Feeling tired, dizzy and cranky? You may have chalked it up to lack of sleep, a really tough workout or skipping your morning cup of coffee. Turns out, these feelings may have a sneaky culprit: dehydration.
Water, a true elixir of life, fuels your body’s every function. From nourishing cells to flushing out toxins, water keeps you going strong throughout the day. But when you’re not keeping up with your daily dose of water intake, especially in the sweltering summer heat, dehydration may be lurking under the surface.
Mild cases of dehydration are relatively simple to reverse. Often, a few glasses of water will make you feel better in no time. However, more serious cases of dehydration can emerge if left untreated.
Get to know the telltale signs and risk factors, and how you can stave off dehydration for improved overall health.
[READ: The Facts About Fainting Spells.]
Why Water Is Important
Approximately two-thirds of your body is made up of water, which plays a vital role in maintaining overall health and ensuring optimal body functions.
“Trillions and trillions of cells depend on water to do their work,” explains Dr. Marc Taub, an emergency physician and medical director of emergency services at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California. “Water helps move nutrients and oxygen throughout our system, ensuring cells get the elements they need to function.”
Maintaining proper fluids in your body has several benefits, including:
— Lubricating your tissues, joints and eyes.
— Aiding in digestion.
— Flushing out waste and toxins.
— Moisturizing and maintaining healthy skin.
— Delivering nutrients to cells.
— Preventing dehydration.
“When you don’t have enough water, it’s going to upset those processes,” says Dr. Tracy Zaslow, a primary care sports medicine physician at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles and a team physician for Angel City Football Club and LA Galaxy.
[Read: How to Protect Your Heart in the Heat.]
What Is Dehydration?
Dehydration is when your body loses more fluid than you take in. Oftentimes, this is due to inadequate intake of fluids or an excessive loss of fluids, usually through sweating, vomiting and/or diarrhea.
“Fortunately, our body and our brain do an amazing job behind the scenes monitoring and reacting to changes in our water levels,” Taub says. “When our body experiences a decrease in our water, our brains trigger a sensation of thirst, which encourages each of us to drink more water. And our brains also tell our kidneys to hold onto more water by reducing urine output.”
While these behind-the-scenes actions typically help keep your body’s water levels in balance throughout the day, in extremely hot weather conditions or after excessively sweating, the brain and body systems may not be able to maintain the appropriate water balance, which can lead to dehydration.
[See: 9 Signs You Should Stop Exercising Immediately.]
Symptoms of Dehydration
Early common warning signs of dehydration include:
— Feeling thirsty.
— Dry mouth.
— Lightheaded.
— Fatigue.
Experiencing a decrease in performance is a lesser-known symptom you may experience if you’re dehydrated.
If you feel you are drinking adequate amounts of water but still feel thirsty or are experiencing other physical symptoms of dehydration, it’s important to speak with your doctor, as there may be an underlying condition at play.
“There are certain illnesses that can cause (the) sensation of thirst,” Taub says.
Diabetes is the most common condition that could point to this. It’s important to discuss any ongoing symptoms with your health care practitioner to ensure you’re getting the right care for you.
Risk Factors for Dehydration
— Age.
— Extreme heat conditions.
— Prolonged physical exertion.
— Illness or chronic conditions.
Age
In the “extremes of ages,” there are differing signs and effects of dehydration.
Infants have smaller bodies and less water reserves.
“They can’t necessarily communicate the fact that they’re thirsty, so they’re definitely more prone to dehydration, especially very small infants,” Taub says.
Signs of dehydration in young infants or children include:
— Dry mouth or tongue.
— Lack of tears when crying.
— Not having wet diapers on a regular basis, meaning several hours pass without a wet diaper or the infant has decreased amounts of urine in the diaper.
— Sunken eyes or cheeks.
— Sunken fontanelle (soft spot) on the top of their head.
— Irritability.
— Listlessness.
Dehydration in infants could occur especially during episodes of diarrhea and vomiting, such as during intestinal flu season.
Older adults are also quite susceptible to dehydration. A number of factors may make older adults at higher risk for dehydration, including:
— Underlying chronic illnesses, such as heart, lung or kidney conditions.
— Medications, such as diuretics.
— Decreased sensation of thirst as you age.
Commonly, older adults experience signs like confusion, lethargy, poor appetite and vomiting.
Extreme heat conditions
Extended exposure to heat and humidity can put you at higher risk for dehydration. If you’re spending more than an hour or so outdoors in extreme heat or high humidity conditions, your body’s internal cooling system may begin to slow down. You’re likely to sweat excessively, which is one of the main ways the body cools down. However, in humid conditions, sweat droplets are less likely to evaporate from your skin, which can lead to overheating and heat-related illness like heat exhaustion or heatstroke.
It’s best to avoid drinking alcohol and excessive amounts of caffeine to cool off, as that can lead to increased urination and increased risk of dehydration.
Prolonged physical exertion
Hydrating is particularly important for people who are engaged in physical activity and sweating for prolonged periods of time. Marathon runners are a prime example.
“If you’re someone who runs a marathon at a fast pace, and you take a little bit of water throughout, you’re not going to accumulate that much water because you’re sweating it off very quickly,” Zaslow says.
Illness or chronic conditions
Illness that’s accompanied by vomiting or diarrhea can increase your risk for dehydration, as it may cause you to lose excess fluids at a rate faster than you can consume food or beverages.
Additionally, people with underlying medical conditions, particularly those with diabetes or kidney conditions, may be at higher risk for effects of dehydration.
Treating Mild Dehydration
For mild cases of dehydration, simply getting fluids in your body will be adequate.
“In most situations, once you reverse the dehydration, people will be fine, and there will be no lasting effects,” Taub says.
Under normal conditions, drinking water will do the trick and rebalance your body’s water levels. However, if you only hydrate with water — particularly when you’re exercising for more than an hour or in high heat — you’ll need to replenish with electrolytes, as well.
Electrolytes are minerals that are essential to maintaining normal bodily functions in the muscles and nervous system. Common electrolytes include sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium and are found in your sweat, urine, blood and other body fluids. Low levels can lead to an electrolyte imbalance and potentially life-threatening complications.
“Sometimes, what happens is people will try to hydrate, but they might over-hydrate with just water,” Zaslow says.
In that case, grabbing an electrolyte-rich beverage, such as a sports drink, is a good idea.
“A sports beverage by definition has a mixture of sugar, like glucose, as well as having sodium and potassium,” Zaslow says.
She cautions against energy drinks.
“Energy drinks can sometimes be confused with sports beverages, but energy drinks tend to have caffeine, which can dehydrate you further, as well as having a lot of other additives,” Zaslow adds.
When to Seek Medical Attention
More serious signs of dehydration can include:
— Dizziness.
— Confusion.
— Muscle weakness.
— Seizures.
— Swelling of the brain.
— Loss of consciousness.
— Kidney failure.
— Shock or coma.
Although it is uncommon, it is possible — in the most severe of cases — for people to go into shock or coma if left untreated.
Treating Severe Dehydration
If oral rehydration is not working, go to either your general practitioner or the emergency department to receive intravenous fluids to correct the hydration. IV fluids are typically a saline solution, with water, salt and other electrolytes.
“We’re also going to be checking blood tests and other tests to see what types of damage may have already occurred and what we can do to reverse it,” Taub says.
Blood tests and urinalyses can check your level of electrolytes, kidney functions and dehydration levels.
If severe dehydration is due to an underlying medical condition, doctors will need to identify and treat the root cause.
How to Prevent Dehydration
Generally, it’s recommended that adults drink eight glasses of water, or 64 ounces, per day. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommends adult women consume an average of 2.7 liters (about 11 cups) of total water — from all food and beverages — per day, and adult men consume 3.7 liters (about 15 cups) per day. However, that should be adjusted depending on the weather conditions.
“People also sweat at different rates,” Zaslow says.
Because some people may be “salty sweaters,” meaning their sweat has a higher content of salt, they may need more sodium to replenish their electrolytes.
Older adults definitely want to take extra precautions to make sure they don’t get in a difficult situation, particularly those with chronic medical conditions or who are on multiple medications.
“They should recognize that they are susceptible to both heat illness and dehydration,” Taub says.
Therefore, older adults should avoid prolonged outdoor heat, try to stay in a cool indoor environment on hot days and maintain proper hydration levels.
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Warning Signs of Dehydration originally appeared on usnews.com
