How do I know if I'm dehydrated?
The symptoms you should never ignore:-
When it's so hot, staying hydrated is key to staying healthy. Dehydration is a serious health concern. Last year, a study* (read below) published in the American Journal of Public Health found that more than half of all children and adolescents in the U.S. aren’t getting enough water.
“People don’t realize the amount of fluid they can lose in the heat, or while exercising,” explained Michael F. Bergeron, Ph.D., and president and chief executive officer of Youth Sports of the Americas. “And it’s important to note that your hydration needs are very individual,” continued Bergeron.
This health issue is more serious than you might think and could land you in the hospital.
How much water do we need each day? It depends on your present body weight. For every 1 kilogram of body weight , you need to drink at least 32.53 ml water, per day. . Here are a few signs you might be dehydrated and tips to stay healthy all year long.
The best way to prevent this from happening is to meet your daily hydration needs, for women, the National Academy of Sciences recommends 2.7 liters of water a day (about 11.4 cups), and for men, 3.7 liters (15 cups). Try to drink more water if you’ve spent excessive time in the sun, or exercising.
A study** (read below) from the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory found that even mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy and ability to think clearly. The researchers defined mild dehydration as an approximately 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body — and the adverse reaction is the same whether you’re exercising or sitting still.
“Monitor your hydration levels and make sure you’re drinking throughout any form of exercise,” she explained further.
“You may also experience weakness, dizziness, or nausea, because the body doesn’t have enough fluid to send to other parts of the body. This could also result in heat exhaustion. You can collapse if you don’t stop exercising and cool down,” warned Bergeron, who also added that these specific symptoms can also be signs of over hydration, so be aware of how much you’re drinking.
“Wandering and progressively widespread muscle cramping is a certain clue of a sodium deficit and dehydration in the fluid spaces surrounding certain muscles,” Bergeron elaborated. “But don’t confuse it with an overworked muscle which would just affect a small area.”
To prevent this from occurring, it’s important to drink sports beverages that contain sodium, or snack on salted pretzels or low-fat cheeses. The sodium helps your body to re-hydrate and retain the water.
Some key things to remember when exercising in the summer is that the longer you’re working out, the more water you need. Also, plain water is good for you, but a combination of water, electrolytes and sodium is really the best way to stay hydrated.
It’s also crucial to understand that hydrating properly isn’t 100 percent preventative, if you’re working too hard and too long in the summer heat, you can still overheat no matter how much water your drinking. So be aware of your body, and stop what you’re doing if you notice any of these symptoms.
*Study: Study finds inadequate hydration among U.S. children.
Notably, nearly a quarter of the children and adolescents in the study reported drinking no plain water at all.
Most people only think about drinking water when they are thirsty; but by then it may already be too late.
Even mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy level, and ability to think clearly, according to two studies recently conducted at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory.
The tests showed that it didn’t matter if a person had just walked for 40 minutes on a treadmill or was sitting at rest – the adverse effects from mild dehydration were the same. Mild dehydration is defined as an approximately 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body.
The test results affirm the importance of staying properly hydrated at all times and not just during exercise, extreme heat, or exertion, says Lawrence E. Armstrong, one of the studies’ lead scientists and a professor of physiology in UConn’s Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education.
“Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1 [percent] or 2 percent dehydrated. By then dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how our mind and body perform,” says Armstrong, an international expert on hydration who has conducted research in the field for more than 20 years. “Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners, who can lose up to 8 percent of their body weight as water when they compete.”
Separate groups of young women and men were tested. Twenty-five women took part in one study. Their average age was 23. The men’s group consisted of 26 men with an average age of 20. All of the participants were healthy, active individuals, who were neither high-performance athletes nor sedentary – typically exercising for 30 to 60 minutes per day.
Each participant took part in three evaluations that were separated by 28 days. All of the participants walked on a treadmill to induce dehydration, and all of the subjects were hydrated the evening before the evaluations commenced. As part of the evaluation, the subjects were put through a battery of cognitive tests that measured vigilance, concentration, reaction time, learning, memory, and reasoning. The results were compared against a separate series of tests when the individuals were not dehydrated.
In the test involving the young women, mild dehydration caused headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating, according to one of the studies, which appears in the February issue of The Journal of Nutrition. The female subjects also perceived tasks as more difficult when slightly dehydrated, although there was no substantive reduction in their cognitive abilities.
In the test involving the young men, mild dehydration caused some difficulty with mental tasks, particularly in the areas of vigilance and working memory, according to the results of the second UConn study. While the young men also experienced fatigue, tension, and anxiety when mildly dehydrated, adverse changes in mood and symptoms were “substantially greater in females than in males, both at rest and during exercise,” according to the study. The men’s study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition in November 2011.
“Even mild dehydration that can occur during the course of our ordinary daily activities can degrade how we are feeling – especially for women, who appear to be more susceptible to the adverse effects of low levels of dehydration than men,” says Harris Lieberman, one of the studies’ co-authors and a research psychologist with the Military Nutrition Division, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. “In both sexes these adverse mood changes may limit the motivation required to engage in even moderate aerobic exercise. Mild dehydration may also interfere with other daily activities, even when there is no physical demand component present.”
Why women and men are so adversely affected by mild dehydration is unclear, and more research is necessary. But other research has shown that neurons in the brain detect dehydration and may signal other parts of the brain regulating mood when dehydration occurs. This process could be part of an ancient warning system protecting humans from more dire consequences, and alerting them to the need for water to survive.
In order to stay properly hydrated, experts like Armstrong recommend that individuals drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day, which is approximately equivalent to about 2 liters of water. People can check their hydration status by monitoring the color of their urine. Urine should be a very pale yellow in individuals who are properly hydrated. Urine that is dark yellow or tan in color indicates greater dehydration. Proper hydration is particularly important for high-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with diabetes, and children.
The dehydration studies were supported by Danone Research of France and were conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, University of Arkansas, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital’s Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine in Dallas, Texas. UConn professor Douglas Casa, adjunct assistant professor Elaine Lee, and members of the graduate student team at UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute for the prevention of sudden death in sport helped gather data for the two studies.
The symptoms you should never ignore:-
When it's so hot, staying hydrated is key to staying healthy. Dehydration is a serious health concern. Last year, a study* (read below) published in the American Journal of Public Health found that more than half of all children and adolescents in the U.S. aren’t getting enough water.
“People don’t realize the amount of fluid they can lose in the heat, or while exercising,” explained Michael F. Bergeron, Ph.D., and president and chief executive officer of Youth Sports of the Americas. “And it’s important to note that your hydration needs are very individual,” continued Bergeron.
This health issue is more serious than you might think and could land you in the hospital.
How much water do we need each day? It depends on your present body weight. For every 1 kilogram of body weight , you need to drink at least 32.53 ml water, per day. . Here are a few signs you might be dehydrated and tips to stay healthy all year long.
1. Increased thirst and a dry or sticky mouth
“If you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated,” explained Dr. Laura Goldberg of Cleveland Clinic Sports Health. The easiest remedy is to start drinking water (and beverages with electrolytes) as soon as you notice this, but try not to let yourself get to this point.The best way to prevent this from happening is to meet your daily hydration needs, for women, the National Academy of Sciences recommends 2.7 liters of water a day (about 11.4 cups), and for men, 3.7 liters (15 cups). Try to drink more water if you’ve spent excessive time in the sun, or exercising.
2. Signs of fatigue, confusion or anger
Studies have found that mild levels of dehydration can affect your mood and cognitive functions. This is especially common in the young or elderly, who may seem less alert, or forgetful.A study** (read below) from the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory found that even mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy and ability to think clearly. The researchers defined mild dehydration as an approximately 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body — and the adverse reaction is the same whether you’re exercising or sitting still.
3. Dry eyes or blurred vision
“When you’ve been exercising for a long time, you’re sweating and your overall body fluid goes down — this can result in dry eyes or blurred vision,” said Goldberg, who also noted that any part of the body that is normally moist is going to feel dry or irritated.“Monitor your hydration levels and make sure you’re drinking throughout any form of exercise,” she explained further.
4. Headaches or disorientation
Dehydration can result in a headache or migraine, light headedness or delirium. “I’ve seen marathon runners running in zigzags because they’re dehydrated. You can’t make decisions and feel delirious,” elaborated Goldberg.“You may also experience weakness, dizziness, or nausea, because the body doesn’t have enough fluid to send to other parts of the body. This could also result in heat exhaustion. You can collapse if you don’t stop exercising and cool down,” warned Bergeron, who also added that these specific symptoms can also be signs of over hydration, so be aware of how much you’re drinking.
5. Muscle cramps
“If you’ve been exercising, it’s natural for your legs to feel tired, but if it’s more than that and you’re experiencing muscle cramping, that’s a serious sign of dehydration,” Goldberg explained. This is because of the loss of water and salt in the body — you also might experience tightness in your muscles, instead of cramping.“Wandering and progressively widespread muscle cramping is a certain clue of a sodium deficit and dehydration in the fluid spaces surrounding certain muscles,” Bergeron elaborated. “But don’t confuse it with an overworked muscle which would just affect a small area.”
To prevent this from occurring, it’s important to drink sports beverages that contain sodium, or snack on salted pretzels or low-fat cheeses. The sodium helps your body to re-hydrate and retain the water.
6. Lack of sweat
According to Goldberg, this is one of the more serious signs of dehydration. It means your body is in dire need of water. Though, on the other hand, Bergeron notes that more likely it may be a sign of overheating or heat stroke — though either can occur in the presence of continued sweating. Either way, it’s crucial to cool down rapidly if you’re not sweating anymore.7. Dark urine
“Straw-colored or light yellow urine means you're properly hydrated. If your urine is dark, or if there’s blood in your pee, you need to stop exercising immediately,” warned Goldberg. Notably, perfectly clear urine may mean that you are over-hydrated.8. Fever
“Dehydration can lead to hyperthermia and a fever-like symptoms (e.g. chills) because over-heating can alter your body's normal temperature 'set point,'” explained Dr. Goldberg. Excessive overheating is an urgent red flag. Stop exercising immediately, take an ice bath and hydrate.9. Shriveled and dry skin
If your skin is hydrated, it will appear doughy. If you’re dehydrated, your skin will lack elasticity and won’t bounce back. “If you pinch your skin and it appears thin and doesn’t melt back onto your body quickly, you’re dehydrated,” said Goldberg.Some key things to remember when exercising in the summer is that the longer you’re working out, the more water you need. Also, plain water is good for you, but a combination of water, electrolytes and sodium is really the best way to stay hydrated.
It’s also crucial to understand that hydrating properly isn’t 100 percent preventative, if you’re working too hard and too long in the summer heat, you can still overheat no matter how much water your drinking. So be aware of your body, and stop what you’re doing if you notice any of these symptoms.
*Study: Study finds inadequate hydration among U.S. children.
Boston, MA – More than half of all children and adolescents in the U.S. are not getting enough hydration—probably because they’re not drinking enough water—a situation that could have significant repercussions for their physical health and their cognitive and emotional functioning, according to the first national study of its kind from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study also found racial/ethnic and gender gaps in hydration status. Black children and adolescents were at higher risk of inadequate hydration than whites; boys were at higher risk than girls.
The study appears online June 11, 2015 in the American Journal of Public Health.
“These findings are significant because they highlight a potential health issue that has not been given a whole lot of attention in the past,” said lead author Erica Kenney, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Chan School. “Even though for most of these kids this is not an immediate, dramatic health threat, this is an issue that could really be reducing quality of life and well-being for many, many children and youth.”
Drinking enough water is essential for physiological processes such as circulation, metabolism, temperature regulation, and waste removal. Although excessive dehydration is associated with serious health problems, even mild dehydration can cause issues, including headaches, irritability, poorer physical performance, and reduced cognitive functioning.
The researchers looked at data from 2009-2012 on more than 4,000 children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a study of the health of U.S. children and adults conducted each year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They used urine osmolality—a measure of how concentrated a person’s urine is—to determine whether or not participants were adequately hydrated.
They found that a little more than half of all children and adolescents weren’t getting enough hydration. Boys were 76% more likely than girls, and non-Hispanic blacks were 34% more likely than non-Hispanic whites, to be inadequately hydrated.
“The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution,” said senior author Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology. “If we can focus on helping children drink more water—a low-cost, no-calorie beverage—we can improve their hydration status, which may allow many children to feel better throughout the day and do better in school.”
Other Harvard Chan School authors of the study included Angie Cradock, senior research scientist and deputy director of the Harvard Prevention Research Center, and research fellow Michael Long.
This study was supported by Cooperative Agreement No. 1U48DP001946 (including the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention Research Centers Program and a grant in memory of Melvin R. Seiden.
“Prevalence of Inadequate Hydration among US Children and Disparities by Gender and Race/Ethnicity: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009-2012,” Erica L. Kenney, Michael W. Long, Angie L. Cradock, Steven L. Gortmaker, American Journal of Public Health, online June 11, 2015.
**Study. Even Mild Dehydration Can Alter Mood
Even mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy level, and ability to think clearly, according to two studies recently conducted at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory.
The tests showed that it didn’t matter if a person had just walked for 40 minutes on a treadmill or was sitting at rest – the adverse effects from mild dehydration were the same. Mild dehydration is defined as an approximately 1.5 percent loss in normal water volume in the body.
The test results affirm the importance of staying properly hydrated at all times and not just during exercise, extreme heat, or exertion, says Lawrence E. Armstrong, one of the studies’ lead scientists and a professor of physiology in UConn’s Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education.
“Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1 [percent] or 2 percent dehydrated. By then dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how our mind and body perform,” says Armstrong, an international expert on hydration who has conducted research in the field for more than 20 years. “Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners, who can lose up to 8 percent of their body weight as water when they compete.”
Separate groups of young women and men were tested. Twenty-five women took part in one study. Their average age was 23. The men’s group consisted of 26 men with an average age of 20. All of the participants were healthy, active individuals, who were neither high-performance athletes nor sedentary – typically exercising for 30 to 60 minutes per day.
Each participant took part in three evaluations that were separated by 28 days. All of the participants walked on a treadmill to induce dehydration, and all of the subjects were hydrated the evening before the evaluations commenced. As part of the evaluation, the subjects were put through a battery of cognitive tests that measured vigilance, concentration, reaction time, learning, memory, and reasoning. The results were compared against a separate series of tests when the individuals were not dehydrated.
In the test involving the young women, mild dehydration caused headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating, according to one of the studies, which appears in the February issue of The Journal of Nutrition. The female subjects also perceived tasks as more difficult when slightly dehydrated, although there was no substantive reduction in their cognitive abilities.
In the test involving the young men, mild dehydration caused some difficulty with mental tasks, particularly in the areas of vigilance and working memory, according to the results of the second UConn study. While the young men also experienced fatigue, tension, and anxiety when mildly dehydrated, adverse changes in mood and symptoms were “substantially greater in females than in males, both at rest and during exercise,” according to the study. The men’s study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition in November 2011.
“Even mild dehydration that can occur during the course of our ordinary daily activities can degrade how we are feeling – especially for women, who appear to be more susceptible to the adverse effects of low levels of dehydration than men,” says Harris Lieberman, one of the studies’ co-authors and a research psychologist with the Military Nutrition Division, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. “In both sexes these adverse mood changes may limit the motivation required to engage in even moderate aerobic exercise. Mild dehydration may also interfere with other daily activities, even when there is no physical demand component present.”
Why women and men are so adversely affected by mild dehydration is unclear, and more research is necessary. But other research has shown that neurons in the brain detect dehydration and may signal other parts of the brain regulating mood when dehydration occurs. This process could be part of an ancient warning system protecting humans from more dire consequences, and alerting them to the need for water to survive.
In order to stay properly hydrated, experts like Armstrong recommend that individuals drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day, which is approximately equivalent to about 2 liters of water. People can check their hydration status by monitoring the color of their urine. Urine should be a very pale yellow in individuals who are properly hydrated. Urine that is dark yellow or tan in color indicates greater dehydration. Proper hydration is particularly important for high-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with diabetes, and children.
The dehydration studies were supported by Danone Research of France and were conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, University of Arkansas, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital’s Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine in Dallas, Texas. UConn professor Douglas Casa, adjunct assistant professor Elaine Lee, and members of the graduate student team at UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute for the prevention of sudden death in sport helped gather data for the two studies.
Studies by UConn's Human Performance Laboratory affirm the importance of staying properly hydrated at all times.
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