5 Signs You’re Dehydrated
With Punxsutawney Phil declaring an early Spring, it’s important to make sure we are adequately hydrated now as our fluid needs will only increase as the weather gets warmer. Look out for these signs and symptoms of dehydration.
1. Bad Breath
When you’re dehydrated, you don’t produce enough saliva, which causes bacterial growth. This in turn leads to bad breath. Saliva is naturally antibacterial (no, you can’t clean a wound with it), but it allows for neutral odor in your mouth.
2. Muscle Cramps
When your electrolyte levels are depleted, you lose much of the electrical signaling to the muscles, namely from potassium and sodium. Being hydrated is so much more than just drinking water. It’s about replenishing with an adequate amount of electrolytes.
3. Dry Skin
As you become more and more dehydrated, your blood volume decreases more and more causing your skin to dry out. And you can still get dehydrated in the cold. Sweat isn’t always an indication of dehydration. In fact, cold weather dehydration is almost more dangerous because typical dehydration signs and symptoms don’t typically occur or go unnoticed.
4. Headaches
Your brain is surrounded by fluid, so when you’re dehydrated, you lose fluid volume around the brain as well. In turn, the brain can push against different parts of the skull.
5. Fever
In very severe cases, you could experience a fever as high as 101 degrees F. You could also get the chills as well since fluid plays such a huge role in body temperature regulation.
by Samantha Coogan, MS, RDN, LD
