Do margaritas count toward hydration? Burp.

Jo

You're hysterical, Jo! In fact, drinking Margaritas or any form of alcohol is the absolute worst thing you can do in the heat, because alcohol dehydrates quickly. Just don't want anyone to get any ideas that this will help hydrate your body.

Darn, Kelley, I was hoping I could replace my body!

Susan :)

Susan - Wouldn't it be great if we could trade-in our bodies for new and improved models?!?!

Jo - I suggest staying indoors to drink your margaritas! I once spent a day in the summer drinking margaritas and swimming, and didn't realize how sunburned I was getting... I ended up so burned that I couldn't wear clothes! I had to sit in my apartment by myself for 3 days. That's my margarita story.

I had a friend that got her potassium depleted because of drinking to much water. She ended up in the emergency room.

Drink some other stuff as well. Juice, gatorade etc. You can water those down, if you prefer stuff not as sweet.

Moni who could use a margarita right now... but at least I got the AC going again!

Take it from someone who's had heatstroke a couple times, you don't want to push it. When we work outside, we drink Gatorade, or Crystal Lite, watered down, with a 1/4 t. of fake salt added per quart. Then take a couple MagOx tablets at night before bed, to help replace the depleted magnesium.

The rule of thumb is: if you're working outside and do not get the urge to urinate at least every couple hours, you're dehydrating. Some people think that it's enough to drink and sweat...that's just not true. If you're not urinating or if your urine is small in amount and dark, sit down and drink.

I can't stand the Gatorade-related stuff but I drink a minimum of two gallons of water a day. Yum!

Diane

That's a very good point about the potassium. I try to stay away from most juice because alot of them have a ton of added sugar (which is a diuretic and can make dehydration worse), but another great way to replenish your potassium is to eat a banana. That's probably one of your best potassium sources.

Anna, I'm not a medical professional and may be wrong about this, but I think I've also heard that if your urine is clear, it's an indication that you've had too much water. You want it to look like lemonade. But you're right, if you're drinking and drinking, and sweating, but not needing to use the restroom, your body can't catch up with the demands you're placing on it. Take a break and drink something!

You people all spend too much time looking at your urine. ;)

After you're done admiring it, be sure to dump it on your compost!

Jo

LOL, at Jo!

I deposit mine directly when I am working outside. :)

Moni

Just to add what others have said about drinking additional beverages, and not only water.

You can develop a life-threatening condition called hyponatremia, which is basically water intoxication, if you drink only water. While it is most commonly seen in endurance athletes (marathoners, ultramarathoners, long-distance bicyclists, etc.), it also can happen to anyone who is consuming only water while sweating profusely in very hot conditions. Essentially what happens is that you are sweating the electolytes (especially sodium, but not only sodium) out of your body and only replacing water. The added water then further dilutes the sodium content in your blood, and it can send you into a coma or can kill you.

For our firefighters, most fire chiefs here prefer they drink 1 bottle of Gatorade or Powerade or something similar for every bottle of water they drink.

Hyponatremia is becoming more common as people get half the message....that they need to hydrate, but miss the other half of the message which is that they need to rehydrate with more than just water. About the only time you see hyponatremia getting attention in the media is when someone drops dead during a marathon and their death later is attributed to hyponatremia.

So, please y'all, remember to get salt and other electrolytes back into your system and remember it takes more than just water to do that!

One of my favorite ways to 'trick' our local firefighters into putting salt back into their bodies is to carry packages of a snack mix I buy at Sam's. It is called "Sweet and Salty Mix" and they love it because it gives them quick energy at long-term fires. I love it because it puts salt back into their bodies and, of course, the salty taste of it encourages them to drink more water and/or Gatorade/Powerade too.

When working outside at home, I always prehydrate in weather like this by drinking a bottle of Gatorade before I go outside, and then I alternate between a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water throughout the day. We buy G2 a lot because it is a lower-sugar/lower-carb product and some of our firefighters have blood sugar issues so they prefer it.

Dawn