You've all heard of dehydration, but do you really know its effects? Do you actually know how to recognize the effects of dehydration on your body?
Here we will give you some keys to recognizing the signs of dehydration and remedying them as quickly as possible.
Dehydration is the result of a loss of salt and water isotonic to the plasma, not compensated by intake, but what are the concrete effects?
First of all, you should know that there are several types of dehydration: extracellular dehydration, intracellular dehydration and global (or chronic) dehydration. There are common effects of these dehydrations and more specific signs allowing them to be distinguished.
This is not a problem to be taken lightly because the effects of dehydration can be dramatic on your health!
1. Most common causes of dehydration
Their causes are essentially identical for the three types of dehydration.
First of all, there is kidney loss : among these we can cite too much diuresis (volume of urine evacuated in 24 hours), which we find for example in the case of diabetes. They can also be caused by different pathologies: mainly kidney failure of different types.
Digestive losses are also a common cause of dehydration that must be remedied quickly: the most obvious examples are diarrhea and vomiting.
Skin discharge is a sneaky cause whose impacts we too often underestimate, including profuse sweating, fever and heatstroke.
Just like skin losses, lung losses do not necessarily seem very significant to us, but be aware that hyperventilation during sports practice is one of the causes of intracellular dehydration.
Other external factors can come into play to dehydrate us and excessive alcohol consumption is a very good example.
2. General effects of dehydration
We often have a feeling of thirst but we must hydrate before feeling thirsty because dehydration has already started when it appears. In addition, this feeling may not appear at all or disappear after a while, so we may forget to hydrate and dehydration will worsen. This is why we must ensure that children and the elderly are well hydrated in summer.
The most common common symptoms of dehydration are: headaches, fatigue, dizziness, confusion. We sometimes realize that we have a headache after a long day where we haven't hydrated and it goes away when we rehydrate.
The evolution of the weight curve is very important, in fact, it is based on the weight loss that we can evaluate the severity of dehydration.
- Moderate dehydration corresponds to a weight loss of less than 10% of body weight : the associated symptoms are dry mucous membranes, depressed fontanel, dark circles around the eyes, cold extremities.
- Severe dehydration corresponds to a loss greater than or equal to 10% of body weight : associated symptoms are persistent skin folds, very dry inner cheeks, hypotonia (low muscle tone), weight loss, coldness limbs reaching up to the elbows and/or knees, tachycardia (increased heart rate), oliguria (decreased urine volume)
- Extremely severe dehydration corresponds to weight loss greater than 15% of body weight : associated symptoms are impaired consciousness, collapse and cold limbs to the core.
3. Effects of extracellular dehydration
What is this ?
This type of dehydration results from a loss of water at the extracellular level while the volume of intracellular water remains the same, an effective extracellular osmotic pressure is maintained.
Here is a list of symptoms that will point you towards extracellular dehydration:
- Fatigue,
- Lack of appetite, no thirst
- Mucous membranes remain moist
- Low weight loss
- Appearance of the peripheral and jugular veins: flat with cold and discolored ends, this is a sign of low central venous pressure.
- Drop in blood pressure with orthostatic hypotension: the consequence is an acceleration of the pulse to compensate and continue the normal supply of oxygen to the organs.
- Loss of skin tone with clear skin fold: at the level of the abdominal wall, the subclavicular region and the inner side of the thighs (Difficult to interpret in elderly subjects).
- The eyeballs are sunken and hypotonic.
We will suspect a case of severe extracellular dehydration in the presence of: very low blood pressure (less than 80 mmHg), cold extremities and the presence of mottling on the skin.
What are the risks ?
The complications of significant extracellular dehydration are: hypovolemic shock with acute tubulopathy or oliguria with Renal Insufficiency.
4. Effects of intracellular dehydration
What is this ?
Intracellular dehydration occurs when the intracellular sector becomes dehydrated and therefore contracts on itself: because there is an increase in plasma osmolarity (often too high a sodium concentration) which the body has compensated for by sending water from the sector intracellular in plasma to dilute excess sodium
Here is a list of symptoms that will point you towards intracellular dehydration :
- Uncontrollable thirst with disturbances of consciousness ranging from confusion to coma.
- Significant weight loss of up to 20% or more.
- It is often accompanied by fever and a high respiratory rate which aggravates water loss.
- The mucous membranes are dry and the tongue retracted.
- Blood pressure is normal, skin veins appear normal.
- Neurological disorders after a suitable examination.
What are the risks ?
The consequences of the importance of intracellular dehydration are judged essentially on the depth of the neurological damage, often well correlated with the importance of hyperosmolarity.
Subdural hematoma is a serious neurological consequence, especially in the elderly and infants.
We find distant neuropsychic after-effects secondary to softening or parenchymal hemorrhages.
5. Complication: global dehydration
This type of dehydration combines the signs of the 2 types of dehydration. It has more impact because it can become chronic and it is therefore harder to remedy it.
It is frequently observed in diabetic decompensations, digestive losses (diarrhea); infections in the elderly (especially pneumonia)
The exchanges involved result in hypotonic losses (diarrhea, vomiting) leading on the one hand to a contraction of the extracellular environment and on the other hand to a contraction of the intracellular environment.
6. Some tips to remedy dehydration?
The population most vulnerable to dehydration is that of the elderly, particularly during summer and heatwaves: they must be made to drink regularly if they do not think about it themselves to avoid any complications and teach them the first signs of dehydration. dehydration so they can remedy it on their own.
When dehydration is diagnosed, we first determine the cause, which will allow us to provide appropriate treatment. You must first treat the cause of dehydration rather than trying to compensate for it. For example, stopping vomiting is a priority because if we rehydrate while the person is still vomiting it will be of no benefit, the water will be evacuated before it can be assimilated.
To prevent osmotic imbalances, a simple daily solution is to consume isotonic drinks: rich in electrolytes, they promote hydration and prevent water leaks from one compartment to another. This is the solution that Hydratis offers you on a daily basis, its compact and discreet packaging allows you to use it everywhere in any situation, at sport or at home.
To find out more about isotonic drinks and electrolytes, do not hesitate to consult our articles on the subject.
Now that you know how to detect the signs of dehydration, you know what reflex to adopt to remedy them!
