I can understand freezing to death / hypothermia – but how do people die from hot weather?
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Our cells use proteins for everything. They do chemical reactions and physical manipulation of molecules. The hotter they are the more energy they have to move around so the better they work, but if it gets too hot they start breaking apart. The most common example of this is when cooking egg it goes from a liquid to a solid when heated as the protein breaks down under heat.
Our natural body temperature is very close to the maximum body temperature. The proteins work best when hot so our body stay quite hot. And since we are normally so good at keeping the temperature consistent we can be very close to the maximum temperature without going over. But if we are not able to keep our internal temperature and it increases then our cells start having issues.
The proteins with the lowest temperature tolerances are in the nerves. So when it gets hot the neural system start breaking down. You start getting muscle spasms, loss of reasoning, loss of muscle control, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness and heart failure. It turns out that just as deadly as having the heart slow down because it is too cold is to have the heart stop because it does not get any neural signals.
And just as with hypothermia the treatment for hyperthermia is to get the body temperature to the right state and if needed do heart compressions while doing so. If you manage to cool down the heart the nerves might be able to repair themselves and get back into working order before the brain dies due to a lack of oxygen.
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