Proper hydration is essential to good health

Keep your fluid levels up to prevent dehydration. Credit: Jeff Gross/Allsport

Drink water.

Anybody who spends a lot of time working or playing outdoors in hot weather should know that by now. Construction workers, landscapers, detasselers, bicyclers, runners, and all manner of exercise fanatics should know the dangers of sweating out more water than they take in. It's called dehydration and it happens if you don't . . .

Drink water.

The human body is somewhere around 60 percent water, making it the most common and the most essential chemical in the body. But it's amazing how much of it dissipates from the body in a day's time.

On a normal day, in normal temps, the body loses about three pints of water through perspiration, urination and simple exhaling. Add a heavy workout in hot weather and you're at a sure-fire risk for dehydration. Blair Gorsuch, an exercise physiologist who directs Proctor Hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program, knows first-hand.

He has a friend who mows lawns all summer. This friend takes a cooler of Gatorade with him and drinks it all day long. "If he didn't, he could lose three to four pounds of fluid a day."

When his son first went out for high school football, Gorsuch had the boy weigh himself before and after the twice-aday football practices in the August heat. "He'd lose six to eight pounds a day."

An avid runner himself, and a long-time volunteer with Illinois Valley Striders' running events, Gorsuch has seen the most common, and the worst dangers of dehydration.

The worst?

"Death," he said, recalling a 1984 fatality that was directly attributed to dehydration due to excessive exercise in high heat and humidity.

"You're more likely to see disorientation, dizziness, almost like a drunkenness," he said. "The skin gets cold and clammy, people stop sweating and they usually get a little sick to their stomach."

Those symptoms of dehydration are harbingers of heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke, a life- threatening emergency that can lead to heart attack or even death, as Gorsuch mentioned. The simplest way to prevent dehydration, he emphasizes, is to . . .

Drink water.

"Sports drinks, like Gatorade, are the big thing. But water is probably the best thing out there," Gorsuch says.

He recommends drinking a minimum of eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day. People who work in the heat all day long or who exercise longer than 45 to 60 minutes in the heat probably benefit more from sports drinks, he says, because of the drinks' sodium content.

Increased sodium in sports drinks stimulate the body's thirst mechanisms. But sports drinks also replenish other important minerals.

In general, however, water is enough to keep the average person going.

The object is to prevent dehydrationnot cure itthus maintaining the intricate natural cooling system that keeps the body humming.

"Thirst isn't a good indicator to go by," Gorsuch said. "Usually once a person gets thirsty, they're already low in fluids, you need to start drinking way before you get thirsty."

Drink water.

And don't try to substitute soda, coffee or other highly caffeinated drinks for water, natural juices and watery fruits.

Caffeine is a diuretic, Gorsuch warns, which spurs the body to expel fluids, something it can do well enough on its own, as long as you . . .

Drink water.