1. Fatigue

If you're experiencing dehydration, your body might feel more tired than usual. This is because poor hydration can affect every aspect of health, such as the sleep-wake cycle. Many studies have shown that a person's level of dehydration can disrupt their sleep time. Not only during regular activities, dehydration can also cause fatigue during exercise.

2. Dark and Reduced Urination

Urine, which should be pale yellow or clear, will turn dark yellow when someone is dehydrated. Moreover, the volume will also decrease. Checking the color of urine is a practical strategy to determine whether you are dehydrated or not.

3. Bad Breath

Saliva has antibacterial properties. If the body doesn't produce enough of it, bacteria growth will be excessive, resulting in bad breath. Hydrating the body is essential to produce enough saliva, preventing bad breath. Simply put, does your breath smell bad? It might be because the production of saliva slows down during sleep.

4. Dry Skin and Chapped Lips

When someone experiences dehydration, one of the signs is extremely dry skin. Not only that, its elasticity can also decrease. You can tell by pinching a little of your skin. If it takes a long time to return to its original state, then you can say you are dehydrated. However, if it returns to normal quickly, then your body is well hydrated.

5. Dizziness and Headaches

When the body doesn't get enough fluid, one of the impacts is headaches and dizziness, especially when you stand up or sit down quickly. This is presumed to occur because the lack of water causes the blood vessels in the brain to stretch, resulting in headaches. So, if you feel a headache, try checking if you have had enough to drink.

6. Racing Heart, Low Blood Pressure, and Decreased Concentration

Dehydration can disrupt the function of the heart and blood vessels. Physical symptoms experienced when the body is dehydrated include a racing or irregular heartbeat. Furthermore, if it falls into the category of severe dehydration, blood pressure will tend to decrease (low). This condition occurs because dehydration causes low blood volume.

When blood volume decreases, the body compensates by increasing heart rate, respiratory rate, and lowering blood pressure. In addition, dehydration can also affect the brain, one of which is indicated by decreased concentration. Sometimes, if dehydration is severe, a person may even become easily irritable.

7. Food Cravings

When experiencing dehydration, a person tends to experience food cravings, especially for sweet foods. This happens because the body has difficulty breaking down glycogen stores (stored glucose) to release glucose into the bloodstream as an energy source. However, food cravings caused by dehydration can also lead to craving for other foods.

To ensure your body is well hydrated, identify the signs accurately. It's not difficult at all, starting from recognizing symptoms of fatigue, dark and reduced urine, bad breath, dry skin and chapped lips, dizziness or headaches, racing heart, low blood pressure, decreased concentration, to food cravings. Ladies, have you ever experienced any of these?

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