Good Day, guys and gals in Ready Nutrition land. JJ here with another trauma medicine segment that it would be worth your while to file away with your first aid notes and prepping supplies. We are all sure that someday we will need to use these supplies and reference materials. Hopefully your prepping now will take some of the bite out when crunch time comes, whether that be a short-term or long-term emergency or disaster, or if society goes kaput as a whole when the SHTF.
Today’s article covers the parameters of shock, an ever-present and always-looming specter haunting every medical emergency and waiting in the wings to strike. What is shock? Well, it is a very broad category. Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 19th Ed., pg. 1884, defines shock as “A clinical syndrome marked by inadequate perfusion and oxygenation of cells, tissues, and organs, usually as a result of marginal or markedly lowered blood pressure.”
Well, that’s certainly a mouthful! But what does it mean? Basically, as oxygen is carried to the tissues by the blood, it is almost akin to the entire body running out of air (oxygen, specifically), and being unable to supply the organs and systems. That is an oversimplification, of course; however, it means that the homeostasis that your body maintains by regulating itself in terms of autonomic function (controlled by your body automatically) is out of alignment or not functioning at all.