drink

There are three things that humans need in order to survive. They are all equally important, but the lack of each will kill us in different time periods. Without air, we’ll die in a few minutes. Without water we’ll die in a few days. Without food we’ll die in a few weeks, sometimes longer if you’ve got some adequate reserves built up. If you are deprived of air, it’s pretty easy to figure out. But being dehydrated can sometimes come in many disguises. To that end, this article will be about the many things that cause dehydration. This way you’ll know when to expect to be thirsty, and when to have plenty of water on hand.

Being dehydrated is much more than just needing to take a couple swigs from your Super Big Gulp. Our bodies are made primarily out of water, and without a consistent supply of H2O, we don’t have a chance. And between being thirsty and being dead, there are plenty of other damages that dehydration does to the body. It’s pretty important, then to be able to know when you need more water, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Sometimes prolonged dehydration can cause some serious health effects.

Over the past million years or so, humans have evolved a very advanced set of checks and balances to make sure that all of our internal systems are operating properly. One of the amazing things about this is that they operate almost out of our conscious awareness. If we haven’t eaten in a while, all we can think about is food. If our bodies are running low on fluids, water is the only thing on our mind. If something threatening suddenly shows up, we get a huge burst of energy so that we can run away. Even though these systems have been refined over hundreds of thousands of years, we can still ignore them, just like we ignore the red light on our gas tank. And when we do, bad things usually happen.