Dehydration: causes, consequences, prevention

Our body is more than half water. The loss of even a small part of it leads to dehydration of the body. If you do not take any action to treat dehydration, serious complications can occur.

Causes of dehydration

As scientists have found, for the normal functioning of the body, a person needs to drink about eight glasses of ordinary clean water a day. If the amount of water you drink is not enough, symptoms of dehydration begin to appear.

In addition to the small amount of water consumed daily, other factors can lead to dehydration:

• Severe vomiting and diarrhea. This condition leads to significant fluid loss in a very short period of time. In this case, dehydration occurs especially quickly in young children. If you have severe diarrhea accompanied by vomiting, you should definitely go to the hospital.
• Fever. High temperatures cause greater fluid loss. And if profuse sweating is also added to the elevated temperature, dehydration may occur.
• A high degree of sweating occurs during intense physical activity. This also leads to slight dehydration. That's why you need to take a bottle of water with you when you go to training.
• Frequent urination also causes dehydration. It is observed in some diseases, for example, diabetes. In the case of this disease, frequent urination is accompanied by a strong feeling of thirst.
• Taking certain medications and alcohol can sometimes lead to dehydration.

Symptoms of dehydration

If you are experiencing extreme thirst, this indicates that your body has been in a state of dehydration for quite some time. It is more correct to assess the level of dehydration by the amount and condition of urine. When you are dehydrated, your urine is dark in color. Another symptom of dehydration is excessive sweating due to high temperature or intense physical activity.

Then the person develops circles dark color around the eyes, he becomes lethargic and apathetic. Then changes begin in the nervous system - the person experiences confusion. When dehydrated, the patient experiences weakness and may lose consciousness. The skin suffers - it becomes dry and inelastic.

Danger of dehydration

Water is the main condition for the health and youth of the human body. The less you drink pure water, the faster the aging process occurs, the closer you are to your death. There is even an opinion that at the time of death a person still continues to lose water. Figuratively speaking, the loss of just a couple of percent of fluid from the body separates a person from death.

From this we can conclude that a healthy body should be fully saturated with moisture. Therefore, if you intend to stay young and healthy as long as possible, you should not wait for the first warning signs of dehydration to appear. In addition, drinking a glass of water on time also protects us from signs of premature aging - early wrinkles.

Consequences of dehydration

First of all, the brain suffers from lack of water. After all, the loss of even a small part of water leads to irreversible consequences for the brain. To prevent this, fluid begins to be pumped out of other organs. At the same time, our body first tries to replenish the lack of moisture, taking it from the cells, then the water leaves the intercellular space and from the blood. Dehydration of the brain leads to the penetration of dangerous substances into it, causing multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and other equally serious illnesses.

A decrease in the amount of fluid leads to thickening of the blood, which can further cause atherosclerosis. Lack of moisture also damages the immune defense. This leads to the development of chronic diseases of various kinds. Not to mention that lack of moisture causes earlier aging.

Treatment of dehydration

To get rid of dehydration, it is necessary to restore the water balance in the body as quickly as possible. Severe dehydration is characterized by an extremely low amount of fluid in the body. This condition leads to changes in internal organs. With such a severe degree of dehydration, it is imperative to call an ambulance and place the person in a hospital.

Mild and moderate forms of dehydration can be treated at home. To do this, the patient must be placed in a cool and well-ventilated room on a flat surface. You need to give the person plenty of fluids. This can be regular or mineral water, a drink containing glucose, frozen fruit juice. In this case, the liquid should be drunk in small sips and slowly. To speed up the process of restoring water balance, you can give the patient a special drug, for example “Regidron” or the like.

It is important to remember that you should immediately consult a doctor if dehydration occurs in the following cases:

• If it is a child under ten years of age, especially an infant.
• If the patient is an adult of retirement age.
• If the patient suffers from severe diarrhea and vomits.
• If the patient does not urinate for more than 12 hours.
• If it rises high temperature about 40 degrees.
• If the patient loses consciousness, he develops convulsions or epileptic seizures.

Preventing dehydration

To prevent even mild dehydration, it is important to constantly monitor the amount of fluid you drink. Do not replace the water your body needs with other drinks. They won't do you any good. Monitor how much water your small child drinks.

During the hot season and at high temperatures, drink more water. When vomiting and diarrhea, be sure to drink water in small sips, but often. If vomiting and diarrhea occur in a baby, do not stop feeding your baby under any circumstances. He should receive enough fluid in any case. You can switch to a gentle feeding regimen only with the permission of your doctor. Moreover, with the development of an infectious disease, hunger makes absolutely no sense.