JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi. My name is Dr. Justin Davis and today we'll be talking about dehydration. Dehydration can happen to anyone and occurs when your body loses more water or fluids than it takes in and can no longer function properly because of this. Also, commonly, you not only lose fluids but you also lose electrolytes, which are essential salts and minerals from your body that are very important for your cells to have their normal function. So what are some of the causes of dehydration? Well you can imagine if you're sick and you're not able to take in fluids because you're constantly vomiting or perhaps you're having more diarrhea, that's loose watery stools, then you can adequately replace the fluid for. Other times, if you're in very hot weather and you're sweating profusely, and losing more water than you're taking in, these are all common reasons for dehydration. There are other reasons; for example, sometimes people that take drugs that they're not supposed to or have a bad reaction to other medications may also become dehydrated. So what are some of the symptoms when you're dehydrated? Well, the symptoms can very depending on the level of dehydration. Sometimes people only have mild dehydration. In these cases, usually the symptoms aren't so severe. For example, perhaps you're very thirsty, you're not urinating as much as normal, maybe you're not sweating as much as normal, or you just feel a little bit dizzy. However, when dehydration becomes more severe, that means a lot of fluid has been lost from the body. Well, the symptoms can also become quite severe and if it continues, even become life threatening. Some of those symptoms may be loss of consciousness or irregular heart rates or rhythm, a blood pressure that's too low, or loss of consciousness. Remember, in these cases, dehydration is very serious and can be deadly. So what do we do to treat dehydration? Well of course, the obvious answer is you replace that fluids that have been lost, but this is not always quite as easy as it seems because remember, often people become dehydrated because they're not able to take in enough fluids. So, many times when you go to a doctor, a doctor may recommend, if he thinks that you're able to still drink in enough fluids, something special that we call oral rehydration therapy. That's simply fluids that have been mixed in with electrolytes. Some of the more common sports drinks, like Gatorade for
example, have been made especially to have enough fluids, sugar, and electrolytes to compensate for dehydration. Other times, when you're severely dehydrated and can't take in enough oral fluids, you may need intravenous fluids. This is when a doctor or other health professional will hook up an IV that goes directly into your blood system and the fluids and electrolytes can be administered more directly this way. Whatever the treatment, it is very important to be treated when you're dehydrated and to avoid severe dehydration. So, some things that you can do to prevent becoming dehydrated are the following: First of all, use common sense on hot, sunny days or when you're out performing excessive physical activities. Make sure that you take plenty of fluids with you and you don't let yourself become dehydrated. If you start having symptoms of early dehydration, some of the things that we talked about before, make sure you don't ignore that but you treat that, and if it becomes worse and you can't treat it, that you seek help from a professional right away. And if you suspect that you're becoming severely dehydrated or that your child or somebody else that you know is becoming severely dehydrated, remember it's very important to let a health professional know right away as this can be a very serious event.
