Cris Welsh • July 27, 2020

Dehydration in Adults and What to Do About It

Dehydration may affect your energy levels and mental state, and even be life-threatening in severe cases. Symptoms of dehydration, such as fatigue, headaches, and dark urine, may be a sign to drink more fluids.


Maintaining proper hydration is essential to overall good health. Without water, your cells can’t function, which is why humans can only survive a few days without fluids

Unfortunately, many adults and kids don’t consume enough fluids, which can lead to chronic dehydration. What’s more, conditions like diarrhea, vomiting, and excessive sweating can lead to acute or short-term dehydration.  Dehydration can negatively affect many aspects of health and even be life threatening in severe cases, so it’s important to know the potential signs and symptoms of dehydration in both adults and kids. Let's dive into the 8 signs and symptoms of dehydration in adults, as well as explains the most common signs of dehydration in infants and kids.


1. Fatigue

If you’re dehydrated, you may feel more tired than usual. This is because dehydration affects every aspect of health, including your sleep-wake cycles. One study that included more than 26,000 Chinese and American adults found that shorter sleep duration was significantly associated with inadequate hydration, as well as that people who were adequately hydrated slept longer than those who were not. Being dehydrated can likewise make you feel more fatigued during exercise.


2. Dark-colored urine and low urine output

If you’re not drinking enough fluids, your urine will be a darker color and you won’t pee very much. In fact, looking at the color of your urine is considered a practical way to identify dehydration. Darker-colored urine can occur when your body is conserving more water and not releasing it into urine. For this reason, the urine becomes more concentrated with waste products from the body, like sodium and urea. The goal is not to have completely clear urine. Instead, the ideal urine color is a pale yellow, like the color of light straw. Keep in mind that other factors can affect your urine color, including the use of medications and B vitamins, which can turn urine bright yellow.


3. Dry skin, decreased skin elasticity, and cracked lips

One of the most common signs of dehydration is dry skin and lips and decreased skin elasticity. If you’re experiencing dry skin, dry mouth, and dry or cracking lips, dehydration may be contributing to these symptoms.

Healthcare professionals often use something called the skin turgor test to assess a person’s hydration status. The skin turgor test involves grasping the skin on the lower arm or abdomen between two fingers and then releasing it after a few seconds. Hydrated skin will rapidly return to its normal position, while dehydrated skin will remain in a “tented” position and take much longer to bounce back. Decreased skin turgor is usually a sign of moderate to severe dehydration


4. Headaches

When you’re not getting enough fluids, you may get frequent headaches.

Even though dehydration is strongly linked to headaches, researchers aren’t exactly sure how dehydration causes headaches.

One theory is that fluid depletion in the body leads to the stretching of blood channels in the brain, leading to headaches. However, researchers acknowledge that there are likely multiple mechanisms behind dehydration-related headaches, and that some people may be more susceptible to dehydration-related headaches than others. Some studies show that increasing water intake may help reduce headache symptoms in people who experience migraine. One study that included 256 women with migraine headaches showed that migraine severity, frequency, and duration were significantly lower in those who drank more water.


5. Light-headedness and dizziness

Dehydration may cause you to feel dizzy and light-headed, especially when you stand up.

Orthostatic hypotension is the medical term for a reduction in blood pressure when you stand or sit up. Dehydration can lead to orthostatic hypotension. This is especially common among older adults, who are more at risk of developing dehydration and low blood volume (hypovolemia).  Being dehydrated may cause you to feel dizzy and light-headed, especially when you stand or sit up quickly.  Severe dehydration may even lead to fainting in some cases, especially among older adults.


6. Heart palpitations

Being dehydrated may cause cardiac symptoms like palpitations, or a sensation of pounding, fluttering, or an irregular heartbeat.  Not drinking enough fluids can negatively affect overall health, including heart health.  According to one review, dehydration may impair heart function in several ways, including by negatively affecting blood vessel function and altering blood pressure regulation.  Dehydration can also compromise heart function in people who are performing intense exercise in the heat.  It does this by decreasing the amount of blood pumped out of the left ventricle of the heart and reducing cardiac output — the amount of blood the heart pumps per minute


7. Low blood pressure

Low blood pressure is a sign of dehydration that only appears if a person is significantly dehydrated. As mentioned above, dehydration impairs blood vessel function and blood pressure regulation. Dehydration causes low blood volume — that is, a low amount of fluid circulating within your capillaries, veins, arteries, and chambers of your heart. When your blood volume decreases, your body compensates by increasing your pulse and respiratory rate, as well as by decreasing your blood pressure. Low blood pressure is a sign of severe dehydration, and it can be dangerous. Severe dehydration could lead to significantly low blood pressure, shock, and even death.


8. Poor concentration and altered mental state

Not taking in enough fluids can take a toll on your brain and reduce your ability to concentrate. Some studies have shown that dehydration can be detrimental to short-term memory, concentration, and mood. A small study including 12 men found that abstaining from drinking water for 36 hours led to higher error rates on tests and negatively affected energy, mood, attention, and memory. Rehydration with water alleviated these symptoms. Many other studies have also shown that dehydration can negatively affect mood and cognitive performance in both men and women.

Severe dehydration can lead to an altered mental state, which can seem like confusion and anger


 

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