Learn to Identify Dehydration Symptoms and Increase Your Daily Water Intake

Why is it important to maintain your daily water intake?

You may not think about dehydration symptoms often, but every time you are thirsty, your body is telling you that it feels dehydrated. Keeping track of your daily water intake is crucial to avoiding dehydration. Water is part of every body process, tissue, cell, and organ, and daily water intake is important to maintain many body functions and to avoid dehydration symptoms. It regulates your body temperature, removes waste from the body, carries nutrients and oxygen and glucose to the cells supplying energy, provides natural moisture to the skin and other organs, cushions joints, and helps strengthen muscles.

What are the major dehydration symptoms?

Regardless of the season, winter or summer, hot or cold, people of all ages are subject to dehydration. The most important key to avoiding dehydration is to drink fluids before you become thirsty. If you wait until you are thirsty, you have probably not met your ideal daily water intake, and it is likely you are already dehydrated.

Since the brain is approximately 75 percent water, it is understandable that early dehydration symptoms, caused by a drop of only 3 to 5 percent of water in the body, may include decreased energy and fatigue, headaches, and dizziness. Other dehydration symptoms may include dry lips, mouth, and skin; nausea; increased body temperature, which can cause heat stroke; and labored breathing. While severe dehydration can lead to more serious health problems, it can be easily avoided by monitoring your daily water intake.

What causes dehydration?

You may suffer from dehydration symptoms for a variety of reasons. Your body loses large amounts of water when you exercise, and so it is important to take frequent breaks to have a drink before continuing your workout. You will also need to increase your daily water intake if you are going to be outside for an extended period of time when the temperature is high. But even when it is cold outside, you still run the risk of dehydration if you do not take the time to drink water throughout your day. No matter what the weather, it is helpful to plan ahead and bring extra bottles of water with you when you go out for you and anyone else in your group.

Additionally, drinking alcoholic beverages or beverages that are high in caffeine, such as coffee or soda, can also dehydrate you, because they behave as diuretics. Therefore, it is important to drink extra water to offset this negative effect on your body. In addition, if you become sick, particularly if you experience a high fever, you are more likely to experience dehydration than when you are healthy. For this reason, it is always important to keep drinking water during an illness to avoid dehydration symptoms that can make you even sicker, even if you are not thirsty.

And remember to watch carefully for dehydration symptoms in young children and older adults, as both age groups have a high risk of suffering from dehydration. In addition, pregnant and nursing women need to increase their daily water intake to avoid dehydration symptoms and to stay healthy.

Tips to combat dehydration symptoms:

• If you are at home most of the day, fill a container with your water for the day. You can either drink your water plain or add flavoring to it. When the container is empty, you will know that you have met your goal for your daily water intake.
• Keep a small bottle of water with you in your car, in your backpack, or at your desk to drink throughout the day. Only refill water bottles that are intended to be reused, and always wash your bottle thoroughly between uses so that your water is always fresh and clean.
• Develop a "hydration habit" to keep your daily water intake consistent - a glass in the morning, at each meal, and before bed. If it helps, jot down a note each time you drink water so you can more easily keep track of how much water you've had to drink that day.
• To help the rest of the family stay hydrated, serve a pitcher of water during meals.
• If you notice dehydration symptoms in yourself or in someone you know, get to a water source immediately.