Dehydration Symptoms and Tips for Increasing Fluid Intake

Dehydration symptoms can be easily misinterpreted. Do you grab over the counter drugs for headaches or muscle cramps?

You may start feeling a whole lot better just by grabbing a glass of water and drinking up!

Do you suffer from decreased blood pressure, dizziness or fainting, especially after standing up? How about a loss of appetite, dry skin, unexplained tiredness, irritability, confusion or insomnia? These are all dehydration symptoms.

The inability to drink enough water throughout the day is one of the attributing factors and causes of inflammation in the body.

For most people, drinking the recommended amount of water every day is a challenge. Without thinking about it, many of us reach for sodas, fruit drinks, energy drinks and coffees to conquer our thirst.

Adequate hydration is essential for proper body function and for flushing out the toxins from your body. Drinking 8 to 10 cups of water every day is recommended and here are some tips to help get it into you.

• Remember that this recommendation is for cups (8 ounces) not glasses. Many drinking glasses range in size from 12 to 20 ounces. Drinking four 20-oz or six 12-oz glasses per day may seem easier than ten 8-oz glasses.
• Leave a glass beside the sink and take a drink every time you are in the kitchen.
• Have water with meals.
• Carry a water bottle with you. There are some good bottles available now that help keep water colder.

Find water bottles and water filtration systems at Amazon.com. They are full of great products for staying healthy.

• Try to replace at least one non-water beverage each day (such as soda, coffee or fruit juice) with water.
• Although bottled water is often a better choice than sodas, remember that the bottled water industry is essentially unregulated. It may say spring water on your label but do you really know for sure? For most people tap water is the safest water to drink.
• Tap water is regulated through local governments to meet safety standards however many municipalities still add chemicals such as fluoride to the water. Choose a good filtration system for your tap water. This can be in the form of a water pitcher/carbon filter system, a counter or tap mounted system, an under the counter system or a whole home system that filters at the point where the water pipe enters your home.

Increased consumption of water will likely result in more frequent trips to the washroom - possibly as often as every couple of hours. However, this will lessen as your bladder is trained to tolerate more fluid.

It is advisable to discontinue drinking water 3 to 4 hours before going to bed so it does not interfere with your sleep pattern.

Drinking sufficient water daily will eliminate dehydration symptoms and enable your body to function optimally.

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