Dehydration

Dehydration happens when your body loses more fluids (like water) than it takes in. This leaves your body without enough liquid to work properly. If you don't replace those lost fluids, you become dehydrated.

Anyone can get dehydrated, but it's a bigger concern for young children and older adults.

Young children often get dehydrated from very bad diarrhea or vomiting. Their bodies are smaller and more easily affected by fluid loss.

Older adults usually have less water in their bodies naturally. Also, they may have health conditions or take medicines that make them more prone to dehydration. Even a minor illness like a lung or bladder infection can cause dehydration in older adults.

Dehydration can happen to people of any age if they don't drink enough during hot weather, especially if they're doing a lot of physical activity. Sweating during exercise or being outside in the heat causes you to lose fluids.

Mild or moderate dehydration can often be fixed by drinking more fluids. But severe dehydration is a serious medical issue and needs urgent care from a doctor.

Feeling thirsty isn't always the best way to know if your body needs water. Many people, especially older adults, might not feel thirsty until they're already a little dehydrated. This is why it's extra important to drink more water when it's hot outside or if you're sick.

How you feel when you're dehydrated can also change depending on your age.

Dehydration can happen for many reasons. Sometimes, it's simply because you don't drink enough water. This can be due to illness, a busy schedule, or not having access to clean water while traveling, hiking, or camping.

Other common causes include:

• Diarrhea and Vomiting: Sudden, severe diarrhea can quickly remove a lot of water and important salts (electrolytes) from your body. If you have both diarrhea and vomiting, you lose even more fluids and minerals. This can happen quickly, so it's important to replace these fluids.
• Fever: A higher fever means your body is working harder, and you're likely to lose more water through sweating. If you also have diarrhea or vomiting with a fever, your body loses fluids even faster.
• Sweating: When you sweat, you lose water. If you're exercising hard and not drinking enough fluids, you can easily get dehydrated. Hot and humid weather makes you sweat more, leading to more fluid loss.
• Increased Peeing: Sometimes, your body needs to get rid of excess water due to an underlying medical condition like uncontrolled diabetes. Certain medicines, such as diuretics (drugs that increase urination) and some blood pressure medications, can also make you pee more, leading to dehydration if you don't drink enough fluids to replace what you're losing.

If you think you might be dehydrated, it's a good idea to drink plenty of fluids and contact a doctor, especially if you have severe symptoms like severe diarrhea, vomiting, or high fever.

Dehydration can happen to anyone, but some groups are more vulnerable.

• Babies and young children: Babies and young children are at high risk for dehydration, especially if they have diarrhea or vomiting. Their bodies have a larger surface area compared to their size, meaning they lose fluids faster. A high fever or burns can also cause rapid fluid loss. Babies and toddlers may not be able to tell you they're thirsty, or get themselves a drink.

• Older adults: As people age, their bodies hold less water, and their ability to retain water decreases. Their sense of thirst might also become less reliable. Chronic health problems like diabetes and dementia can make dehydration even more likely. Certain medications can also increase the risk of dehydration by making you urinate more often. Older adults might also have trouble getting themselves water.

• People with health conditions: People with conditions like uncontrolled diabetes are at higher risk for dehydration. Kidney problems also increase the risk, as do some medicines that cause increased urination. Even a simple illness like a cold or sore throat can lead to dehydration because you might not feel like eating or drinking when you're sick.

• People who work or exercise outdoors: Working or exercising in hot, humid weather significantly increases the risk of dehydration and heat-related illnesses. Humidity prevents sweat from evaporating and cooling the body, leading to a higher body temperature and a greater need for fluids.

Dehydration can cause a lot of problems. It happens when your body doesn't have enough fluids. This can lead to several serious health issues:

• Heat-related illnesses. If you don't drink enough water while exercising hard and sweating a lot, you can get heat-related problems. These range from mild muscle aches (heat cramps) to more serious conditions like heat exhaustion, which can make you feel very sick. In the most severe cases, dehydration can lead to heatstroke, which is a life-threatening emergency.

• Kidney and bladder problems. If you're dehydrated often or for a long time, it can increase your risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs). It can also lead to kidney stones, which are painful deposits in your kidneys. In severe cases, chronic dehydration can even damage your kidneys to the point of failure.

• Seizures. Your body needs the right balance of minerals called electrolytes, like potassium and sodium. These electrolytes help send electrical signals between cells. When you're dehydrated, your electrolytes can get out of balance. This disruption can cause your muscles to contract uncontrollably, leading to seizures and potentially loss of consciousness.

• Low blood pressure and shock. Severe dehydration can cause a dangerous drop in the amount of blood circulating in your body. This is called hypovolemic shock. When blood volume drops, so does blood pressure. This can also reduce the amount of oxygen that gets to your organs, which can be life-threatening.

Staying hydrated is important for good health. A good rule of thumb is to drink enough fluids to quench your thirst. Most healthy people can do this by simply paying attention to their body's signals.

However, some situations require extra water intake.

• Sickness: If you or a child is vomiting or has diarrhea, it's crucial to start replacing lost fluids right away. Don't wait until dehydration sets in. Oral rehydration solutions are helpful in these situations.

• Physical Activity: If you're planning strenuous exercise, start hydrating the day before. A good sign of proper hydration is clear, pale urine. Drink regularly during and after your workout.

• Extreme Temperatures: Hot or humid weather causes you to sweat more, leading to fluid loss. You need to drink extra water to replace these lost fluids and help regulate your body temperature. Even cold, dry air, especially at higher altitudes, can dehydrate you.

• Illness in general: Dehydration is a common problem for older adults during illnesses like the flu, bronchitis, or bladder infections. Drinking extra fluids is important when you're not feeling well. Keep your intake up.

Doctors can usually tell if you're dehydrated by looking at your physical signs. If you're dehydrated, your blood pressure might drop, especially when you stand up from sitting or lying down. You might also have a faster-than-normal heartbeat, and your hands and feet might feel cool because blood flow to those areas is reduced.

To be sure and understand how severe your dehydration is, your doctor might do some more tests. These tests can help confirm the diagnosis and figure out the extent of the problem.

• Blood tests: A sample of your blood can be checked to see the levels of important minerals called electrolytes, especially sodium and potassium. These tests can also tell how well your kidneys are working. Electrolytes are essential for many bodily functions, and their levels can be affected by dehydration. Low electrolyte levels can cause a variety of symptoms, including muscle cramps and weakness.

• Urine tests (urinalysis): Looking at your urine can help show if you are dehydrated and how severely. The urine test can also check for signs of a urinary tract infection (UTI), which can sometimes cause similar symptoms to dehydration. The concentration of substances in your urine, like the presence of certain proteins or bacteria, can provide clues to your overall health and hydration status.

Dehydration is treated by replacing the lost fluids and salts (electrolytes). The best treatment depends on how old you are, how bad the dehydration is, and what caused it.

For babies and young children who are dehydrated from things like diarrhea, throwing up, or a fever, a store-bought oral rehydration solution is usually the best choice. These solutions have just the right mix of water and salts to help your body get back what it needs.

Start by giving them a tiny bit, like a teaspoon (about 5 milliliters) every few minutes (1 to 5 minutes). For very young children, a medicine syringe might be easier to use. Older kids can drink diluted sports drinks – mix one part sports drink with one part water.

If you're a grown-up with a mild or moderate case of dehydration, caused by diarrhea, vomiting, or a fever, simply drinking more water or other fluids will often help. Full-strength fruit juice and soda might make diarrhea worse.

If you're working or exercising outside on a hot or humid day, plain cool water is the best drink. Sports drinks with electrolytes and sugar can also be helpful.

If a child or adult is severely dehydrated, they need to be seen by emergency medical personnel. Doctors in the hospital or ambulance can quickly replace lost fluids and salts by giving them medicine directly into a vein (intravenous fluids). This speeds up recovery.