Dehydration - could your symptoms simply be lack of water

Dehydration - Could all or some of your symptoms be as simple as not having enough water? 

Are you dehydrated as you read this? Are you sure you are not? According to research, over 75 % of Americans are dehydrated they are not just dehydrated, they are chronically dehydrated! 

What this means is that although you might be drinking fluids during the day, your body is still in deficit. Being in deficit is definitely not a good thing as it prevents you from thriving. It is a bit like the cells have forgotten how to absorb this life-giving substance.

In fact, a Chronic deficit of something so vital is so common that your body gets used to it! This is why you don’t feel thirsty even when your cells are literally dying for a drink of the clear beautiful life-giving stuff. Plus, what often happens is that we mistake thrust for hunger - normally out of habit and this begins to be a much bigger problem. 

Before I realised this,  I spent years searching for solutions to the symptoms below, for myself as well as my clients. 

Symptoms of dehydration

• Thirst 

• Headaches

• Dizziness

• Nausea 

• Urine is dark  in colour

• Cramps - in extremities as well as within your body, like period pains  

• Constipation 

• Stomach ache

• Feeling lethargic

• High blood pressure 

• Diabetes 

• Cranky attitude

• Bad breath

• Dry skin

• Sudden food cravings

It is so interesting isn’t it that we don’t associate many of these symptoms with lack of water, do we? Could some or all of your symptoms be dehydration? 

It starts making more sense when you realise that much of our body comprises water. 

Did you know Your muscles are 75% water, Your blood that transports nutrients and oxygen around your body is 82% water Your lungs that provide the above oxygen are 90% water

Your bones, believe it or not, are at 25% water! 

Your health is truly dependent on the quantity and quality of water that you drink and what you bathe in - yep we absorb water through our skin too! It is vital, therefore, that you are aware of your body's needs for liquid. Very often people think that they need magnesium or potassium as they are getting cramps. All they need is water. 

Plus when you look at the other symptoms above, we are always looking for solutions to these that can often be complex and often expensive. For example

Are you one of those people who only get cramps during the warm summer months, and you pop to the health shop to purchase some magnesium and/or potassium? When often it isn’t these minerals you need, it is water and lots of it. 

I would also suggest that we also need to top up on salt - especially something like sea salt or, optimally, Himalayan salt, as these contain other minerals after all our bodily fluids are salty. More on salt in another of my ramblings.

If you are not in the habit of drinking water, but drink dehydrating drinks like tea, coffee and/or alcohol. Or do a lot of physical exercises or do a physical job,  then you will get one or more of the symptoms above at any time of year. 

So how much is enough?

 The recommendation is for men is 3.4 Litres of water and for women is 3 litres. If you exercise then add another 500ml or so. This is just an average as if you are very light you will need less or heavy then you will need more. 

If you get thirsty you are already dehydrated to some extent. It is vital that you sip your water throughout the day. By sipping you are more likely to absorb it than if you skull it down - most of the time it will appear to go straight through you - and it will until your body gets used to you drinking enough to replenish the cells. 

Have a glass of water by your bed so that you can have some as soon as you wake up. Drink hot water, cold water, and herbal teas. Plus drink another couple of glasses for every tea or coffee that you drink. 

If you do this you will find that many of your symptoms will disappear. 

A bit more about the diabetes Link 

People with diabetes are extremely prone to daily dehydration. As glucose builds up in the bloodstream, your kidneys are forced to work extra hard to filter out the excess sugar. If they cannot keep up, that sugar is flushed through your system through urine. High blood sugar can also cause your body to pull fluids from important tissues, such as the lenses of your eyes, muscle tissue, and brain tissue.

If left untreated, everyday dehydration can take a pretty serious toll on your blood glucose levels. When your body is lacking fluids, it creates a hormone called vasopressin which causes your kidneys to retain as much fluid as possible. By keeping in those liquids, your kidneys are also hoarding unwanted glucose. On top of that, high levels of vasopressin in your bloodstream can also cause the liver to produce additional blood sugar. Over time, this can lead to consequences like insulin resistance and Chronic Hyperglycemia, metabolic syndrome then potentially diabetes.

The good news is that dehydration is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest health problems to overcome: Just drink more water!

Absorption

Three is another way to absorb more water so that you can absorb it into the cells and so can reverse the deficiency symptoms and that is bone broth. Bone broth contains glutamine and glutamine has been shown to help us do many essential things, including regulating water uptake (in other words, absorption) Glutamine is an amino acid that controls the volume of water in the cells as well as regulates the pressure around the cells. Glutamine is the bridge, getting water from the bloodstream and into the cells and then bringing the waste products from the cells into the bloodstream and then out of the body. 

The other thing to take note of is the quality of water that you drink, at least getting a simple filter so that you can get the chlorine and other impurities out of the water, there are filters for all budgets and they are more cost-effective than purchasing bottled water.

So the thing to remember is that if you don’t have enough water then the symptoms above could be your reality - plus if you don’t have enough water your cells start to shrivel up and the ability of the body to remove toxins and waste products becomes harder and harder. The opposite happens though, when we start drinking more water (and broth) our cells plump up and the flow of water in and waste out works more efficiently and low and behold your symptoms start becoming a thing of the past, now wouldn’t that be worth doing?