Chronic Dehydration

Chronic dehydration affects everyone who does not drink enough fluids.

Dehydration Effects

The effects of dehydration and diseases caused by dehydration.

Dehydration Facts

Dehydration definition, its causes and mechanism. How alcohol causes dehydration.

Dehydration In Children

Symptoms of dehydration in children. When you should call the doctor.

Dehydration Symptoms

All dehydration symptoms and signs. Severe symptoms of dehydration.

Home » Dehydration Facts

The party is over. It is time to stop drinking that way.

The party is over. It is time to stop drinking that way.

The deadly combination of dehydration and alcohol is like a loaded gun in a game of Russian roulette. It is only a matter of pulling the trigger one time to cause dehydration. The trigger can be as simple as a glass of beer or wine. The reason for immediate dehydration is the fact that alcohol is a diuretic. Diuretics cause the kidneys to lose more water than the body can receive requiring a long discharge in the bathroom after only one drink. Most people have more than one drink resulting in frequent trips to the toilet. After only one drink or many drinks, there is water loss resulting in some form of dehydration.

At the same time, the alcohol enters the body with a lot of sugar in it. The sugar converts to glucose in the pancreas and is removed by the secreted hormone called insulin. The large amounts of alcohol increase insulin production. The insulin works overtime and removes sugar from the blood too. Low blood sugar results in low blood pressure, light-headedness, exhaustion, perspiration, vision impairments and what alcoholics refer to as the shakes. These signs are all symptoms of dehydration and alcohol.

Alcoholics have accustomed their bodies to dehydration and alcohol on a daily basis. Many alcoholics die from dehydration before other complications create terminal illnesses. Some can live for a decade because their bodies have built up a tolerant threshold for dehydration and alcohol. Many alcoholics can still manage to get some water and food into their systems. Alcoholics Anonymous or AA is filled with members who did not know they were alcoholics or are in denial about it. At times, the dehydration is mild and at other times it can be more severe and though it seems alcoholics can tolerate the symptoms of dehydration for many years, irreversible damage is caused to their kidneys and livers.

Organ failures are common for long term alcoholics. Kidneys failure occurs because the kidneys get too big after discharging large quantities of water from the alcohol diuretic and hormone malfunctions. Liver failure is the result of metabolizing too much alcohol that results in a fatty liver. In fact, many people do not have to be alcoholics to get these conditions. They are alcohol abusers and drink in excess from time to time. They can be moderate to light drinkers with bodies that are too sensitive to handle the harmful effects of dehydration sickness.

All consumers of alcohol can wake up the following morning with dehydration headache or commonly known as the hangover. Dehydration headache is a symptom of dehydration from light, moderate or excessive drinking before retiring to bed. Often the head feels sick with a constant pounding of pressure. Drinking water in between the drinks of alcohol can reduce the risk of a hangover the following morning. Water before, during and after alcohol is the best way to reduce the chance of dehydration from alcohol. Water intake the following morning and plenty of sleep can also help reduce the pain of the dehydration headache which also can feel like a migraine headache.

As people can consume so much alcohol, there is no reason that there thirsts cannot include water too. Drinkers can enjoy the sensations of alcohol while drinking water too. It takes the body one hour to digest one alcohol drink. People drink a lot more alcohol in that one hour than their bodies can absorb. With a few drinks of water during that one hour there is still plenty of time to have more alcohol and enjoy the party. Be thankful later and the following morning too for drinking water to reduce the effects of dehydration.

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.