Are You Dehydrated? Headaches and Grogginess are Big Signs

Dehydration is 100-percent preventable during normal circumstances. The signs are so non-descript that early stages of dehydration go undetected. You could be dehydrated right now. Here's how to know.

Headaches, grogginess, not urinating throughout the day? While these symptoms often go unnoticed, they most likely are indicative of early stages of dehydration. Many things cause dehydration, from heat to illness and even crying. The reasons why you are dehydrated are not as important as how to recognize when you need to get hydrated.

I once spent a twelve hour night in between the bathroom and the kitchen, vomiting and drinking water back and forth. I waited for an hour in the doctor's office the next morning and when the nurses came into my room thirty minutes later, they looked at me, ran out, and came back with an IV bag and the two bags of fluid needed to stabilize me.

We can't leave up to doctors and nurses to care for us once we are in a state of peril. If the nurses had not been able to find a vein that hadn't collapsed, I would not have survived. And to think, all I needed was some juice, Sprite, Gatoraide or even sugar water instead of water and I might have hydrated myself.

The worst and most common place to go wrong is in giving dehydrated person plain water instead of something with electrolytes. While water can in some moderate conditions may prevent dehydration, in a severe case or in extreme conditions liquids with electrolytes are best. It is preferable that the individual receive treatment in a hospital through IVs or oral rehydration therapy, but in a severe first-aid situation some solution with sugar will help until he or she can be fully hydrated. According to the Rehydration Project, a litre of drinking water, a teaspoon of salt, and eight teaspoons of sugar will prevent the body from drying up. If symptoms persist, your next stop should be the emergency room.

But how do you know if you're dehydrated? I can tell you that most of you are. If your urine is darker than a faint yellow color, you need to drink more water. A well-hydrated person will urinate clear, while other stages range in light yellow to even a dark reddish yellow color. If you are not urinating in proportion to how much liquid you drink, your body is using as much as it can and you need to drink more. Other symptoms of mild dehydration include dry mouth, dizziness upon standing, headaches, tiredness, and lack of tears when crying. In moderate to severe dehydration, the person may exhibit lethargy and sunken eyes and may faint or even have a seizure.

The best way to prevent dehydration is to monitor urine output. A hydrated person urinates every three to five hours and the color is close to clear. Of course, the old saying "Better safe than sorry" carries a lot of weight when it comes to getting enough water. What's a couple more trips to the toilet where your health is concerned?

Source:

The Rehydration Project, http://rehydrate.org/index.html.