Reviewed by medical experts • For informational purposes only
Dehydration is simple arithmetic - more water and salts leaving than coming in. Diarrhoea and vomiting, fever, sweating and plain not-drinking are the causes, with infants, the elderly and anyone in the summer heat running out of reserves fastest.
Dehydration is simple arithmetic: more water and salts leaving the body than coming in. The causes sort into three everyday buckets - losing too much, taking in too little, or both at once.
Dehydration comes from diarrhoea and vomiting, fever, sweating, or simply not drinking - with infants, the elderly, and anyone losing fluids in the heat running out of reserves fastest.
Written By
Dr. Daksh
BDS
Reviewed By
Dr. Varun Gupta
MD Pharmacology, MBBS
Last updated on
27 Sep 2022 • 06:23 PM (IST)
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Exercise is healthy; dehydration is the tax on unmanaged sweat. Drink before, sip during, replace with salts after long sessions, shift summer workouts out of the midday sun, and treat dizziness and cramps as stop signals, not character tests.
Feed dehydration recovery with fluids first, then khichdi, banana, curd-rice and light dal-rice; skip oily, heavy and very sweet things for a few days; and let watery fruits, curd and salted drinks do quiet prevention all summer.
Prevent dehydration by drinking before thirst, adding salts to long sweaty hours, starting ORS at the first loose stool, respecting the midday summer sun, and watching the babies and grandparents whose thirst cannot be trusted to speak up.
Mild dehydration answers to water, moderate to actively-sipped ORS with a doctor's call for the vulnerable, and severe to hospital IV fluids without delay. The grades, their right responses, and the signs - confusion, fainting, a baby too weak to drink - where home care ends.
Unrecognised severe dehydration is genuinely dangerous: shock, kidney injury, electrolyte seizures and heatstroke - with infants and the elderly crashing fastest. Every complication is prevented by one unglamorous act: replacing fluids and salts early.
The classics gave morbid thirst entire chapters and answered it with salted rice gruels, coconut water and cooling drinks - the same fluid-and-salt logic as modern ORS. Where Ayurveda, the grandmother and the WHO genuinely prescribe the same drink.
