Category: heat, hot water bottle

How to Stay Hydrated During Heat.

Summer is a lovely time of the year but it also comes with heat. This heat can often get so intense that you find yourself feeling seriously out of sorts. This is the period of the year when doctors report that they register the highest cases of dehydration.

It is therefore important that everyone, especially parents, take extra care to stay hydrated and ensure that children and pets are also properly hydrated.

To give you an idea of why it is important to do everything within your power to avoid an occurrence of dehydration, we will take some time to look at some of its side effects in the body.

There are a lot of reasons why you must ensure your body never gets dehydrated. In this article here, we see that a person’s brain can be adversely affected by just two hours of dehydration. Let’s take a step back and ask this important question – what exactly is dehydration?

What is Dehydration?

This condition simply refers to a situation where a person is losing more fluids than they are taking in. These fluids can be lost in a variety of ways including sweating, urinating and other natural means of excretion. Water could also be lost as a result of diarrhea. As these fluids are removed from the body, it is expected that they are replaced immediately as they are required to carry out some important body functions.

Just in case you are not aware of the important functions that water performs in the body, they include: regulating body temperature, helping in the production of saliva, helping remove waste from the body, helping in the lubrication of the joints, spine and other parts, helping in the digestion process as well as absorption of nutrients and also helping in the circulation of oxygen around the body. We could go on.

From the list above, you can clearly see how important is. It is therefore because of these important roles it plays in the body that the following symptoms occur when it is in short supply:

• Dryness of the mouth

• Weakness of the muscles

• Lethargy

• Headache

• Lightheadedness and dizziness

In severe cases, it can result in:

• Delirium

• Low blood pressure

• Sunken eyes

• Increased heart rate

• Unconsciousness

It does not take days for this to occur. We already showed above that some of the symptoms listed above can begin to occur in as little as 2 hours. This is especially possible during these periods of intense heat.

It is also very important to know that the condition can be worse for children and the elderly. Extra care therefore needs to be taken to ensure that these ones are constantly and adequately hydrated.

Simples Tips for Staying Hydrated

To ensure you and yours constantly stay hydrated, here are a few tips you can implement.

Position Hydration Stations Around the House

This is a good way of ensuring safe drinking water is within easy reach. You can easily set these up with pitchers with filter. These pitchers are actually very affordable so you can place them in different spots in your home. You can actually get some of the best water filter pitchers for less than $100. Some can even go as low as $30 or less so you can really have them spread all over the house for easy and convenient access.

Install a Hydration Reminder App

Thankfully, technology can also help especially for those who forget to drink water or don’t know when they should drink water. There are apps than can remind you to drink some water at regular intervals. This will serve to ensure you constantly reach for a glass of water.

Take Lots of Fruits and Vegetables

Aside from water, you can also stay hydrated with lots of fruits and vegetables. You don’t just need clean and clear water. There are essential minerals that you also need and these are contained in fruits and vegetables. You can also supplement with juices – both fruit and vegetable juice.

During and After Exercising Take Orange Juice Diluted with Water

If you are going to be working out during these hot days, it is important that you don’t just stay hydrated but also replenish important nutrients like proteins and carbohydrates, not also forgetting the electrolytes that you will have lost from sweating.

Another important thing to note if you are working out is that you are likely to lose more weight via sweating this period. You should always try to replenish lost weight by drinking sufficient amounts of liquids. This can be water or any suitable sports drink.

Conclusion

Dehydration can be very dangerous as we have seen above. The tips we have shared above will help you and those around you stay properly hydrated and avoid any issues with dehydration.