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How To Tell If You Are Hydrated Enough?

Proper hydration is the most important aspect of maintaining good health. Your cells need water to function appropriately. However, many people do not consume enough water or certain situations can make you lose water, leading to dehydration. How to tell if you are hydrated enough? This is a common question that comes to your mind when you are worried about your hydration status.

Dehydration is a common condition affecting all age groups. Dehydration is seen among 17% to 28% of older adults in the United States.1 Dehydration occurs when the loss of water is more than the replacement of water. This occurs either due to inadequate intake of fluids or due to excessive loss through sweating, hot weather, or over-exercising. Conditions like vomiting, diarrhea, fever, diabetes insipidus, or certain foods or diuretics can cause excessive loss of water. Sports persons, athletes, and people who are engaged in regular physical activities too are at greater risk of dehydration. Kids and older adults often tend to ignore their needs and may not have an adequate intake of water.

Dehydration can have harmful effects on your health and can be serious in some cases. But there are ways to know your hydration status and protect yourself from the ill effects of dehydration.

Some of the common signs that show you may be dehydrated include feeling more tired than usual, dryness in the mouth or throat and feeling excessively thirsty, headache, dizziness, reduced urine output, or dark yellow colored urine, dryness of skin, lack of skin elasticity or healthy luster, cracked lips, having low blood pressure, and altered concentration.

In some these signs of dehydration may take time to develop while some may begin to show up early. If you are not experiencing the undesirable effects or showing the signs of dehydration you can tell that you are hydrated enough.

How To Tell If You Are Hydrated Enough?

How To Tell If You Are Hydrated Enough?

Here are some ways to tell if you are hydrated enough:

Your Urine – If you are urinating well, at regular intervals, which means you are urine output is normal, which is because you are hydrated enough. More particularly, your urine color is a common urinary marker used for assessing your hydration status. If your urine color is pale yellow, it corresponds to diluted urine, which means your hydration status is good.2 When your urine is deep-colored, without having taken B-complex or any other medicine, it may be a sign that you are not hydrated enough and that’s when you want to grab a glass of water.

While there are various ways developed to assess hydration levels, some are considered common methods. The changes in body weight, urine-specific gravity, conductivity, and color are used for assessment. Urine color is also used and is found to be accurate when laboratory analysis is not available or when you need to quickly tell if you are hydrated enough. In some cases, urine color is a good indicator of hydration.3

Your Skin – Your skin contains around 30% water which contributes to the elasticity and plumpness of the skin. Whether you drink enough water or not can easily reflect on your skin. Without enough water, your skin may look dull, dry, and lack elasticity. You can tell if you are hydrated enough when you have healthy-looking, glowing skin that is supple and elastic A normal skin turgor and feel to touch shows you are well hydrated.4

In the skin turgor test, the skin of the lower arm or abdomen is grasped in-between two fingers and is then released after a few seconds. If you are hydrated enough, your hydrated skin rapidly bounces back to its original position. In a dehydrated person, the skin remains tented in a position and may take longer to return to the original position.

Your Mouth – When you feel your mouth, tongue, and lips are moist, it means you are hydrated enough. Your saliva is a fluid and it flows easily when you are well hydrated. Studies have shown that even in mild dehydration the rate of saliva flow decreases and can be an easy marker to assess the hydration status.2dry mouth is a sign of dehydration, which means you need to drink more fluids.

Your Eyes – When you are hydrated enough your eyes look normal, lustrous and tears are present.4 However, with dehydration the eyes begin to look deep-set and then sunken, while the tears may be reduced and even absent in severe dehydration.  

Your Energy Levels – Another easy way to tell if you are hydrated enough is that you may feel energetic and active most of the time. If you are dehydrated, you often feel fatigued, feel tired all the time, and lack the energy or enthusiasm to do anything. Fatigue due to dehydration is experienced more during exercise or physical activity. But if you are enjoying these without getting tired, you are well hydrated and need to maintain your hydration status.

Your Health – Another important sign that you are hydrated enough is that you usually do not experience headaches, lightheadedness, dizziness, or low blood pressure after physical activities. These are common signs of dehydration and are often experienced more during and after physical exertion. If you are sleeping well, your urine and bowel movements are functioning well, you can concentrate on your work, and not experiencing mood changes, confusion, or emotional highs and lows, you may be hydrated enough. Most of these problems arise when a person is not taking adequate fluids, hence staying hydrated is necessary.

Now that you know the main signs that can tell if you are hydrated enough, you can keep a check on your health and prevent dehydration.

References:

Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:October 15, 2022

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