On average, 75% of Americans spend their lives in a state of dehydration. Think about that, almost 75%. Most of us drink nowhere near enough water and even if you follow the ‘seven glasses’ rule, you might find that you could do with getting a little more hydration.
When too much water is lost from the body, its organs, cells and tissues fail to function as they should, which can lead to dangerous complications. If dehydration isn’t corrected immediately, it can result in any number of health issues.
- Constipation
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Dry Eyes
- Brain fog: there are other causes for brain fog, but dehydration can contribute as well.
- Poor sleep due to headaches, leg cramps, or be woken up due to a parched mouth. Leg cramps will also occur during exercise if you are dehydrated. These cramps can be quite painful if you have never experienced one.
- Increased thirst
- Dry mouth
- Lack of Urination/UTI’s: The obvious reason for this is the change in the frequency and consistency of urination. This means that you end up with more urine in your system, more of which is going to be dense with bacteria.
- Cracking lips and hands: This often occurs in the winter months due to the dry heat of a furnace or heating, especially when you don’t have a humidifier installed on your furnace.
- Bad breath: When you are dehydrated, your breath will also smell a little “funky.” This is because your saliva contains a natural disinfectant to kill off bacteria in your mouth.
Untreated dehydration can lead to serious and even life-threatening states such as:
- Heat exhaustion: This may include heavy sweating and a rapid pulse
- Heat stroke: The most serious heat-related illness where temperature can rise quickly to 106 degrees.
- Seizures due to loss of electrolytes
- Low blood volume
- Kidney failure
One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is dehydration. We have found that giving individuals a good electrolyte to restore hydration of the body is very beneficial, so that the body isn’t fighting two things at once – dehydration and COVID-19.
Please note that we are not saying that electrolytes are a treatment for COVID-19.
What we are saying is that a body in a state of dehydration is not an optimum situation and one needs to address dehydration for overall well-being. The early indications are that with COVID-19, you lose potassium through the urine, so we have found an Electrolyte Powder weighted in potassium works great.
What are some other things that contribute to dehydration:
- Alcohol
- High sugar drinks
- Caffeinated drinks or caffeine as found in coffee, teas and soda
- Medications
- Herbal supplements
- Snoring with mouth open
- Sleeping in overheated rooms or with an electric blanket turned on (which we don’t recommend)
- Exercising
- Fever
- Hyperthyroidism
Dehydration contributing factors you may not know about:
- Winter months can cause dehydration just as easily as the summer months. Why? Because the dry heat put out by our furnaces and lack of moisture/humidity cause everything to become dry, including our bodies. As stated above, we often experience dry hands, skin and lips during the winter months. Investing in a good furnace humidifier is recommended to help reduce this.
- While it is important to drink plenty of water, it is equally important to understand that water filtration systems make water devoid of essential minerals that help the body to stay hydrated. This becomes a Catch-22.
On the one hand, when you have a water purification system, it removes everything from the water, even those that are important to the body, such as trace minerals.
Yet, on the other hand, we don’t want to consume certain things found in our water, such as fluoride, chlorine, metals, pesticides, etc.
However, given a choice between the two, we would still recommend a water filtration system as the negative effects of the toxic chemicals found in our water supply far outweigh losing the minerals.
This makes supplementing your body with important trace minerals, salts, potassium, and other nutrients so important.
- While drinking plenty of filtered water is important, it can also flush out all the trace minerals, potassium, etc., out of the body and add to the dehydration. (Distilled water can also take the minerals out of the body).
What is the solution?
- Eat plenty of organic, Non-GMO mineral-rich veggies.
- Add Celtic Sea Salt to your daily intake. Even just a small pinch directly into the mouth can be helpful. If you didn’t already know, Celtic Sea Salt is very mineral-rich.
- Consume a good source of electrolytes. We prefer Dr. Price’s Electrolyte Mix which you can get on Amazon.
Some may ask, “Well what about Gatorade?” While it is true that Gatorade contains electrolytes, it is also high in sugar, dyes, and other additives, which contribute to reduced health. We recommend a good non-sugared mix that you can put in water and drink.
- Sometimes, you aren’t getting enough minerals and a whole food supplement, such as Trace Minerals B-12, SpectraMin, and Organically Bound Minerals. We have found these to be the most beneficial and you can get them at The Health Improvement Center.
- Lastly, we have found that sometimes an individual’s salts, chlorides, potassium, etc. are so out of whack that they need something to balance them, which is where products such as Cal-Amo and Potassium come into play.
In closing, we will say this, don’t let dehydration go unchecked. Taking the right supplement or combination of supplements can make all the difference in the world in your overall health.
Note: There is a reflex point on the tip of the nose to assess dehydration.