For some reason many of us think our “lifestyle” is what we did the last 24 hours. A person who isn’t active will say they are if they happened to go for a walk yesterday.
So it is with drinking water and staying hydrated. It is not just a matter of drinking a big glass of water. Sometimes the failure to drink a necessary amount of water leads to dehydration and dehydration that can’t be “fixed” with a few glasses of water is “chronic dehydration.”
How do I know if I have chronic dehydration?
My wife started to feel extremely tired and weak; she couldn’t go through her normal schedule and didn’t have any idea why.
She hadn’t been watching her fluid intake so she had become dehydrated. The thing about dehydration is that if you let yourself get somewhat dehydrated you don’t feel like drinking water and you get even worse.
The most common side effect of chronic dehydration is energy loss and fatigue.
A very dangerous side effect of dehydration is the affect it has on blood pressure. Fluids are the basis of blood volume in the body’s blood vessels and when they are low they may cause low or high blood pressure. If a person is on blood pressure medication it can have an even more dangerous impact because it may not give symptoms but the presence is there nonetheless.
Once again, when my wife went through her bout of chronic dehydration she had a symptom of “feeling like she did not have enough air” and she also got a cough. That is because water protects the lungs.
Many people exhibit a side effect of weight gain because they want to obtain water, however in my wife’s case she lost weight because she was too weak to eat.
Eczema or just dry skin may occur because your body does not have enough moisture to sweat so the skin gets overly dry and cannot break down toxins that cause irritation.
The digestive system is impacted in a number of ways. Constipation may occur because the colon needs fluid to process food and if a person is on medications this is double trouble. The stomach needs fluid to digest food as well as to protect the stomach from gastric juices.
Chronic dehydration can cause the bladder to burn when passing urine that has become concentrated.
The body has two generalized reactions to chronic dehydration and they are rheumatism or generalized achy pain and overall aging of the body.
How do I prevent chronic dehydration and what do I do if I’m already showing symptoms?
To prevent chronic dehydration drink 8-12 glasses of water a day. That is the same treatment if you find yourself with symptoms.
If the symptoms are severe you should call your doctor and chances are they will have you treated with some intravenous fluids.
Chronic dehydration can be asymptomatic and then come on quickly. It is a problem that can be serious but it is avoidable.
Reference:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/13-symptoms-of-chronic-dehydration.html#
