How dehydration affects your body

Drinking water is not just a fun activity but is very important to us and whatever we are doing. Sometimes, people find it difficult to drink water maybe because it's not as chilled as we want it to or it's not available at the moment or we feel too busy to stand up from where we are and get a bottle of water to drink. This is not a healthy routine because it has enormous effects on our body.

Water is an important element of the body as it occupies about 75% of our body's weight. Also staying hydrated enables our body to function properly. On the other hand, dehydration occurs when the quantity of water we lose on a routine is more than what we take in. 

We tend to lose water from our body through various ways which include exhalation of humidified air as seen in cold weather, sweating, ruination and excretion. Other ways water is lost are;

Diarrhoea: we lose water when we have bowel movement after eating contaminated food.

Vomitting: this can occur due to a health condition.

Sweat: sweating is a way the copes when it tries to cool itself in a hot weather condition or increased body temperature due to fever (caused by an infection) or exercise.

Diabetes: in persons who are diabetic, there is increased sugar in their blood causing the auger to spill  into the urine with water following resulting in dehydration.

Burns: burns on the skin interferes with the skin's ability to prevent fluid from sipping out of the body.

Inability to drink fluids: this is quite a part I don't understand. I've heard someone say they didn't drink water throughout a day because it wasn't chilled. Well you can have your reason aside unavailability of water at the moment or lack of strength to drink but I guess by the time you see the effect of dehydration on your body, that will change.

Now we've seen how dehydration can occur. Let's look at how it affects your body. Sometimes, there is water available for us to drink fluid but we just push the urge aside and continue with what we feel 

is more important. How ever, the next time you feel the following symptoms, know you're dehydrated and continuously waving that urge of thirst can lead you and your health into a more serious trouble,

-dry mouth.                                         -lightheadedness

-muscle cramps.                                  -weakness

-heart palpitations.

Here is an explanation of what really happens in your body when you're dehydrated.  Ordinarily, your body is wired to maintain the amount of blood pumped from your heart to other parts of your body; and when the fluids in your blood vessels is reduced because you're not drinking enough water, your body tries to compensate this by increasing the rate at which your heart pumps blood, reducing the size of your blood vessels to maintain your blood pressure and also the flow of blood away from your skin to your vital organs; your brain, heart, kidney and intestines. This causes your skin to feel cold. This coping mechanism functions just for a while just enough time for you to find water or any fluid to drink. But when you still delay, the mechanism begins to fail leading to you to severe dehydration.

This level of dehydration is very dangerous. It causes confusion, weakness and then more complicated coma, organ failure and death if nothing is done to treat or come off dehydration. Remember this is just not taking enough fluids. Fluids here must not just be water, you can also take water melon, coconut water or milk.

Therefore to ensure there is balance between the quantity of water you take and what you lose, you have to take an amount of water to replace the quantity to lose routinely. The daily requirement as stated by medicinet is 100mls per kilogram all things being equal and in the absence of a condition of excessive water or fluid loss.

Related posts:

Dehydration symptoms, signs and other effects

6 Unusual Symptoms of Dehydration and tips to stay hydrated

The 7 Best Drinks for Dehydration

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