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Why Is Dehydration so Dangerous and What’s the Solution?

By Martha Michael

Dehydration

If you’ve been to a national park lately, you’ve probably seen posters of people in the best shape of their lives along with a public service message about their untimely deaths due to dehydration. The photos in the ad campaign serve as ironic examples to visiting tourists that no matter who you are or what you look like, you can lose your life if you don’t have enough water to drink.

Hydration is, literally, life-saving.

What Is Dehydration?

Because our bodies are made up of 50-70 percent water, we need approximately 3 liters of water per day to replace moisture lost through sweat, breath, tears, and urine. Most of it comes from daily beverage intake, but we get about 20 percent of our water through the food we eat.

Under optimum conditions, your body can last up to a week without replenishing its fluids. When you don’t drink enough water, your body starts to conserve liquid to make up for the fluid loss.

The following physical conditions may result from the onset of dehydration:

  • Your urine gets darker as your kidneys reabsorb liquid
  • Your blood becomes thicker and your blood pressure drops
  • Your eyes contract due to loss of moisture
  • Your brain shrinks to hydrate your body

Dehydration can be a side effect or a heat-related condition, according to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website. If you become ill and lose too much liquid through vomiting, diarrhea, or sweating due to a fever, you can become dehydrated. Children and older adults are the most likely to become dehydrated.

Symptoms of dehydration include:

  • Dizziness
  • Fatigue
  • Dry mouth
  • Increased heart rate
  • Dry skin
  • Less frequent urination
  • Thirst

When children’s levels are low, there are additional signs of dehydration to watch for, including:

  • Dry tongue
  • Fewer wet diapers
  • Crying with no tears
  • Sunken belly
  • Irritable
  • Listlessness

What Causes Dehydration?

There are more factors involved in the development of dehydration than a simple calculation of water intake based on your height and weight. Your location’s elevation, temperature, and the intensity of your activities all play a role in your body’s need for water.

The National Park Service website has advice for visitors and reasons for carrying an adequate supply of drinking water while enjoying the natural wonder of nature. The physical strain of hiking a canyon or taking part in other intense forms of exercise will increase your need to take in more calories and water than usual. Hiking on level ground, at lower elevations, or for shorter periods of time will use less of your body’s fluids so you can bring a smaller volume of water with you when you embark.

If you hike uphill during the hottest part of the day, you lose approximately 2 quarts of water per hour, and you may not realize how much you’re losing through your sweat if it evaporates quickly. As you become hotter and more dehydrated, your body will have trouble cooling down, so there’s a higher risk of developing a heat-related illness.

A healthy individual can become dehydrated due to circumstances, but there are illnesses that place you at a higher risk for dehydration. The website for the American Society for Clinical Oncology has an article about health conditions causing dehydration.

Chronic illnesses at risk for dehydration include:

  • Diabetes
  • Cystic fibrosis
  • Kidney disease

People battling cancer need to keep an eye on their fluid levels because treatment can cause them to lose more water than usual. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause vomiting and diarrhea which reduce fluid levels. Infections and some cancer treatments cause fever, which depletes your body’s water level when you sweat.

How Do You Treat Dehydration?

For mild cases of dehydration you can trust your instincts and reverse the trend by drinking fluids such as water, fruit juice, or other drinks, according to an article on the Cedars-Sinai website. Depending on your overall health and the reason for the condition, it should reverse itself if you restore your water and electrolytes including potassium and sodium. Drink water or sports beverages and avoid liquids that contain caffeine or alcohol; as diuretics, they may cause you to lose more water.

If you’re dehydrated because of an illness and it’s causing you to vomit or have diarrhea, simple water replacement may not work, says an article in Everyday Health. You need to be assessed and the symptoms of dehydration treated.

Moderate to severe dehydration requires intervention. When you’ve lost 7 percent or more of your body weight, you may need intravenous fluids or other medical attention to treat such symptoms as low blood pressure or a high pulse rate. If you’ve been vomiting for more than four hours, you should contact a healthcare professional.

When you lose 10 percent or more of your body weight, it’s considered severe and can be life-threatening. Muscle spasms may become intense and the loss of electrolytes can cause seizures. A spasm of your heart muscle can cause an arrhythmia, which has the potential to be fatal; therefore, you need to seek emergency assistance when hydration levels continue dropping.

The best way to avoid the risk of dehydration is to use preventative measures. For preventing dehydration when you’re in hot weather conditions or taking part in active sports, eat and drink more than usual as a form of habit; don’t rely on whether or not you feel hungry or thirsty.

Watch for salt rings in your clothes; it may mean you’re losing too much water and need additional sodium. Stop for a sports drink and, if you feel exhausted, take a break. Resting on the hiking trail or the ski slope is natural and will help to offset the advance of dehydration.

Water may be the obvious go-to, but you can treat dehydration through food intake as well. An article in Healthline has a list of foods that fill your tank where your fluid level is concerned:

  • Soup - You can replenish your fluids and add electrolytes with bone broth or other soups and stews.
  • Melons - Fruits and vegetables of all kinds contain water, but honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon are at the top of the scale.
  • Smoothies - They start with a liquid base and you can customize them with a flavor of choice.
  • Tzatziki - A Greek dip with yogurt and cucumber, both ingredients are made up of 85 percent water.

Your Gore-Tex may be the talk of the trail and your puffer coat can make you a standout on the slopes, but your water bottle is more than a fashion statement. It can be a lifesaver when your body loses too much fluid, especially when you’re in the wild, away from access to water sources.

Can You Get Overhydrated?

Though dehydration is much more common, it’s possible to have health problems resulting from too much water in your system, says an article on Healthline. Overhydration causes hyponatremia, a condition in which sodium levels drop and extra fluid enters the cells and causes inflammation. The swelling that occurs in your brain damages your central nervous system. Water toxicity can cause seizures, lead to a coma state, or, in rare cases, can kill you.

Overhydration has two possible causes -- drinking too much water, or a medical problem that causes your kidneys to retain too much water.

When you’re too hydrated and can’t seem to reduce your body’s water content, there may be a number of medical issues causing water retention, including:

  • Liver disease
  • Kidney function problems
  • Congestive heart failure
  • Diabetes

People with liver or kidney disease are most likely to suffer from overhydration, but endurance athletes are also susceptible. Those who have reported symptoms of water toxicity include:

  • Marathon runners
  • Cyclists
  • Ironman triathletes
  • Elite rowers
  • Hikers
  • Members of the military
  • Rugby players

Some athletes monitor their water retention by weighing themselves before and after competing. If they aren’t urinating enough, they take diuretics to decrease the buildup of body fluids. Underlying health issues causing overhydration can be detected through a blood test and treated by a healthcare professional.

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