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Constantly exhausted? You may need to drink more water
If you constantly feel tired and it’s a struggle to make it through your day, you’re not alone. In 2017, the group Occupational Health & Safety, citing research conducted by the National Safety Council, reported that 76 percent of survey participants felt tired at work, 53 percent felt less productive, and 44 percent had difficulty concentrating. While there are many reasons you may be feeling fatigued and distracted, dehydration is an often overlooked cause.
A 2012 study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that even mild dehydration of only 1.36 percent led female participants to feel more “fatigue-inertia” and made tasks seem more difficult. Not getting enough fluids also impacts sleep quality. According to the Sleep Foundation, dehydration can make you feel sluggish during the day, but it can also negatively affect your sleep, making you even more tired the next day. Going to bed dehydrated can even worsen snoring, which is disruptive to a good night’s sleep.
If you’re worried that your morning coffee is doing more harm than good, though, you can relax. According to Harvard Medical School, drinking caffeine in moderation does not lead to excessive fluid loss and dehydration.
Are muscle cramps a result of not drinking enough water?
Muscles are made up of about 80 percent water, so it makes sense that dehydration could lead to muscle cramps, especially when it accompanies strenuous exercise. The Mayo Clinic, which listed dehydration as a risk factor for muscle cramps, explained, “Fluids help your muscles contract and relax and keep muscle cells hydrated.” The Cleveland Clinic also cited dehydration as a possible cause of nighttime leg cramps.
However, not everyone agrees that dehydration leads to muscle cramps. One 2013 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that a lack of fluids did not change how likely study participants were to experience muscle cramps. The authors argued that neuromuscular control — the cooperation between your body’s muscles and nerves — may play the most important role. Another study, led by Dr. Wing Yin Lau and published in 2019, found that it was actually drinking water after being dehydrated, not the dehydration itself, that caused muscle cramps. The study’s authors attributed this to the change in the concentration of electrolytes that drinking water caused. As such, you may find that drinking water with electrolytes may help.
Not drinking enough water can impair brain function
Dehydration may be at the heart of your persistent brain fog. As nutritionist Mira Dessy told Health Digest, “Often overlooked is the link between dehydration and reduced cognitive performance. It doesn’t take much — even as little as one percent dehydration can cause changes in your ability to pay attention and remember things.”
Interestingly, dehydration doesn’t appear to affect all areas of brain function to the same degree. As a 2016 conference paper authored by Matthew T. Wittbrodt of Emory University and Melinda Millard-Stafford of Georgia Tech revealed, “High-order cognitive processing (involving attention and executive function) and motor coordination appear more susceptible to impairment following dehydration.” Lower-order mental processing (such as reaction time) was much less disrupted by the lack of fluids. The researchers noted that dehydration’s effects on the brain were particularly noticeable once individuals had lost more than two percent of their body’s water.
If you’re always constipated, you may not be drinking enough water
According to the Mayo Clinic, constipation is defined as “having fewer than three bowel movements a week.” While almost everyone experiences constipation from time to time, for some people constipation becomes a chronic condition, resulting in weeks or even months of infrequent or painful bowel movements. UCLA’s Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience estimated that between 2 and 28 percent of people in North America suffer from chronic constipation.
Although constipation is often blamed on a lack of dietary fiber, M. J. Arnaud of Nestlé Water Institute noted that hydration levels also play a critical role. Dehydration was cited as a potential risk factor for constipation in Arnaud’s 2003 paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Additionally, it was revealed that “fluid intake and magnesium sulphate-rich mineral waters were shown to improve constipation” — at least in healthy babies.
U.S. News & World Report advised drinking plenty of water as the first step to conquering constipation. According to the publication, “When your body is properly hydrated, less water will be withdrawn from the colon.” This ensures “soft and easy to pass” stool.
If you don’t drink enough water, you risk getting kidney stones
Kidney stones (aka renal calculi) are hard deposits of minerals and salts that form in the kidneys. They can be quite painful to pass and may even require surgical removal. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the incidence of kidney stones is on the rise, especially among women. Approximately 13 percent of men and 7 percent of women will experience kidney stones at least once in their life, and once you’ve had kidney stones, there’s around an 80 percent chance you’ll have them again in the next 10 years.
The Urology Care Foundation listed dehydration-induced low urine volume as a major risk factor for developing kidney stones. The foundation explained, writing, “When your urine volume is low, urine is concentrated … . Concentrated urine means there is less fluid to keep salts dissolved.” As such, upping your water intake will help.
If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms of kidney stones, including a sharp pain in your back or lower abdomen, pain while urinating, or blood in your urine, it’s important to see a doctor and, of course, drink more water.
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Healthdigest
