April 03, 2023
Effects of Dehydration on Your Brain
Water is vital to keeping your body functioning properly. Every activity you participate in (including binging your favorite shows from the comfort of your couch) pushes you closer to dehydration if you don’t keep up with your water intake. Hydration supports you in your daily life. Your metabolism, digestion, energy, and so much more are directly affected by your hydration. But did you know that hydration is also a key factor in how your brain functions?
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A 2019 study published by the National Institutes of Health found dehydration can hurt the brain. If you’re not getting enough water, you may be feeling some of these effects:
1. Short-Term Memory Loss
Feel like you keep forgetting things? Without water, your brain may have a hard time storing new information and keeping it readily available.
2. Poor Judgment Calls
You may feel unsure when making necessary decisions about important things and could possibly end up making decisions you regret later.
3. Lack of Alertness
If you’ve ever realized 30 minutes into a meeting you don’t know what’s going on, your brain might be thirsty. Dehydration makes it difficult to stay present in what’s happening around you, and in severe cases, may cause you to miss out on significant events in your life.
4. Loss of Motor Coordination
Are you suddenly tripping over your own feet? Your friends may call you the clumsy one, but your brain could be calling out for a glass of water. Hydration helps your motor skills. Without it, you may start seeing the affects, like clumsiness (tripping, stumbling, or falling), decreased hand-eye coordination, or even something as simple as sloppier handwriting!
5. Slow Reaction Time
It may take you longer to respond to what’s happening around you, which can be dangerous when quick decisions may be necessary, such as when you’re driving a car and need to break for road hazards.
When you don't get enough water, you’ll see immediate effects, and your body will tell you. You may experience surface-level problems like fatigue, headaches, and irritability that can be solved by downing a few glasses of water. However, since the brain is mostly made up of water, the negative effects of dehydration on brain functions stick around longer after you have rehydrated. Water gives the brain energy to function, so it’s essential that you continuously hydrate to replenish what you’ve lost throughout the day.
How You Can Stay Happily Hydrated
We have all heard about the importance of 8 glasses of water daily, but it is more complicated. Scientists urge us to acknowledge that hydration looks different for everyone. The climate you live in, your body weight, your age, and how much you exercise are all factors that could cause you to need more water than the average person.
So to simplify things, we created this hydration calculator for you to find out how much water you should drink – quick and easy!
Just answer a few questions and let the calculator do the work. Get your recommended water intake and get to hydrating!
Now that you know how many glasses of water you need daily, how do you reach that goal?
True Citrus makes the tedious nature of staying hydrated a lot easier. Drinking plain water can get boring or you might find yourself wanting to switch it up. True Citrus offers over 40 different ways to happily flavor your water. You are bound to find numerous flavors you’ll fall in love with. All of our products are made with only simple, Non-GMO ingredients and have no artificial sweeteners.
We try hard to surprise and delight without compromising on taste in all our products, ranging from our tasty and hydrating low-calorie Drink Mixes, to our low calorie, super-charged/clean energy drink mixes, to our 0-calorie Unsweetened Water Enhancers.
Enjoy the refreshing taste of delicious H2O just the way you like it, while maintaining your water intake to avoid dehydration's negative effects on your brain!
Sources
Allyn Wergin, R. D. N. (2022, September 29). Water: Essential for your body. Mayo Clinic Health System. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/water-essential-to-your-body
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (n.d.). What about the advice to drink 8 glasses a day? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-200442525
Taylor, K., & Jones, E. B. (2022, October 3). Adult Dehydration. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555956/
Toolkit for Health Professionals. (2022, October 7). Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/dietary-guidelines/current-dietary-guidelines/toolkit-professionals
Zhang, N., Du, S. M., Zhang, J. F., & Ma, G. S. (2019). Effects of dehydration and rehydration on cognitive performance and mood among male college students in Cangzhou, China: A self-controlled trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(11), 1891. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16111891
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