While we all fluctuate in body temperature in day-to-day life, a person with a spinal cord injury may have to deal with their injury preventing areas below the level of injury from warming up or cooling off as it normally would.
The brain might not be able to signal to and from the areas innervated below the level of injury. The loss of sensation can make it tough for a person with an SCI to grasp an understanding of when the body is too warm or too cold as the messages are not sent to the brain in the usual way after a spinal cord injury. Thermoregulation is the term used to describe your body’s ability to regulate temperature.
With summer finally upon us, it’s essential to be reminded about the importance of staying cool and dry in the heat. Spinal cord injury thermoregulation is common with SCI sufferers, since this type of injury results in physiological changes that affect heat production in the body.
Cooling yourself down on a warm day can be a challenge for anyone. But for those with a sweating dysfunction or problems with thermoregulation, overheating and moisture build-ups are more than just uncomfortable inconveniences – they can have serious consequences.
The body uses four mechanisms to maintain thermoregulation: conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. A sweating dysfunction, caused by a spinal cord injury, for instance, means that no evaporation heat loss can take place.
This drastically heightens the risk of developing heat fatigue or heatstroke, as well as other issues including muscle spasms, going limp or weak and nausea – common experiences for people with Spinal Cord Injuries and other conditions which impair the body’s ability to sweat.
Have you heard of WheelAir?
There are options out there to help support those with spinal cord injuries to better regulate their temperatures. The WheelAir system is the first temperature control system designed to fit any wheelchair, allowing wheelchair users to disperse air evenly across the seat surface to lower core temperature, keeping the skin dry and clean. This helps to avoid symptoms caused by overheating and over sweating, allowing them to stay comfortable and in control.
Experiences of overheating
Overheating in warm environments can, therefore, be dangerous if precautions aren’t taken. This becomes even more problematic when out and about or even during exercise.
Former European champion and double paralympic wheelchair rugby player, Michael Kerr, said that overheating is one of the biggest obstacles for him while training and playing in tournaments due to his spinal cord injury.
“I find overheating very, very uncomfortable. It’s also very hard to control, it limits what I can do,” he said. “It also makes me feel very unpleasant when exercising or in a game – which is very distracting when playing rugby. After becoming very hot, it is very hard to get my body back to a normal temperature.”
As a wheelchair user, Michael has found that the WheelAir helps to shorten cooling times, allowing him to preserve the energy that I need for playing rugby.
“It certainly has improved my athletic performance!”, he added. “But the WheelAir has been great not just for when I’m playing sports, but in everyday life too.”
Nienke Conijn is another WheelAir user that struggled with overheating and, as a result, would get heat-induced rashes. When sitting in full sunlight, she would often get very uncomfortable and feel nauseous or go limp.
“I normally would never hand-cycle to work on a sunny summer day, but now with the Wheelair slingback and cushion cover I was able to do this again,” she said.
Moisture build-up
Overheating is just one risk factor during warm weather. Another is moisture build-up.
For people with a spinal cord injury, over-sweating in areas above the lesion is a significant risk factor during summer. Excessive moisture from sweating can weaken the skin, due to increased friction in the contact area. This alone can cause moisture lesions but can also lead to pressure injuries. As well as this, a higher temperature causes a lower inflammation threshold, so the change of inflammation increases, again increasing the potential for the formation of pressure injuries.
Aside from sweating, the skin releases moisture automatically through a much more passive process called transepidermal water loss (TWL). This is an unavoidable process and affects every person, regardless of their ability to sweat. That said, the occurrence of TWL increases when someone is sitting all day, for instance.
That means that wheelchair users, in particular, are at risk of experiencing TWL and moisture build-up. Therefore, despite the inability to sweat below the level of their lesion, people with spinal cord injuries are also susceptible to pressure injuries from moisture build – up.
These risks of excessive moisture build-up are serious and should not be underestimated. Pressure injuries, for example, not only have a huge impact on someone’s quality of life, they can lead to serious, life-threatening infections.
So what can be done to prevent overheating and excessive moisture build-up this summer?
Keeping cool and dry
WheelAir’s specially designed airflow system provides effective temperature regulation for wheelchair users. The system creates a cool microclimate for individuals by reducing skin temperature and allows for heat and moisture exchange that is otherwise obstructed when using a normal backrest or cushion cover.
For more information about WheelAir products and their clinical evidence, just visit www.wheelair.co.uk or contact a member of the team at info@wheelair.co.uk.
Talk to Aspire Law about claim support
Raquel Siganporia is a Senior Solicitor and Director of Business Development at Aspire Law. If you or a loved one feel you may have suffered a spinal injury as a result of an accident or someone else’s negligence, or you are concerned about the treatment you have received, contact Raquel free of charge and in confidence on 0800 030 20 40 or at Raquel.Siganporia@aspirelaw.co.uk.
Alternatively, complete this form and one of our Spinal Injury specialists will contact you.