Excerpt from A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine, 3rd Edition, by Dr. Eric A. Weiss.

If a person who has diabetes becomes confused, weak, or unconscious for no apparent reason, he may be suffering from insulin shock (low blood sugar) or diabetic ketoacidosis (high blood sugar).

INSULIN SHOCK (LOW BLOOD SUGAR)

If a person with diabetes takes too much insulin or fails to eat enough food to match his insulin level or his level of exercise, a rapid drop in blood sugar can occur. Symptoms may come on very rapidly and include an altered level of consciousness, ranging from slurred speech, bizarre behaviour, and loss of coordination, to seizures and unconsciousness.

By Buck Tilton

When bullets and arrows start filling the autumn air, we know a few of them will strike a hunter and fewer still non-hunters. Everyone knows the danger of a loaded gun, but gunshot wounds during hunting season—at least gunshot wounds to and from hunters—are on the decline, says the US Forest Service, probably due to mandatory hunter safety courses. While this is not a time to be less than perfectly careful with a firearm — with new hunters hitting the field each year — statistically, depending on where and how you hunt, there may be dangers greater than a rifle or a bow.

Excerpt from A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine, by Eric A. Weiss, M.D.

Lightning kills more people every year in the United States than all other natural disasters combined. Carrying or wearing metal objects, such as an ice axe, umbrella, backpack frame, or even a hairpin, increases the chances of being hit.

To calculate the approximate distance in miles from a flash of lightning, count in seconds from the time you see the flash to when you hear the thunder, then divide by five.

Prevention

We’re excited to announce the success of our Summer Outdoor Retailer fundraiser in raising $1,950 for the Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs, Inc. The popular SOL Origin multi-function survival tool went fast at the special fundraiser price of $15, a deal to bark for compared to the retail price of $60.  130 of the Origin tools were sold, with 100% of proceeds from sales going to the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs, an organization dedicated to the training of professional search and rescue dog teams in Utah. ”The fundraiser went better than expected,” said Katie Singleton, AMK’s Marketing Channel Specialist, “The importance of supporting rescue dogs really hit home with the active outdoor crowd at the show, who I am sure realized that they could end up benefiting from the dogs one day.”

Excerpted from A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine, 3rd Ed., by Eric A. Weiss, M.D.

Shock is a life-threatening condition in which blood flow to the tissues of the body is inadequate and cells are deprived of oxygen. Any serious injury or illness can produce shock. Examples are severe bleeding (either external or internal), thigh (femur) or pelvis fractures, major burns, dehydration, heart failure, severe allergic reactions, or spinal cord injuries with paralysis.

By Buck Tilton

When the earthquake of 12 January 2010 ended, much of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins and the lives of a quarter million human inhabitants had suddenly and violently ended. Then the hurricane hit, and then the deadly cholera epidemic. Haiti, poorest nation of the Western Hemisphere, has yet to recover. In an area just a little smaller than Maryland, an estimated 9.7 million people struggle for basic health and without hope for much more than that.

By Chris Van Tilburg, M.D.

The Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) recently published recommendations that guides carry epinephrine in outdoor education settings, according to a consensus statement in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. The reason: allergic shock, called anaphylaxis, can be deadly in minutes. But, the practice of letting lay, non-medical guides use prescription medicine on clients is fraught with difficulties, and some potentially deadly effects.

A Word About Anaphylaxis

By Buck Tilton

It’s your gear—closer to you than many people, as familiar as that face in the mirror. Maybe that’s the problem: Familiarity. It breeds contempt, and we forget gear can cause injuries. So, take heed of these pointers before hitting the trail this spring:

By Buck Tilton

To combine the three essential elements–oxygen, heat, and fuel–successfully into a fire requires more thought than usual when white stuff cloaks the ground.

Assuming you’re carrying a source of heat,  finding fuel will be the great challenge. Dry tinder, kindling, and larger pieces of fuel are not only harder to find, but wood with its moisture frozen inside may appear deceptively ignitable yet fail to burn.

Tinder

By Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

With 2011 not quite two months old, we thought it high time to look at some big trends that are poised to impact wilderness medicine and safety this year. Here are five that may affect you:

1. WFR standardizations. For guides, rangers, and search and rescue teams, the de facto course for medical training beyond first aid has long been the Wilderness First Responder course. The week-long “woofer” course is offered by a number of schools, but they differ in content, instruction, and length. Right now, there is no formal standardization on content, schools, or teachers, but work is underway to homogenize WFR. The task, however, is fraught with the difficulty of trying to reconcile widely varying state laws, student needs, and teaching styles. WHY IT MATTERS: You may soon be able to get a WFR card recognized around the nation.