Dehydration occurs when you use or lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions. If you don’t replace lost fluids, you will get dehydrated.
Between about 55% to about 78% of your body is made of water. Newborn babies are about 78% water, a year-old baby is 65%, adult men are about 60% and adult women are about 55%. Your brain is made up of 73% water, and so is your heart. Your bones are 31% water, muscles and kidneys are 79% and your skin is 64%. And 83% of water makes up your lungs.
Not only is it critical for digestion and getting rid of waste, but it also works your joints and lubricates them, makes saliva (which you need to eat), balances your body’s chemicals, creates hormones and neurotransmitters, delivers oxygen all over your body and act as a shock absorber for your brain, spinal cord and, if you’re pregnant, your fetus as well!
Your body regularly loses water through sweating and urination. If the water isn’t replaced, you become dehydrated. Any situation or condition that causes the body to lose more water than usual leads to dehydration.
When too much water is lost from the body, its organs, cells, and tissues fail to function as they should, which can lead to dangerous complications.
If severe dehydration isn’t corrected immediately, it could lead to hypovolemic shock.
Here are some common reasons why you might be dehydrated.
Drinking often without hydrating oneself will lead to headaches and severe hangovers.
Alcohol is a diuretic. It causes your body to remove fluids from your blood through your renal system, which includes the kidneys, ureters and bladder, at a much quicker rate than other liquids.
Alcohol reduces how much vasopressin your body makes.
Vasopressin is an antidiuretic hormone. It causes the body to hold onto water, which typically limits how much urine your kidneys make.
The action of suppressing this hormone exacerbates the diuretic effect and leads to dehydration.
Drinks containing more than 4% alcohol cause more diuresis, leading to excess water loss from all the cells, including your neurons.
This leads to headaches and hangovers
High blood sugar spikes mean that your body doesn’t make insulin or use insulin properly.
Insulin is a hormone that allows your body’s cells to absorb the sugar in your bloodstream, and then use that sugar for energy.
If your body doesn’t use insulin properly, sugar can accumulate in your bloodstream.
When your blood sugar remains high for an extended period, your kidneys must work harder to filter and remove the excess glucose. This happens using urination.
This results in intracellular dehydration.
It’s this increase in urination that leads to dehydration, especially if you don’t replace lost fluids.
Yet another common reason is excessive caffeine intake. Caffeine is also a diuretic. It increases sodium absorption by 20% and sodium loss through sweat by 15% which leads to dehydration.
Lack of salt also causes extracellular dehydration. This disturbs blood pressure regulation.
So whenever you try to combat dehydration, remember that drinking plain water is not the solution. Drinking salt with water is going to be more beneficial
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