappeared for three days, and then slowly eat some light lean meat and steamed eggs. There is no need to resort to those fancy supplements.

Oh, yes, I also encountered a local custom when I was at a free clinic in Chongqing. It is said that "if you have a heat stroke, you will eat spicy food and sweat, and the heat will come out." Some people went to eat hot pot the day after they had a heat stroke and said that it was really comfortable after eating it. This approach is not 100% guaranteed to cause trouble, but the risk is indeed high, especially for people who have gastroenteritis, or who have abdominal pain and vomiting after heat stroke. The gastrointestinal mucosa is already worn out, and pouring chili oil and hot oil on it can easily induce gastrointestinal bleeding. If you are a local who eats spicy food all the time, and you are really hungry after recovering from mild heat stroke, it is not impossible to eat slightly spicy food to satisfy your craving, but the premise is that you don’t feel any discomfort after eating. Ordinary people should not try it easily.

In fact, when I usually meet patients with mild heat stroke in the emergency room, I will not give them overly complicated recipes. Just a few words: drink warm salt water first, sip it in small sips, don't hold the bottle and drink it hard. When you are hungry, eat warm millet porridge, steamed pumpkin, boiled eggs and other soft things. After you are no longer dizzy and nauseated, you can slowly resume your normal diet. There's no need to be too nervous, but don't make up your mind with the mentality of "I can eat anything if I'm in good health." After all, although heat stroke is common, if it actually causes a problem, it can make you lie down for several days.