subject: Dehydration 101 [print this page] At one time or another, all of us have suffered from dehydration.
Although a lot of people know that we suffer from dehydration when we forget to drink enough water, they still think it will only happen to aerobic buffs who forget drink water before heading to the gym or some unfortunate adventurer left alone to die in the arid vastness of the desert. Come to think of it, both assumptions are correct. Dehydration do tend to happen to people who exercise a lot, they forget to balance their exercises with proper and regular water intake. You'll get the same result when you're ill equipped to go wandering around the desert, the difference is that this could be deadly if you're unable to find any source of water.
More often than not, individuals get dehydrated through the simple fact of not drinking the right amount of water. Most of us are not even aware of it, sliding bit by bit into dehydration until the time we begin to feel thirsty. Thirst is our body's way of telling us that we need water, and if you've already reached this point then you're already in the early stages of dehydration. If you feel worn out all the time and feel sluggish, like you're ill and might faint anytime soon, then these may also indicate that you might be dehydrated. Drinking lots of coffee doesn't help hydrate your body, it actually has the opposite effect since it's a diuretic; drinking soda and other sugar-rich refreshments isn't much good either because our body doesn't absorb it as readily as water.
Dehydration can be quite dangerous if you're suffering from this along with diarrhea or vomiting. Not only are you losing water in your body, you are also unable to replace it because you're ejecting anything you're taking in your body as well. The usual solution would be to take in as much fluid as much and as soon as possible, preferably with electrolytes so you're body can absorb it faster. In severe cases, you may have to seek medical attention and more drastic treatments such the use of intravenous fluids to restore the water in your body.
Whether you're trying to prevent dehydration or you're already trying to recover from it, the simplest and most effective solution still is take in the right amount of water. You're thinking it's elementary, but then drinking plenty of water is actually one of the most basic things we do and is quite essential to our health and well-being. It's the little things that help you out, like placing a pitcher of water on the coffee table or having a water container in your back pack, since it's already there you'll be more apt to drink it.
