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Big Problem: Dehydration
Dehydration is the removal of water (hydor in ancient Greek) from an object. Medically, dehydration is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition in which the body contains an insufficient volume of water for normal functioning.
Symptoms and prognosis
Symptoms may include headaches similar to what is experienced as a hangover, a sudden episode of visual snow, decreased blood pressure (hypotension), and dizziness or fainting when standing up. Untreated dehydration generally results in delirium, unconsciousness, and death.
Avoiding dehydration
A person's body loses, during an average day in a temperate climate, approximately 3 quarts of water. This can be through the lungs as water vapor, through the skin as sweat, or through the kidneys as urine. Some (a less significant amount, in the absence of diarrhea) is also lost through the bowels.
During vigorous exercise or in a hot environment, it is easy to lose several times this amount. Heavy exercise in high temperatures could cause the loss of over 3 quarts of fluid per hour, which exceeds the body's absorptive capacity.
At some point, the major organs, including the lungs, heart, and brain, would give out and the patient would die. Be advised that death due to dehydration can occur in 3 days (or less in hot weather) and no one normally lives more than about 5-6 days.
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