Please pass the water

Hydration is essential to life. Like food and shelter, it’s one of the few things we literally cannot live without. We all know this, which is why it’s so shocking that people still fail to consume enough water each day. While every body is different, it’s generally agreed that eight cups of water, or 64 ounces daily is the benchmark for healthy consumption. Many of us fall short, and at times, it’s because of a busy lifestyle.

While some people simply forget to drink water, they forget that exercise depletes water and electrolytes, or they mistakenly assume that their soda and coffee drinks count (even though these beverages are diuretics that actually dehydrate the body), there are others who are simply pulled in so many directions that hydrating gets put on the back burner in favor of other priorities. Take, for example, working college students.

Twenty-something college students are capable of handling a lot, even working nearly full-time and attending classes full-time. While sleep loss is basically par for the course in college, students might not realize that part of the reason they’re fatigued and feeling under the weather is because they’re suffering from chronic dehydration.

Unlike acute dehydration that one experiences from sun exposure or intense physical activity, chronic dehydration can’t be solved by simply gulping down a glass of water. Students and even busy adults who don’t properly hydrate day after day can suffer a host of ongoing health issues that cause discomfort and lead to worsening concerns.

What happens when you fail to make hydration a priority and chronic dehydration sets in? More importantly, what can you do to correct the situation? When water alone won’t do the trick, you can get some relief from affordable IV infusions like the Hydration Boost. Here’s what you need to know.

Why is Water So Important?

You probably know that water is essential to our survival. You may even know that a human can only survive for up to four days without water. What you might not know is why.

Every system in our body needs water to function, even down to the cellular level. Believe it or not, anywhere from 55-75% of a person’s body weight can be attributed to water, and it is critical to maintaining homeostasis and promoting proper function.

Your level of hydration can affect obvious processes like digestion, but it also plays a role in thermoregulation (temperature control), physical performance, cognitive function, mood, and more. Chronic dehydration can also impact your energy levels, affect your skin (which is 30% water), and potentially exacerbate the symptoms associated with health conditions like asthma, heart disease, and UTIs, just to name a few.

While adequate water intake is dependent on a number of factors, including a person’s particular physiology, diet, level of activity, climate/environment, and more, the truth is that many people are not getting enough water to maintain optimal health. This can be especially true for college students burning the candle at both ends between work and school, and subsisting on a diet of processed foods that come from a vending machine.

What Happens when You Don’t Drink Enough Water?

There’s no sugar coating the impact of dehydration – it will affect every system in your body. Over time, your body will struggle to maintain homeostasis (a balance between water coming in and going out), and symptoms will start to multiply.

The most recognizable early warning sign of dehydration is dark colored urine, and this is a symptom of your body attempting to keep limited water supply in the body, resulting in concentrated urine and stress on the kidneys. With chronic dehydration, you run the risk of developing painful kidney stones from calcium, sodium, or other mineral buildup that would be flushed away with greater water supply in the body.

Constipation is another common side effect of chronic dehydration. Your body needs fluid to properly digest food, breaking it down into particles that can be absorbed as nutrients or shed as waste. While other issues like low fiber intake and certain medications can also contribute to this condition, water is an essential ingredient in proper digestion, and dehydration can result in constipation.

Other symptoms could include headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness, dry or thin skin, overheating, reduced physical and cognitive performance, high blood pressure, and more. This is all bad news for students who need to focus and retain information, as well as perform during testing.

Affordable and Effective Solutions

It is estimated that about 22% of hydration comes from food in the typical U.S. diet. That means the rest has to come from water and other fluids. Unfortunately, we tend to favor fluids that aren’t water. Some, like milk or juice, still deliver hydrating fluids, along with electrolytes needed to improve uptake, but many, like soda and coffee drinks that have become a popular part of the diet, do just the opposite. Don’t forget about alcohol, which is common to the college lifestyle.

Whether you’re failing to consume adequate hydration, you’re relying on beverages that don’t deliver the water content you need, or you’re throwing alcohol in the mix (or all of the above), you could end up dehydrated as a result (and suffering from a hangover, to boot). The Hydration Boost from Boost IV is an ideal solution that delivers 1,000 mL of saline to help restore balance to your body. This infusion can help to quickly rehydrate your body, combatting symptoms like fatigue, headaches, constipation, dry skin, and more.

Even better, the price tag won’t put a dent in your wallet. At just $89, you can afford this treatment every few weeks. For those suffering the effects of a long school day, followed by work and an after-hours party, there are even optional add-ons like Zofran and Toradol to treat the nausea and pain/inflammation associated with a typical hangover.

Chronic dehydration might not seem like a big deal, until you realize it can impact your ability to learn and succeed in school, cause a host of uncomfortable physical symptoms, and lead to increasing health concerns. When you just can’t seem to make hydration a priority, at least schedule regular Hydration Boost sessions to rehydrate and balance your body.

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