Link - Good Health Pharmacy

The majority of the body is made up of water. Dehydration occurs when the amount of water leaving the body is greater than the amount being taken in.

What causes dehydration?

Dehydration occurs because there is too much water lost, not enough water taken in, or most often a combination of the two.

Causes of dehydration include:

• Diarrhoea: a significant amount of water can be lost with each bowel movement. Worldwide, more than four million children die each year because of dehydration from diarrhoea.
• Vomiting: fluid can be lost during vomiting and it makes it very difficult to replace it by drinking.
• Sweat: the body loses significant amounts of water when it tries to cool itself by sweating. The body may sweat because of: the environment (a hot day); intense exercise in a hot environment, or because a fever is present due to an infection.
• Diabetes: in people with diabetes, elevated blood sugar levels cause sugar to ‘spill’ into the urine and water then follows, by a process of osmosis. Significant dehydration can occur. For this reason, frequent urination and excessive thirst are among the symptoms of diabetes.
• Burns: burn victims become dehydrated because water seeps into the damaged skin.

What are the signs and symptoms of dehydration?

The body’s initial responses to dehydration are:

• thirst to increase water intake
• less urine output to try to conserve water
• dry mouth
• the eyes stop making tears
• sweating may stop
• muscle cramps
• nausea and vomiting
• lightheadedness
• with severe dehydration, confusion and weakness will occur as the brain and other body organs receive less blood
• coma and organ failure will occur if the dehydration remains untreated.

How is dehydration diagnosed?

A quick home check for dehydration is the pinch test. Gently pinch the skin on the side of your abdomen and let go. If the pinch mark takes a few seconds to disappear this may indicate dehydration.

It is best to consult a healthcare provider though, such as your GP, Link pharmacist or clinic sister if you suspect dehydration and if the causes and or symptoms are present. This is not something to ignore as it can be potentially life-threatening particularly in small children and older people.

In addition to normal clinical tests that a healthcare provider will do, infants may have additional evaluations done, including checking for a soft spot on the skull (sunken fontanelle), assessing the suck mechanism, muscle tone, or loss of sweat in the armpits and groin. All are signs of potential significant dehydration.

How is dehydration treated?

Fluid replacement is the treatment for dehydration. This may be attempted by replacing fluid by mouth, but if this fails, intravenous fluid may be required. Should oral rehydration be attempted, frequent small amounts of clear fluids should be used.

Clear fluids include:

• water,
• clear fruit juices such as grape and apple,
• clear broths,
• ice lollies,
• other replacement fluids that may containel ectrolytes (Energade, Lucozade and Powerade, etc.)

It is very important to note that during dehydration not only is water lost, but electrolytes, salts and sugars. These should be replaced in the correct balance (too much sugar can actually make the dehydration worse). See the info block for the ‘recipe’.

The success of the rehydration therapy can be monitored by urine output. When the body is dry, the kidneys try to hold on to as much fluid as possible, urine output is decreased, and the urine itself is concentrated.

How do I prevent dehydration?

As is often the case in medicine, prevention is the important first step in the treatment of dehydration.

Environment: activities shouldn’t be scheduled in the heat of the day and adequate fluids should be available If you are working in hot environments, take care to rehydrate often.

Exercise: people exercising in a hot environment need to drink adequate amounts of water.

Vomiting and diarrhoea: try to makes sure fluid replacement starts immediately.

Information sourced from www.medicinenet.com and Complete First Aid, 2007, New Holland Publishers