Dehydration
- Dehydration throughout the world
- Dehydration in our body
- Athletes and dehydration
- Infants & Elderly and dehydration.
- Dehydration and the brain
Dehydration
Today dehydration is still a major problem for certain countries even though the water supplies are getting better. The technologies of today should be able to supply everybody in the world of a decent amount of water. This does not include everyone, a lot of the world population has only got 5 litres per day to use. In third world countries dehydration is a consequence of this lack of water.
Dehydration throughout the world:
A surprising big amount of the world population live in an area where sweet water supplies are not a matter of course. As the population is growing, the problem grows with it. Drinking water is becoming more polluted by industrial waste, fertilizers and waste from households. Climate change will enlarge the water shortages in some regions like the Middle-East, the Sahel and Australia. The effect for coastal areas is that the level of the ground water will drop and is supplemented again by salty sea water. What cannot be used for drinking water of course.
Future:
There were 1.1 billion people, at the start of this century (current population is 6.6 billion people), who did not have enough drinking water. Professor Wong Poh Poh, from the university of Singapore, warned us. He concluded that in 2080 the half of the world population so 3,2 billion people, have to deal with a lack of drinking water. The UN discovered that global warming is the cause of the enlargement of the severity of floods, droughts and storms. Within 2050, 2 billion people within a total amount of 9.2 billion people, have insufficient access to clean drinking water! Asia is most vulnerable with their 4 billion residents. The available water systems in India and China will be under a lot of pressure with their rising population.
What is dehydration?
Dehydration can be defined as a great loss of body fluid. The body of an adult needs about 2 litres of water a day. If have to do without water, our body will dehydrate. There are three main types of dehydration:
1. Hypotonic, the loss of minerals
2. Hypertonic, the loss of water
3. Isotonic, both loss of water and minerals
In humans, the most commonly seen type of dehydration is isotonic dehydration. It is important to know that dehydration is not just the loss of water. Water and solutes are lost, usually equal to the quantities to how they exist in the blood plasma. The symptoms are:
* Headache
* Dry mouth
* Nausea
* Muscle ache (especially hand, legs and feet)
* Weak feeling
* Circulatory shock
Causes
Dehydration is not a disease that occurs on a random basis, something must have led to it. There are a number of reasons that can lead to dehydration. Some of them are:
* Not enough drinking
* Fluid loss, by e.g. sweating
* Vomiting
* Burn
* Diarrhoea
* Fever
* Hyperthermia
* Malnutrition
* Infectious disease, e.g. cholera
* Fasting
Treatment
Treating dehydration is quite easy, but it has to be done quickly because death can be a consequence. A fluid will be nursed into the body of the patient, this fluid contains salts and minerals that gives the body the ability to take up more water. This fluid is made by adding ORS (oral rehydration solution) to water. ORS is made up of salts and minerals that will replenish the supplies of the body.
Avoiding dehydration
The best way to avoid dehydration is drinking enough water. During an average day drinking when you are thirsty is enough to keep yourself hydrated. But during workout relying on thirst is not enough. The greater the amount of fluid that is lost by sweating and respiration, the more water must be consumed to replace it. To determine how much water you need during workout, you should weigh yourself before and after the workout to see how much water is lost.
Dehydration: Athletes
Dehydration by athletes occurs most of the time on sunny, hot days. If a person is dehydrated it means that their body has lost more body fluid than has entered the body. Their sweat already evaporated before they even noticed that they were sweating. This is very dangerous, they do not refill their body-water level, while they do not drink enough before- whilst and after an endurance performance. On very hot days athletes can lose 5% to 6% of their total body weight. Than they are dehydrated.
Already by a 2% loss of body weight, their performance decreases physical as well as mentally. The most dangerous part of all this is that their blood thickens and can clot together. This causes a rise in body temperature and hardens the blood circulation through organs which can mean everlasting damage
If an athlete feels thirsty its to late, he probably has lost already to much body fluid (especially water). There are some guide lines to when and how much sportsman should drink before-during and after exercise:
-20/30 min before start 0.5 litre of water
-during exercise every 15 minutes one cup of water (+/- 200 ml)
- after exercise another cup of water.
Of course this are just guidelines, but its so important to drink water! Its even better to drink just water than sport drinks. Sport drinks are advised to athletes which use a high amount of calories. The sport drink than refills the energy level of your body when needed.
It turns out that it is not only healthy for your body to drink water, it is also very efficient if you are an athlete who wants to train this/ her muscles! The human body looses body fat much easier if there is enough water in the body and it stimulates the production of anabolic hormones (which increase your muscle strength).
You have an increased chance of dehydration after:
* Vomiting
* Diarrhoea
* Dieting
* High intakes of caffeine (caffeine and thee produce more urine than necessary)
* High sweet rates (sauna)
Some athletes practise some of these bullet points to lose weight. They want to look better and try some of the previous. But they do not realise that this is stupid and very dangerous, they are not aware of the consequences!!
Dehydration: Infants and Elderly
Infants have got a smaller body and can therefore lose relatively more fluid in a shorter time. Usually when an infant has got fever is this a sign of an infection. The body defences itself against this infection by increasing the body temperature. It is often caused by infections that cause diarrhoea. To reduce the risk of getting dehydrated the child should drink enough water but its best to see your doctor.
How can you recognise dehydration of infants:
* When the child urinates irregular (and less than 8 times a day).
* The urine is a deep shade of yellow.
* The child has a very low energy level.
* The mouth and lips are very dry with barely any saliva.
* Sunken eyes.
* Crying without tears.
If your child shows any of these signs you should immediately contact a doctor.
Elderly citizens are more likely to suffer from dehydration too. Because their body has 10% less body fluid than an adult body. It is also due to some changes you undergo while aging: lack of appetite and a reduced sense of thirst. Medications, a high blood sugar, a heat stroke, exercise and heat exhaustion are the main causes when elderly dehydrate. The symptoms are very remarkable. They are the same as the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer. You can recognise it by:
* Disorientation
* Confusion
* Muscle weakness
* Sunken eyes
* Dizziness
* Weight loss
* Fever
* Pneumonia
* Increased heart rate
If any of these signs occur it is advisable to consult and go to a doctor. The elderly person will get hydrated again. If need be with the help of an IV in the hospital.
Hypothalamus & Dehydration (Dehydration & The Brain)
The hypothalamus is responsible for a number of neural functions including the regulation of:
* Blood Pressure
* Heart rhythm
* Hunger
* Thirst
* Sleeprhythm
* Sexual excitement
* Body Temperature
How it Works: Blood brings the hypothalamus the energy that it needs.
The receptors in the hypothalamus scan the blood on the criteria named above.
if for example, there is not enough water, impulses are sent to the telencephalon.
This makes you thirsty.
A human dies after a relatively short time of dehydration.
The time needed for a person to become dehydarted and die because of dehydration depends on the temperature.
If the temperature is high, both times needed are relatively short quantities of time compared to the average quantity of time.
If the temperature is low, both times needed are relatively long compared to the average quantities of time.
Sometimes, the hypothalamus of old people is not functioning that good anymore.
Because of this, they do not get the warning that they have to drink as quickly as you should get it, in order to remain healthy.
This is, in fact, sometimes, the cause of the death of an old person.
That is why drinking enough should be stimulated by the radio etc. on hot days.
This is not done often enough, in fact.
In 2009, there was a very hot, dry summer in my province of the Netherlands (South-Limburg), with temperatures very often being more than 30 degrees celcius and with long, dry periods. (dry air)
In this summer, many old people died because they did not drink enough.
That is why it is important to keep warning on such hot, dry days.
* Blood Pressure
* Heart rhythm
* Hunger
* Thirst
* Sleeprhythm
* Sexual excitement
* Body Temperature
How it Works: Blood brings the hypothalamus the energy that it needs.
The receptors in the hypothalamus scan the blood on the criteria named above.
if for example, there is not enough water, impulses are sent to the telencephalon.
This makes you thirsty.
A human dies after a relatively short time of dehydration.
The time needed for a person to become dehydarted and die because of dehydration depends on the temperature.
If the temperature is high, both times needed are relatively short quantities of time compared to the average quantity of time.
If the temperature is low, both times needed are relatively long compared to the average quantities of time.
Sometimes, the hypothalamus of old people is not functioning that good anymore.
Because of this, they do not get the warning that they have to drink as quickly as you should get it, in order to remain healthy.
This is, in fact, sometimes, the cause of the death of an old person.
That is why drinking enough should be stimulated by the radio etc. on hot days.
This is not done often enough, in fact.
In 2009, there was a very hot, dry summer in my province of the Netherlands (South-Limburg), with temperatures very often being more than 30 degrees celcius and with long, dry periods. (dry air)
In this summer, many old people died because they did not drink enough.
That is why it is important to keep warning on such hot, dry days.
Project Dehydration made by:
Emma Willems
Chloe Rutzerveld
Wendy Wiersma
Rylana Smulders
Michiel van Hees
Go to other projects:
Dehydration