Drinking water; why it is important!

[Navy Chief]

I have always had a problem with not drinking enough water. Oh, when I am out in the heat, then sure...I drink a lot of water.

But when inside, and not thirsty, I tend not to drink water much at all. In the morning, for example, I'll have my usual two cups of coffee, and continue on with the rest of whatever I am doing. But coffee is a diuretic, which means drinking water is important.

My habits have caused me to become dehydrated several times; the most recent being last Friday morning, about 3 AM. Woke up with severe abdominal cramps, and spent several hours off/on the throne with (what my dad called, the "diary"). Finally, about 6 PM that day, I had a friend take me to the local ER, and they admitted me. Got released from the hospital late yesterday afternoon.

Note to self: DRINK WATER OFTEN!

Dehydration sneaks up on you slowly, when not outside in the heat. But I gotta tell you, it will bring your body's systems to a screeching halt, and it's not fun.

All the best, shipmates,

NC

[beana51]

Welcome to FLORIDA and TROPICAL HEAT!...Currently in a drought!...The water here is SWAMP JUICE...Horrible...The effort chemically to make it fit to drink,horrible....So Florida is Swimming in those Lil Plastic bottles....The Sight of all lugging water...Gunga Din. would find employment here........No Spring Water Here, No Cool Mountain Streams,.Any Dug well a few feet down and you get Brackish Slime,or a SINK HOLE...Water Water every where,and not a drop to drink!...DEHYDRATION is a silent killer!....BEER is a big thing!...All the Chain Drug Stores sell BEER!.......Any Doc Will Tell You to Take Three Beers,or two Margaretta's, and Call Me in The Morning....FLORDIA???....YUCK!<label for="rb_iconid_24">http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon23.gif</label>

[Daveroo]

i drink alot of water all day long,when i was in the fire department..saw the effects of dehidration several times..wasnt pretty...but the biggest reason for me is my life long friend mike who became my brother inlaw later in life,,,he refused to drink water.."it has no taste and fish poop in it" and he truely believed that the fish poop wasnt fliltered out ect before it got to the "tap" or bottle....he drank nothing but "pepsi" from when i met him in in the early 60s as a kid...no milk,,just pepsi and an occational beer....but by the time he was 20..he had lost the majority of his teeth...and when he died a few years ago...he had not had teeth for almsot 20 years....they had rotted away...

[Daveroo]

I have always had a problem with not drinking enough water. Oh, when I am out in the heat, then sure...I drink a lot of water.

But when inside, and not thirsty, I tend not to drink water much at all. In the morning, for example, I'll have my usual two cups of coffee, and continue on with the rest of whatever I am doing. But coffee is a diuretic, which means drinking water is important.

My habits have caused me to become dehydrated several times; the most recent being last Friday morning, about 3 AM. Woke up with severe abdominal cramps, and spent several hours off/on the throne with (what my dad called, the "diary"). Finally, about 6 PM that day, I had a friend take me to the local ER, and they admitted me. Got released from the hospital late yesterday afternoon.

Note to self: DRINK WATER OFTEN!

Dehydration sneaks up on you slowly, when not outside in the heat. But I gotta tell you, it will bring your body's systems to a screeching halt, and it's not fun.

All the best, shipmates,

NC


glad to hear you are safe and well,,,not good to hear our friends have been in the hospital and no one has been able to let us know...we need an SOH alert system.....like a phone app to alert members when another member is in distress ( not sure what we could do for each other,but phone calls,emails,and even snailmail would be nice when hospilised ect)

[beana51]

Flordia and FOOTBALL.....The Extreme heat does not deter this Activity...Football is huge here,and the Kids Train and play in Hot Humid Conditions...Refrigerated Fans and "GATOR AID" big time.. I did not know that in1965 by researchers at the University of Florida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Florida), to replenish the combination of water, carbohydrates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrates), and electrolytes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytes) that the school's student-athletes lost (in sweat) during rigorous athletic competitions. Its name was derived from the collective nickname of the university's athletic teams, "the Gators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Gators)"

[Naismith]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNGWn-aWn5g

[arfyhun]

Nice one Naismith, I've never seen this man before and he's cracking.

Ace, many thanks for posting,

Graham.

[cheezyflier]

when you get the "runs", that causes dehydration. loperamide hydrochloride can be bought pretty cheaply. quality dark chocolate can help also. avoid sugar. raisin bran is not your friend at such times.

i have a condition which causes dehydration to always be one step behind me. it's one of those things i have learned to monitor for survival. for any of us, staying hydrated has big rewards. but the penalty for failure to do so is proportionally bad.

[rayrey10]

I recently joined the "kidney stone" club and one of the reasons was because I don't drink as much water as I should. The urologist said that you should drink enough water to produce 2 ltrs of urine. For me it takes about 3 liters of water, so I bought a 1 liter bottle of water and I drink at least 3 of them a day. I also drink a low sugar sports drink daily. You don't want flush your body of electrolytes.

[WarHorse47]

Got this in an e-mail from a friend...

Drinking water at the correct time</SPAN></SPAN>
Maximizes its effectiveness on the Human body :

1 glass of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack

:icon29:
Oops. Guess we need a water icon??

--WH</SPAN></SPAN>

[Dain Arns]

I like my water really cold, I feel like I drink more that way.
I'm on a diuretic for my blood-pressure, so I need to drink more.

THERMOS brand Vacuum Insulated Stainless-steel Hydration Bottles.

Up to 24 hrs keeping water/drink cool (I've had this one do up to 48hrs just fine)
And if you live in an area where everything you have a cool drink in 'sweats', like I do, NO 'SWEATING'.
It's wonderful.

I have an 'armored' one with a travel safety catch I use for work and around the house here as well.
Plus it does not have one of those nasty tasting rubber drinking straws like most cheap water bottles from "Mr. Walton's Big Box Mart" have.
It has a proper spout on it to drink from.

Not really expensive if you shop Amazon, I got mine for around $16.
http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Stainless-Steel-22-Ounce-Leak-Proof-Hydration/dp/B000FOOSIQ/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1335506310&sr=1-8
Well worth it.

Here's the range of THERMOS water bottles on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=Thermos+Vacuum+Insulated+Stainless+Steel+ Hydration+Bottle