The Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration!

It's once again summertime and this is the time of year when people tend to become dehydrated despite their best efforts to drink lots of liquids on a hot day.  You are especially vulnerable to dehydration while exercising, when it's humid and its hot out.

What to Watch For ...

Dehydration is a condition that occurs when the loss of body fluids, mostly water, exceeds the amount that is taken in. With dehydration, more water is moving out of our cells and then out of our bodies than the amount of water we take in through drinking.

When we lose too much water, our bodies may become out of balance or dehydrated. Severe dehydration can lead to death.

Symptoms of dehydration in adults are dizziness, heart palpitations, confusion, dry mouth, feeling thirsty, inability to sweat and fainting.

Decreased urine input or darker coloured urine can also indicate dehydration and that is your cue to drink more water.

Causes

Many conditions may cause rapid and continued fluid loss in the  humanbody and lead to dehydration.

Too much sun, heat exposure over-exercising too much can cause the condition but

illnesses, medications and chronic conditions can also cause dehydration. A fever can cause you to lose fluids you also lose fluids because of vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination due to infection.

People with diabetes are prone to dehydration because they tend to overheat faster than other people, especially while exercising or just after eating.

If you are ill and not cared for properly, it might be easier for you to become dehydrated as you may not be able to have access to adequate amounts of liquids to keep you hydrated.

If you are mentally impaired in some way you may forget to drink enough liquids to stay hydrated. This can become common in people on prescribed opiates or in elderly individuals.

Having little or no access to safe drinking water is a common cause of dehydration for people all over the world and can be a problem for North Americans who are travellings. 

Significant injuries to skin, such as burns or mouth sores, or severe skin diseases or infections can cause dehydration, as water is lost through damaged skin.

Drinking too much alcohol is also a common culprit as it dehydrates your body. Drinking too much caffeine, green tea or cola drinks can also act as diuretics that can drain water out of your body.

To avoid dehydration you might want to avoid exercise and exposure to the sun during days of high heat or humidity.

Care and Treatment

Most cases of dehydration can be treated at home. The best remedy is to drink liquids. However when dehydrated it may be difficult for the body to accept water in large doses fast. It is best to sip small amounts of water frequently.

Avoid sports drinks or Gatorade as they typically have too much sugar (over 30 grams) and all kinds of chemical flavoring.  For instance, grape flavoured Gatorade has red 40 and Blue 1 in it to make it purple.)

You can make your own rehydration potion using 1 quart of any sugar-free liquid. This includes green tea, hrbal tea, coconut water or plain water.  To this you can add 1/4 teapoon Himilayan sea sault and 1/2 teaspoon calcium magnesium powder (or you can use the crushed tablets. For flavoring you can add 1/4 cup of any type of juice. Lemon or lime juice is a good choice.  If you like your rehydration potion sweeter, add honey, stevia or agave syrup to taste.

Emergen-C with water, a bit of a salt and little juice can also help you rehydrate quickly!

If the dehydration is due to heat exposure it helps to loosen the person’s clothing and spray or mist luke warm water on exposed skin surfaces to help with cooling by evaporation.

However, do not pack ice around a person who is dehydrated. This will make the person shiver and shivering causes the body temperature to increase rather than decrease.

Medical treatment is usual required if the person has been dehydrated for a couple of days and has a temperature of 104 degrees or higher. In a hospital you may be administered fluids by intravenous units.

Medications such as acetaminophen may be prescribed for the headache or fever that sometimes accompanies a condition of dehydration.

When dehydration is treated and the underlying cause identified, you will recover normally.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.