Your breath, skin, and body temperature may be telling you you’re running low on water.
A persistent sweet tooth may simply be a sign you need to drink more water, according to a Rio Linda CA health coach.
Every living creature needs water to survive. Yet sweating, peeing, vomiting, or having diarrhea can cause a loss of fluid, further increasing your fluid needs, threatening your survival, and, making you feel thirsty.
If you’re thirsty, that’s the most obvious sign you’re dehydrated, meaning your body doesn’t have enough fluid to function properly. Being dehydrated doesn’t just mean your body is losing water – it also means you’re losing electrolytes, such as salt and potassium, which help your body breathe, move, talk, and do all the other things it needs to do to stay up and running.
Certain health conditions, including diabetes, can put you at an increased risk for dehydration. If you’ve been sweating too much due to heat or overexertion, throwing up or having diarrhea because of the flu or another acute illness, or urinating frequently, it’s important to watch your fluid intake. People who are especially vulnerable to losing fluid include those who are unable to quench their thirst because of disability or disease, those who are athletes, and those who are simply too young or too old to replace fluids on their own.
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Becoming extremely dehydrated – defined by the World Health Organization as losing more than 10 percent of your body weight in fluid – can lead to injury or fatal complications, and it requires an ER visit. Seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, or hypovolemic shock can occur because your blood volume is too low.
Yet it rarely comes to that. Most of the time, you can easily replenish your fluid stores and fend off dehydration. The truth is you can lose 3 to 4 percent of your body weight through dehydration without feeling any real symptoms, says Alp Arkun, MD, the chief of service for emergency medicine at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana and Ontario Medical Centers in Southern California.
Yet, once you have lost 5 to 6 percent, you’ll start to feel the symptoms of mild dehydration, notes MedlinePlus. Thirst, fatigue, dizziness, or constipation are sure signs it’s time to reach for water or a sports drink that’s low in sugar and high in electrolytes.
But the signs of dehydration aren’t always so obvious. Here are some surprising signs and symptoms of dehydration.
Bad Breath Is a Possible Warning Sign of Dehydration
Saliva has antibacterial properties, but dehydration can prevent your body from making enough saliva.
“If you’re not producing enough saliva, you can get bacterial overgrowth in the mouth, and one of the side effects of that is bad breath,” says John Higgins, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Texas in Houston and the chief of cardiology at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital in Houston.
It’s the same reason you may wake up with “morning breath”: Saliva production slows down during sleep, leading to an unpleasant taste in the mouth as bacteria grow. So, the next time your mouth seems dry and your breath smells less-than-fresh, it may be time to rehydrate.
Dry or Flushed Skin Could Be a Symptom of Dehydration
“A lot of people think that people who get dehydrated are really sweaty, but in fact, as you go through various stages of dehydration, you get very dry skin,” Dr. Higgins says, adding that skin may appear flushed as well.
Another key skin-related symptom of dehydration is skin that remains “tented” after being pinched and takes some time to return to its normal, flat appearance.
Muscle Cramps Are a Dehydration Symptom, Likely from Heat Illness
When your body loses enough fluid, it’s unable to cool itself off adequately, leading to heat illness. One symptom to look out for is muscle cramps, which can happen while exercising, particularly in hot weather.
“The hotter you get, the more likely you are to get muscle cramps, and that’s from a pure heat effect on the muscles. As the muscles work harder and harder, they can seize up from the heat itself. Changes in the electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, can lead to muscle cramping as well,” says Higgins.
Bear in mind that when it comes to rehydration after exercise, all drinks may not be created equal. A study published in March 2019 in the BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine found that when participants rehydrated with a drink containing electrolytes after exercise, they were less likely to develop muscle cramps. Participants who drank plain water, on the other hand, were more likely to have cramps. So, the next time you feel a muscle cramp coming on after exercise, opting for an electrolyte-filled sports drink may help.
Even in cooler weather, dehydration is possible if you don’t drink enough fluids while working out. Higgins says symptoms may be milder or come on slower, but dehydration carries the same risks, regardless of the temperature outside.
Fever and Chills Are Symptoms of Heat Illness, Which Causes Dehydration
Other symptoms of heat illness include fever and chills. You may sweat profusely while your skin is cool to the touch.
Fever can worsen dehydration. The higher the fever, the more dehydrated you may become. Unless your body temperature decreases, your skin will lose its cool clamminess and then become hot, flushed, and dry to the touch. At this point, it’s important that you cool yourself down immediately and see a medical professional. Applying ice and cool, wet cloths, and moving to a cool area are short-term strategies until you can see a medical professional.
According to the Mayo Clinic, children and infants lose more of their body fluid to fever, and they are more likely to experience severe diarrhea and vomiting from illness. Any fever in an infant or toddler is cause for concern. Ask your pediatrician for guidelines on when to call for help.
The CDC urges adults with fever to seek medical help if their temperature reaches 103 degrees F.
Food Cravings, Especially for Sweets, May Just Mean You’re Thirsty
“When you’re dehydrated, it can be difficult for organs such as the liver, which uses water, to release glycogen [stored glucose] and other components of your energy stores, so you can actually get cravings for food,” Higgins says.
While you can crave anything from chocolate to a salty snack, cravings for sweets are more common because your body may be experiencing difficulty breaking down glycogen to release glucose into the bloodstream to use as fuel, he says.
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Headaches Could Be a Sign You Need to Drink More Water
Even mild dehydration can cause a dehydration headache and trigger a migraine headache. Although various factors besides dehydration can cause headaches, drinking a full glass of water and continuing to sip more fluids during the day is an easy way to ease your pain if, in fact, dehydration is a culprit.
How to Tell if You’re Dehydrated or if It’s Something Else
If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. But lack of thirst doesn’t necessarily mean you’re well hydrated. Here are two other ways to check whether your body is dehydrated:
Try this skin test. Use two fingers to pinch up some skin on the back of your hand, and then let the skin go. The skin should spring back to its normal position in less than a couple of seconds. Higgins says that if the skin returns to normal more slowly, you might be dehydrated.
Check your urine. If you’re well hydrated, your urine will be mostly clear with a tinge of yellow (the color of light lemonade before it hits the bowl). Darker yellow or orange are the “warning” colors to watch for. If you see those colors, start drinking fluids.
A Final Note on the Importance of Preventing Dehydration if You’re Elderly
Elderly people may be at higher risk for dehydration, for a number of reasons, per the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Some elderly people become chronically dehydrated if they take certain medicines, such as diuretics, have a diminished sense of thirst, are not able to get themselves a glass of water easily, or forget to drink because of dementia. Chronic dehydration in an elderly person may lead to confusion, low blood pressure, dizziness, and constipation.
If you have an elderly relative with mobility limitations or cognitive problems, be sure to watch him or her for signs of dehydration or ask their caregivers to do so.
