General Biology Human Perspectives

Questions: 1. What could be happening to George? 2. How should he be treated? 3. Based on what youve learned thus far, what could George have done to help prevent this situation? 4. What factors may be contributing to George's symptoms? Answers: 1. George was running in a hot summer morning. In such a situation, the temperature of the body increases and our sweat glands produce droplets which carry excess heat to the skin surface. With further heating up of our body, it gets more and more dehydrated and enters into the survival mode but maintains the flow of blood into the organs that are essential. Very less blood flows into the GI tract making the person feel nauseous (Dudley, 2013). The overheating happens because of the imbalance that arises as a change in the electrolyte level thus making us dehydrated. In the given problem, George could have been dehydrated. 2. In order to provide treatment to George he needs to be given carbohydrate or electrolyte containing drinks. Certain good choices for sports drinks in this case are Gatorade or replacement solutions like Pedialyte. Also, tepid water can be sprayed using misters on George to facilitate cooling by evaporation. 3. To prevent this situation, George should have taken more fluids in the course of the run. Generally, our body requires 1000 ml of water every 20 kilograms of our body weight. George in the instance has had only a piece of toast and a cup of coffee since the morning. He refrained from taking any other fluids and participated in the run. Thus, what was required of George is that he should have taken more fluids to prevent the mishap. 4. The factors contributing to Georges symptoms are heat exposure associated with too much exercise, lack of proper water intake and electrolyte imbalance in the body (Simmons, 2010). References Dudley, H. (2013). Electrolyte Imbalance.Res Medica,1(4). doi:10.2218/resmedica.v1i4.305 Simmons, S. (2010). Acute dehydration.Nursing,40(1), 72. doi:10.1097/01.nurse.0000365928.03169.ca