It is always important to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of bottled water Reeves County TX. However, it becomes even more crucial when temperatures spike during the summer months and people head outside to participate in sports and other activities.
Dehydration occurs when your body doesn’t have enough fluids to carry out its regular functions. This happens when you lose more fluid than you take in. While this situation can take place for a number of reasons, the summer heat can be an exacerbating factor. Dehydration is a serious medical issue, and complications sometimes become deadly.
1. Heat Illness
When you become dehydrated, your body cannot produce sweat in sufficient quantities to cool you down in hot weather. Consequently, your body temperature rises. This can result in heat illness. There are several types of heat illnesses, of which heatstroke is the most severe. Heat exhaustion is also a common and fairly serious heat illness.
2. Hypovolemic Shock
Another potentially life-threatening complication of dehydration is hypovolemic shock. This acute drop in blood pressure is due to decreased blood volume. Blood consists of 55% plasma, and plasma itself is over 90% water, which is why dehydration can lead to hypovolemic shock.
3. Seizures
The central nervous system sends information to your muscles via electrical signals. Ionized particles of certain elements, including sodium and potassium, facilitate the transfer of these communications to the muscles, which is why they are called electrolytes. Dehydration often throws your electrolytes out of balance, which can mix up the electrical signals. As a result, you could experience a seizure in which you lose consciousness and undergo involuntary contractions of the muscles of your body, particularly the arms and legs.
4. Urinary Problems
Not all complications of dehydration are acute in nature. Over time, prolonged dehydration can lead to the formation of kidney stones or urinary tract infections. These are often painful but typically treatable conditions. However, chronic dehydration could eventually cause kidney failure.