We’ve been told several times the importance of drinking at least eight glasses of water a day to an extent we are even tired of it but, did you know that dehydration can affect your health and general well-being in several ways.
Here are ways you’re unknowingly jeopardising your health if you don’t drink adequate water on a regular basis.
Disruptions in mood and cognitive functioning: Even the lowest level of dehydration can make one feel cranky and also affect important aspects of one’s cognitive functioning such as concentration, short-term memory and alertness level, dehydration can also cause anger, confusion and fatigue.
Difficulty in regulating body temperature: “Being hydrated is critical for your body’s process of temperature control as sweating is an important cooling mechanism during physical activity and hot climate, when your sweat loss is not compensated with fluids intake, your body won’t have enough water to produce sweat and continue with the cooling mechanism”.
It can affect your kidneys’ functioning: The kidneys play a vital role in regulating water balance and blood pressure whilst removing wastes from one’s body and severe dehydration can put serious a strain on one’s kidneys and affect their functioning and it can also cause kidney stones.
Headaches: Research states that one of the most common symptoms of dehydration is persistent headaches and those kinds of headaches subside within three hours if you replenishes your body with adequate water intake.
Your heart can get strained: “Your blood pressure, volume and heart rate are closely linked to each other, your body’s blood volume is regulated normally based on your water intake and water output which means a decrease in blood volume could occur through sweating and if you’re dehydrated, your heart has to work harder to pump blood through your body to regulate its temperature and this puts you at a risk of physical exhaustion”.
Severe abdominal pain