im googling how to hydrate and all the recommendations are so shit. I know that drinking water makes the water in my body. I need to understand the deeper mechanisms
when I have been dehydrated and I get really thirsty and drink a lot of water, i end up in a state where my body tries to get rid of it so fast I'm peeing straight up water every 10 minutes. It is not good.
But it seems that when I've been in the habit of drinking a lot of water and when I've had access to soups and juice and stuff, I can actually drink more water at a time without my body trying to get rid of it so fast and insanely
It seems to take at least a couple days of steadily drinking enough water to actually get back into the state of being hydrated. It's like when I am VERY dehydrated, I can drink water, quickly reach a "ceiling" where my body just gets rid of any excess water, and I have to slowly raise that ceiling by drinking more water
Like, my body doesn't want to change the hydration level too fast.
Cells are water with dissolved solutes that must be at a certain percentage, so maybe the problem is electrolytes...?
That would explain why soups and milk seem to keep me in a much better state...
I forget where I heard / saw this, but it must have been at least 20 years ago -- maybe even 30, but I think it was a presentation by a physician/author on a PBS Pledge Drive Special (so take with a grain of salt -- especially if you're concerned about electrolytes [ha-ha!]).
Anyway: this person said that the "eight glasses of water a day" thing has been misinterpreted, and that absolutely also includes things like soup, and milk, and juice, etc.. It doesn't have to be all pure water, or eight glasses of water in addition to milk, juice, soup... The only thing that really doesn't count is alcohol, because that's a really strong diuretic.
Personally, to make sure I'm not overloading myself with sodium, and sugar, and such, I try to drink at least some plain water every day (usually about a third of all my fluids). If I've let myself get dehydrated, instead of drinking a whole glass of water at once, I'll drink a couple of mouthfuls, and give my body time to absorb it and distribute it (about ten minutes), and then drink a few more mouthfuls.
Also, of course, the amount of water you need is proportional to your size. A 250 pound man needs more water than a 100 pound kid.
dragonboyteeth
