Water and Heat
Water is the most important nutrient your body needs. You could live for weeks without food if you had to but would only survive a few days without water. Water is important for maintaining all body systems and ensuring they function properly.
On average, food provides about 20 percent of total water intake, while the remaining 80 percent comes from water and beverages of all kinds. As a student, the easiest way to be sure you are drinking enough water is to carry a water bottle and refill it throughout the day. Keep in mind that everything else you drink helps keep you hydrated, too; however, soft drinks, juices, caffeinated beverages, etc., should not make up the majority of your fluid intake over the course of a day.
Dehydration
Dehydration occurs when your body doesn’t get enough water to function normally. The cells in your body need water in order to work; without the right amount of water, your body will, at the least, function below average and, at worst, shut down its processes entirely.
Symptoms include:
- dry mouth
- chapped skin
- flushed skin
- fatigue
- headache
- irritability or confusion
- nausea
- cramps
- impaired physical performance
Dehydration can also result in low blood pressure or dizziness and lead to loss of consciousness, rapid heart rate, kidney failure, or death
Water intoxication and hyponatremia
Drinking more water than you lose through sweating can lead to hyponatremia, an extreme condition in which so much water is present in the blood that sodium becomes too diluted for cells to function correctly. Hyponatremia and water intoxication, however, are more common in endurance athletes, and rare in the general population.
Water intake guidelines
A good basic rule to follow is to take in as many fluids as you lose. Thus, the more you sweat, the more you should be drinking. You can check your hydration level by observing the color of your urine: the darker your urine, the greater the level of dehydration. Urine should be pale yellow if you’re well-hydrated.
For the active exerciser:
- Drink one to two glasses of fluids about 30 minutes to an hour before working out, and drink another glass or two when finished.
- For more intense, longer workouts, drink 2 to 3 cups of fluids per hour during the workout, unless the weather is exceptionally warm.
- Sports drinks are only helpful when exercising strenuously for at least 90 minutes.
