Dehydration is Deadly

Keep your tank full or you might suffer a breakdown

One of life’s most basic necessities is water. If you stop drinking liquids you will eventually die – it’s as simple as that. In North America, we’re lucky to have a variety of clean water sources. So why is it that more than half of our population is dehydrated? Dehydration occurs in North America because of lack of education. So consider this Dehydration 101.

Dehydration occurs when the body doesn’t have enough water in order to function properly. There are many ways to become dehydrated, including excess sweating without replacing fluids, exposure to dry air, blood loss, low blood pressure, hyperthermia, shock, vomiting, diarrhea, malnutrition, electrolyte imbalance, alcohol or caffeine poisoning and a host of infectious diseases. Realistically, if you had the stomach flu and were vomiting and had , you would have no choice but to make sure you were getting enough water. However, when we sweat, why is it that we don’t replenish our stores?

The average body needs between 8 and 10 glasses of water per day. If you’re working out, you should be drinking more than that. However, the average person lives life with a bevy of uncomfortable ailments – frequent headaches, low blood pressure, fatigue, dizziness, hot flushes, unconsciousness, dry mouth, dry skin – yet they have no idea that all they need is more water.

You may start to feel the effects of dehydration when you lose as little as 2 percent of your normal water level. As dehydration sets in, you’ll become thirsty, your skin and mouth might get dry and you may also lose your appetite. The more water your body loses, the more severe the symptoms get. Your heart and respiration rates will eventually need to work overtime in order to make up for the lack of plasma volume and blood pressure, and your body temperature can rise.

Sweating normally occurs to cool the body; however, when your body doesn’t contain enough water, you won’t have anything to sweat out. As dehydration increases, your symptoms will worsen. Dizziness, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and even vomiting can set in. If you lose more than 15 percent of your essential water supply, there’s a good chance you’ll die.

While the symptoms may seem complicated, the solution to dehydration is pretty simple. You need to put the lost water and electrolytes back into your body to replenish it. However, you need to be careful how you do this. You can’t drink urine, seawater or alcohol if you’re in an emergency as the sudden influx of salt, especially from seawater, will dehydrate your cells and overload the kidneys, which will then stop working.

If you become dehydrated you’ll need water to help you digest any type of food and if you are sweating, you’ll need a more fulfilling drink like an electrolyte balanced sports drink or enhanced water will help you out.

It’s not really that hard to become dehydrated. During an average day in a temperate climate the average person loses about 2.5 liters of water by expelling water vapor via the lungs, through your skin via sweat, and through your kidneys and bowels via urine and feces. If you’re really working up a sweat in the gym or the bedroom you can easily lose double this amount. In fact, if you exercise very hard in high temperatures you could lose over 2.5 liters of fluid per hour.

Keep these things in mind, and drink water when you think you need it. It’s important to make sure you drink enough of the proper fluids daily to stay hydrated. Otherwise, you face the possibility of needing the fluids pumped into you intravenously. Keep your water tank full – because the alternative isn’t pretty.