Dehydration causes stress and cognitive malfunction

You may not realize that by the time you feel thirsty, you may in fact be dehydrated. And by then it could be too late for the adverse effects of dehydration to be circumvented.

It’s important to stay hydrated at all times whether you are on a hike or sitting at your desk in the office. The water bottle that goes with you to the gym should go with you everywhere. Dehydration is described as a 1.5% loss in normal water volume in the body.

“Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1 to 2% dehydrated. By the dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how our mind and body perform,” said Lawrence Armstrong, an international expert in hydration for over 20 years. “Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners, who can lose up to 8% of their body weight as water when they compete.”

The first study asked participants to adequately hydrate the night before coming into a clinic to walk on a treadmill to induce dehydration. Then they took a series of cognitive tests that measured vigilance, concentration, reaction time, learning, memory and reasoning. They did this three times with about in between tests.

Dehydration caused headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating. The women in the test group also found tasks more difficult when slightly dehydrated although there was no substantive reduction in cognitive ability.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, The Journal of Nutrition