Thirst for water

Water - its contribution to human life is hard to overestimate. According to experts, we can live without food, without harm to health, for about eight weeks, while the lack of moisture brings death closer after three days. Therefore, such a simple question as thirst for water was and remains quite relevant.

Causes of thirst

With the onset of hot summer days, the feeling of dry mouth begins to haunt many. And this is understandable. Liquid begins to leave the body with greater intensity through the sweat system. We also know that such discomfort can be caused by salty or strongly peppered food, but it turns out that the causes of thirst are much wider.

1. Heavy physical exertion can lead to dehydration.
2. High room temperature or hot period of the year. Long stay under the scorching rays of the sun.
3. This result can be achieved by drinking strong coffee or alcoholic beverages.
4. An incorrectly implemented diet.
5. A strong desire to drink can be a sign of intoxication: increased consumption of toxic substance vapors, close contact with household or industrial chemicals.
6. Working in a hot shop.

But these are sources that are easily corrected. There are also more dangerous catalysts for this symptomatology:

• Diarrhea. Its increased intensity can lead to rapid dehydration of the body. Untimely medical care threatens a comatose state and even death (especially in the case of small children).
• Heavy bleeding, because blood is also a liquid and its loss depletes the human body.
• Diabetes mellitus, hyperglycemia. If you want to drink even after drinking a lot, you should check your blood glucose level. In this case, the patient may suffer from dizziness, rapid growth or, conversely, weight loss may be observed.
• Many medications have this symptom as a side effect, but when the medication is discontinued, the discomfort usually goes away on its own, without additional adjustments. Such medications include antihypertensives, antihistamines, expectorants and diuretics, as well as a number of antibiotics and other chemical compounds.
• Dysfunction of the parathyroid glands, especially such a result, gives hyperparathyroidism.
• Kidney diseases that have lost the ability to retain fluid. You want to drink constantly, the urge to go to the toilet becomes more frequent, swelling increases.
  • Cystitis.
  • Polycystic organ.
  • Glomerular nephritis.
  • Pyelonephritis.
  • Pathologies affecting liver tissue.
  • Cirrhosis.
  • Hepatitis.
• This pathology can be a consequence of trauma, especially if it affects the head.
• Infectious or viral infection of the body. The result of their vital activity is the toxic substances produced.
• This symptom can indicate the presence of a tumor in the human body, both benign and malignant.
• Deficiency of vasopressin, a hormone produced by the posterior pituitary gland. In this case, replacement therapy is essential.
• Water metabolism disorders - diabetes insipidus.
• A burn that affects a large area of the skin.
• Psychological disorders.
  • Schizophrenia.
  • Emotional instability.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

If a person is able to exclude or eliminate the first half of the causes on their own, then in the case of the second, medical intervention is indispensable. Therefore, if constant thirst bothers you and you cannot find a significant cause for this pathology, you should not ignore such a picture. It will be better to hear from a specialist that everything is fine with your health and you just need to adjust your daily routine and diet than to miss the early period of the onset of a more serious disease.

However, as experience shows, many people simply drink more liquid, not rushing to see a specialist, and when they finally get to the doctor, it happens that a number of processes are already irreversible. After all, if, for example, cystitis is difficult not to notice, then a number of diseases, for the time being, except for dry mouth, do not manifest themselves in any way, and when additional symptoms appear, the degree of the disease tends to severe pathology (for example, pyelonephritis).

This fact should not be ignored if the need for liquid appears almost every hour, regardless of whether it is day or night. Such symptoms are practically a calling card of some kidney diseases and require immediate consultation with a doctor - a nephrologist.

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Why is it recommended to drink salted water when you are thirsty in summer?

The need for fluid is an absolutely normal physiologically justified phenomenon. Many people know that to maintain the normal functioning of the body, an adult must drink at least one and a half to two liters of fluid per day. In hot weather, the human body loses more fluid, which goes through the pores of the epidermis and the urinary system. More losses - more need for moisture.

Many respondents ask a legitimate question: why is it recommended to drink salted water when thirsty in summer? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of losses.

According to experts, against the background of the summer heat, when the need for drinking arises, one should drink not more, but, on the contrary, less. At first glance, this sounds absurd, but physiologically this fact turns out to be justified. Such a step will allow you to keep the water-salt balance of the body normal.

It should be remembered that at high outside temperatures, the sweating process is activated in order to reduce body temperature: the moisture removed cools the body. If at this time the consumption of moisture increases, the volume of sweat removed also increases, and with it salt and useful microelements (such as potassium and sodium), so necessary for the normal functioning of the body, are removed. The water-salt-electrolyte balance is disrupted.

It is this factor that requires the introduction of either specialized compounds, for example, a drug such as "Regidron", or you can get by with drinking plain water with a small amount of salt dissolved in it (it would be great if it were iodized or sea salt).

This simple action allows you to solve three problems at once:

• Reduces the desire to drink.
• Reduces the activity of the sweating process.
• Maintains the necessary level of salts in the body.

But it should be remembered that such actions are justified in the case of a healthy organism, but if it suffers from any pathology, recommendations should be given only by a qualified specialist.

How to drink water after prolonged thirst?

As centuries of experience show, the question of how to drink water after prolonged thirst has not lost its relevance. Because a person who has gone without liquid for a long time, or who feels dehydration due to heavy sweating, having reached water, begins to drink it greedily, not feeling the measure in volumes. But this is absolutely unacceptable.

Moisture should be consumed very carefully, in several mandatory stages:

• First, you need to take water into your mouth and rinse it with moisture.
• Then we start drinking in small sips and just a little bit, after which we take a break.
• And only after a certain time, if necessary, can you drink a little more water.
• You can't drink without stopping until your thirst disappears. In this case, too much liquid will enter the body, which will be in excess. In this case, internal organs (digestive tract) may also suffer.
• You can begin to take the full daily volume of liquid only a couple of days after you start replenishing dehydration.

You can't drink a large volume at once for the simple reason that dehydration has affected all internal organs. A dehydrated organism is not able to accept such a quantity of the product at once. This provokes it to spasm, which can cause an inflammatory process and the development of a disease.

It is also necessary to remember that excess moisture is just as harmful (perhaps, only to a lesser extent) as its deficiency. In the case of a feeling of dry mouth, it is worth teaching your body to refrain from drinking a lot and frequent approaches. Then, after some time, the body itself will begin to ask for less, and thirst will make itself known less often.

One example is long-distance running, the most energy-consuming sport. In addition to the high calorie expenditure, the body also experiences relative dehydration. It is a few sips, not the entire bottle, that can bring the body to its senses after an exhausting run. It would be correct to distribute the intake of half a liter over 20 minutes. Then the body will receive the necessary amount of liquid without causing harm to itself.

A human being is 90% water – this is the first thing children learn in biology class at school. A lack of such an invaluable product leads to dehydration of the entire body. The thirst for water can become an unpleasant, easily correctable discomfort, but it can be a “bell” through which the body signals its owner about pathological changes occurring in it that need to be urgently addressed. Such a signal should be heard and understood as early as possible. After all, a timely visit to a qualified specialist means early diagnosis and treatment, and as a result – the fastest resolution of the problem with the least losses for the body.