Dehydration symptoms are difficult to distinguish from symptoms of other diseases, but in general mild dehydration has the following early signs and symptoms:

• High thirst.
• Dry mouth and adhesive saliva.
• Reduced urination, when the urine color becomes dark yellow.
• Fatigue.

Secondary dehydration symptoms include:

• Extreme thirst.
• Dryness of the mouth; crying without tears.
• Reduced urination, or half of the normal urination amount for 24 hours (usually 3 or fewer urination). The urine is dark yellow or brown.
• Slight dizziness.
• Cold feet and hands.
• Increased heart rate.
• Loss of appetite.

Severe dehydration may be presented by one or more of the next symptoms:

• Changes in behavior, such as increased sense of fear, embarrassment, inattention.
• Dizziness, which does not disappear when the victim lies down.
• Inability to get up and walk.
• Hurried breathing.
• Weak, rapid pulse.
• Cold and sticky skin, or hot and dry skin.
• Decreased or no urination for 12 hours or longer.
• Loss of consciousness.

In the case of severe dehydration there is no enough fluid to bring the blood to vital organs in the body. Severe dehydration should be treated in hospital. If you notice any severe dehydration symptoms, immediately call an ambulance or other medical service.

After intensive or continuous vomiting or diarrhea throughout the day it is very probably some of dehydration symptoms follow, such as:

• high fever;
• weight loss;
• reduced urination;
• stupefaction;
• weakness.

Take the patient into the hospital, if he/she has:

• High temperatures above 39 ° C;
• Unconsciousness;
• Lethargy;
• Headache;
• Seizures;
• Trouble breathing;
• Chest pain;
• No urination for 12 hours.

The human body constantly needs water. It loses water through the lungs when breathes. It loses water with the daily urination, sweat and stool.

The human body requires at least one liter of water daily. The quantity depends on the activity, age, environment and other factors. The most active people need two or even three liters every day. Fluid consumption is necessary for proper metabolism in the body.

The color of urine is a good indicator of the body’s need in water satisfaction. The body consuming enough water produces almost colorless urine if not taking into account coloring components of the food. In dehydrated body the urine is bright yellow. In the state of severe dehydration the human body produces orange urine.

Water takes part in all processes in the body: synthesis and degradation of all substances, producing and utilizing energy, functioning of cells, tissues and organs including neural and humoral regulation of the body’s activity. Water is the medium for all chemical reactions due to the unique properties of its dipole molecule. It is not just liquid. No cell, no organ can work properly without water enough.

Lack of water makes the body to supply more important organs (the brain for example) for the account of other organs. The brain contains 85% of the water, even up to 92% according to some sources, and loss of even 1% of the water leads to irreversible consequences. So it is vitally important for the body to keep the brain hydrated on account of skin and muscles. Therefore it is not surprise that dehydrated skin is in poor condition and muscles do not work as they could. Dehydration initially reduces cellular fluid (66%), followed by extracellular (26%), and then the water is extracted from the bloodstream (8%).

If the body suffers from dehydration regularly it tries to store up water resulting in edema. Extra water in the body may cause different disorders. It needs extra body resources to manage it and increases the body weight.

Alcohol and spicy food cannot injure normal skin, but they can influence the reddened or the broken blood vessels on the cheeks and around nose, which become more explicit for a while. Anything capable of capillary dilatation and skin reddening can injure them, including huge temperature swings.

Apart from the sun bathing abuse, one of our skin hazards is dehydration.

Despite the natural covering, the moisture evaporates very fast when the air humidity is low – when the weather is hot or cold, especially when it is windy, and in the buildings with central heating. If the moisture is not compensated, our skin gets rough and dry. It can chap, thus opening the inner layers for bacteria, and as a result, get inflamed.

It may sound ironic, but the skin gets dehydrated when under water. It happens because the moisture in the skin passes through the protective epidermis membrane aiming to merge with the water surrounding the body. The more mineral substances and salts are dissolved in water, the more moisture the skin loses.

Thus, hard water is the most dehydrating. The best way to prevent our skin from drying up is to use moisturizer all the year round, as often as possible. Moreover, one should use not only face creams, but also creams for all the areas of the skin which contact with the outdoor environment.

Hands deserve the most thorough care, as they not only get weather-beaten, but also stay in water for a long time, when we are doing housework. We should also keep in mind that our neck, as well as face, is often exposed to external influence. It is also necessary to grease feet with a moisturizer from time to time.

Of course, no moisturizer can compensate for the moisture loss for a long time, because it can only penetrate into external epidermis layers. Besides this, the small amount of moist that gets into the skin, evaporates very soon. But a good moisturizer fulfills a more important task: it slows down the dehydration process like sebum and thus prevents from moisture loss. And if the evaporation is reduced, the skin compensates itself for the lack of moist from the inside.

To normalize the ions concentration, the body in response lets more water to excrete through the kidney. That’s why drinking more and more water does not help the specific thirst that always follows the alcohol drinking sessions. The victim just drinks and travels to the toilet for several hours.

At the same time oxidation of each alcohol molecule by the liver needs few molecules of water. So the water is taken to the liver from other parts of the body. It causes even more dehydration. Sense of dry mucous membranes and severe thirst indirectly point to the second degree of dehydration, in which the body loses up to 5% of its weight.

Dehydration causes the weakness, exaggerated feeling of hunger, and disorders in functions of muscles, brain and blood circulation system. For the human with average weight of 70 kilograms lack of fluid up to 3 liters, can significantly affect all the vital functions.

If the body temperature is over 40 ° C, the doctors cool the body. In this case they can use special cooling sprays, fans, chilled sheets and bathes.

• Fluid therapy

If the patient has no nausea and vomiting, the doctor may start with fluids administering. The patient will be offered water and liquids containing carbohydrate / electrolyte.

With significant symptoms of dehydration (increased heart rate, low blood pressure), fluid is introduced intravenously.

• Hospitalization

With improvement, the patient can go home and continue treatment there. If the patient is dehydrated, unconscious, febrile with abnormal vital signs or symptoms of infection, he/she should stay in the hospital for further treatment.

Dehydration is very dangerous for children and elderly people. The greatest danger is for the newborn. Pay attention to the symptoms carefully, dehydration can be caused by strong fever, nausea or diarrhea.

Normalizing the water content in the body of dehydrated person is the main objective of the treatment.

If dehydration occurs, it is recommended:

• Drinking water in small sips.
• Drinks with the content of carbohydrates/ electrolytes. Sports drinks, for example. The water is better absorbed with small amount of necessary salts and nutrients.
• To try frozen juice, ice chips, if the body is also overheated.
• Drinking through a straw.

Try to cool a feverish person with the following ways:

• Remove excess clothing and loosen the rest.
• The rooms with air conditioners are the best option for rapid normalization of body temperature.
• If there is no air conditioner, the victim should sit near the fan or in the shade, it is desirable to wrap him/her into a wet towel.
• If possible, use a bottle with a nozzle to spray water and cool the body.
• Avoid excessive cooling, do not apply big chunks of ice for a long time, otherwise the constriction of blood vessels will slow down the normalization of the temperature

However, there is chronic form of dehydration with no acute symptoms. Today chronic dehydration is a common condition and affects everyone who does not drink enough fluids.

Most people believe that they have nothing to do with dehydration. They believe dehydration is something like a problem faced by a traveler with no water in the desert.

Here is a list of twelve symptoms of dehydration. Read it and you’ll want to drink a glass of water right now. And then another. And another…

Exhaustion, lack of energy. Dehydration reduces tissue enzymatic activity.

Constipation. Normally the food getting to the intestinal tract contains much water. The intestine walls absorb the water and also absorb the nutrients dissolved in the water to supply the body with the both. The rest of the food that was not absorbed turns into the stool. If you don’t drink water enough the intestine takes too much water from the stool that leads to constipation.

Eating disorders. Chronic dehydration reduces the digestive juices secretion as digestive juiced contain water.

Low or high blood pressure. The blood volume is insufficient to fill all the arteries, veins and capillaries of the body. It results in low pressure or if the body reacts by constricting the arteries than in high pressure.

Gastritis, gastric ulcer. To protect the stomach wall from injury by gastric acid, the stomach is lined with mucous membrane which contains 98% of water. Its structure is deteriorated in the case of dehydration leading to poor protective action.

Problems with the respiratory system. Mucous membranes of respiratory system should be slightly humidified in order to protect the respiratory system from harmful substances contained in the inhaled air.

Improper acid-alkaline balance. Dehydration slows down excretion of water with the unnecessary substances away from the body.

Extra weight and obesity. We often overeat because we need water contained in food. Thirst is often confused with hunger.

Eczema. Your body requires minimum one liter of water daily to dilute the toxins, skin irritants.

Cholesterol. When the cells are losing water, the body tries to stop this loss by producing more cholesterol.

Cystitis, infections of the urinary canal. If toxins in the urine are not sufficiently diluted with water, they destroy the mucous membrane of urinary channel.

Rheumatism. Because dehydration increases the concentration of toxins in the blood and cellular fluid, the more toxins, the stronger the pain.

Medical drugs can also increase fluid loss. As the body receives water through the intestine any disorders in the intestinal absorption (after surgery, for example) lead to dehydration.

Call pediatrician if:

• Baby does not urinate for 6-8 hours
• vomiting continues for 12 hours
• liquid stool at least 8 times in 8 hours
• mouth mucosa is dry, crying without tears (do not forget that newborns do not have tears when crying)
• baby is inconsolable crying, seems unusually sluggish and sleepy
• large fontanel is fused

The pediatrician is likely to recommend the drugs containing electrolytes. The child is given to drink such solution in small doses, but frequent. You have to know that water containing some glucose and minerals is absorbed better. Besides, the baby has lost necessary minerals and nutrients along with the great water quantity he has lost. In more serious cases the hospitalization is required. There will be injected solutions intravenously in order to substitute the lost fluid, minerals and nutrients.

Drink slowly throughout the day. Do not try to fill an entire day’s rate of fluid at one time. Do not let the body «burst at the seams» from this overload. Better to drink a little every hour or two to maintain a constant flow of water.

Eat regularly fluid rich vegetables and fruits. And also don’t throw out the flesh of the juices, prepared at home in the juicer, because there are many edible fiber and more nutritious components. Always put some flesh in a glass of juice.

Avoid salty foods. Excessive consumption of such food, in a literal sense, can dry you. It is known that after the saline you want to drink more. If you have to eat salty, maximum limit the amount and try to drink a lot. On the other hand the body needs reasonable amount of salt as it contains sodium and chlorine ions that are essential. The recommendations concerning the salt daily intake are diverse. WHO recommends 5-6 grams daily.

Do not consume alcohol and caffeine regularly. Strong drinks, tea, coffee and beer are diuretics making the body to lose water. Although initially these beverages seem to quench the thirst. Better to drink fruit drinks, juices and clean water.