Guide to Dehydration – How to Prevent It — Dehydration is a common health problem that many travelers have to face during their trip. Mostly, it happens because they are too immersed in the trip activity. It is not surprising because many people try to forget their stressful daily routine during vacation. Thus, they enjoy it more and maybe too much, so they are not aware of their body condition. They forget to drink enough water and then have dehydration problems.
It might be a simple problem. However, in some cases, dehydration can cause many problems and even serious. Dehydration can lead to severe complications, such as vital organs failure, shock, coma and even death.
So, to prevent any problems that could happen because Guide to Dehydration , we made this article for you. Learn and understand what dehydration is. Then, you can prevent it from happening. More importantly, you can enjoy your trip without any problems. Let’s start!
What is Dehydration?
Dehydration happens when your body has less amount of water than it should have to operate normally. It happens because the water that your body excretes through sweats and urine, is more than the intake. Moreover, your body cells also use water to work. Therefore, some people don’t feel that until the symptoms of dehydration appear.
The Causes of Dehydration
The main cause of dehydration is losing too much water from your body. Furthermore, you lose the water too quickly. So, it happens when you lose that unnaturally, such as vomiting, diarrhea, and sweating a lot because of hot weather or hard physical activity. Adding the lack of water intake in that condition, dehydration is bound to happen sooner.
The sign that your body needs to rehydrate is thirst. When you feel thirsty, that means your body needs an extra supply of water. The doctor recommends drinking before you feel thirsty. That is the best way to prevent dehydration and keep your body working normally.
The medication also could cause dehydration. One of the commonly known medicines that cause this problem is water pills or diuretics medication. This medication forces your kidney to urinate more, which can reduce the water supply inside your body. If you didn’t balance it with drinking enough water, you can end up in a dehydrated condition.
Symptoms of Dehydration
Thirst is one of the common signs that your body is starting to enter a dehydrated condition. However, other symptoms that are even more severe than feeling thirsty could also occur to you. Here are some of them that you should need to know and notice.
- Headache,
- Fatigue (you feel tired and have no energy),
- Dizziness and lightheaded,
- Dry mouth, which could cause dry cough as well,
- High heart rate, but your blood pressure is low,
- You have a low appetite, but you want to eat more sugar,
- Flushed/inflamed skin,
- Muscle cramps,
- Swollen feet,
- Sensitive to heat and chills,
- Constipation,
- Dark-colored urine (the healthy urine color is pale clear color).
As you can see, when one or more of those symptoms occur during your trip, it will ruin your entire trip plan. Therefore, make sure you seek help from the nearby hospital or doctor when you experience all those symptoms on your trip. Of course, preventing them from occurring is the best way to deal with dehydration. So, have enough water and drink before you feel thirsty.
The Effect of Dehydration
Other than affecting your physical condition, dehydration can mentally and emotionally affect you. It could be dangerous for you and the people around you. Therefore, you should know more about this matter and prevent it from occurring.
Mentally, you will feel confused. Your body lacks water intake. That makes it have no energy to make your brain concentrate more. It feels like you can’t remember something you did a minute ago.
Emotionally, most people that have a dehydration state will feel cranky and anxious. Dehydration is an uncomfortable condition. Therefore, you will have this kind of emotional state.
Do I Need to Visit a hospital?
When the symptoms get severe, you must visit a hospital. For example, when you have a fever or hallucinations, ask your friends to call a doctor or take you to the hospital. If you are on a trip to Bali, you can visit BIMC hospital.
One of the best branches of this hospital is bimc kuta hospital. They can help you to deal with the severe symptoms of dehydration. Moreover, they have fast response, the best facilities, and doctors. You also get the best service and room for treatment, if necessary. So, to fight dehydration, drink a lot. And, when you need a hospital, BIMC hospital in Kuta is your best option.