Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Coffee and Tea are not enough
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Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 7/10/2012 8:11 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 270
First: 2/8/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Could you be chronically dehydrated ? Many people are and never realize it. Our bodies require at least eight glasses of water per day, more during exercise, illness, and hot weather. People often think that even if they don't actually drink water, they are getting enough by drinking coffee, tea, soft drinks, juice or beer. The truth is that many of these beverages have a diuretic effect, moreover they can not ionize in our body to produce the required electrolytes In a typical busy day there is increased consumption of tea and coffee, which make the individual loses the sense of thirst, the condition becomes a vicious circle and chronic dehydration occurs Important symptoms of chronic dehydration :- Fatigue & energy loss, drowziness, tiredness lethargy, forgetfulness, reuced appetite, constipation, reduced urine output For the full clinical picture please refer to textbooks of internal medicine If you suffer from any of these symptoms, then check your water balance |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 7/10/2012 9:12 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1
First: 7/10/2012 Last: 7/10/2012 |
In Response to Coffee and Tea are not enough: Our bodies require at least eight glasses of water per day, more during exercise, illness, and hot weather. This includes all of the water we take in through food and all of the metabolic water we produce by fat metabolism, it does not mean that you need to drink 8 glasses of fluid per day, in fact that is quite risky advice. |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 7/10/2012 10:58 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2056
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
Good point d-jorsh. |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 8/10/2012 12:46 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1789
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 23/5/2013 |
From what we recommend here we recommend 8-10 glasses of water intake daily.That includes other beverages as well (coffee, tea, beer etc). If you bear in mind that each glass contains about 200 ml water, and you lose in respiration about 500-600 ml, plus yuor urinary output is lets say 1000 ml on average, and you also sweat, the recommendation is not that strange. That is true that you have to adjust according to patient. Heart failure, renal failure,cirrhosis and other conditions can require water restriction. It is also true that fruit and vegetable contain water and we make water in our organism, but taking all into accout the recommended amount of water is as I mentioned above. Dehydration is not the only trouble. Less water also mean more chances for urolithiasis, galbladder stones also. Then there is also less bowel movement, constipation, etc. And it can be subtle... John, are you a tad dehydrated?
 I notice a bit more aggression in your reply |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 8/10/2012 2:46 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
It is known as the “eight by eight” rule among nutritionists: eight glasses of water, eight fluid ounces each, is supposedly what the average person needs to drink every day to remain healthy and hydrated. The claim is often made, but no one really knows where it comes from or what the basis for it is. I was unable to find any scientific research which either supports or contradicts the claim. If anyone has ever carefully compared the health of people who drink water to people who don’t, I can’t find their report, and neither can anyone else. It is a debate mostly without science. And yet there are many indirect clues. For instance, contrary to popular belief, we know that dehydration doesn’t cause cramping in athletes and if it doesn’t even do that, it seems unlikely that subtle dehydration can be serious. There may be such a thing as “chronic dehydration,” but the weight of expert opinion is clear: if it exists at all, it is not serious, and easily cured in any event. There is no research about this question because there is no need for it. The only thing at stake is a clear but minor general benefit to your health. In short, there are more important things to worry about, and more important medical questions to study. Drink your 8 glasses per day (or 10, or 14), and ignore anyone who tries to get you to worried about it … or who tells you it doesn’t matter. It does matter. It just doesn’t matter much! |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 8/10/2012 4:44 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1789
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 23/5/2013 |
O.K., you hard to convince group. We have seen here so many dehydration cases that there is no real argument about the merit of drinking enough an enough is about 2000 ml of fluids. There have been numerous cases of dehydration and heat strokes here that ended even in deaths. I was taugth as most of you have been I suppose, about "lithogenic" bile. Drinking too little is one of its causes. Now to kidney stones. I have my personal experience. I was last year in Europe in a time not too hot , did not drink enough water and had a renal colic you don't wish for your enemies. And I had them again and again till I finally managed to get rid of the stone. And I did so by drinking and drinking water. Now kidney stones are not so rare. And they can be prevented by appropriate hydration.
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 8/10/2012 7:00 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 270
First: 2/8/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
It came to my attention to write about the issue of water balance, because it is crucial and vital topic, specially in our practice, where in fact, we might not be able to find time to eat or drink....let alone being able to sleep enough hours On physiological basis, the recommended daily requrement of water is 2 L for women and 2.5 L for men over the age of 18, this values may double in conditions of hot weather, stress, exercise....and so on Food intake ( without drinks), contributes 0.5 to 1.00 L per day, and the metabolism of protein, fat, and carbohydrates produces another 0.25 to 0.4 l/day OK, subtract the amount of water loss via urine, sweating and insensible perspiration, this could be 1-2 L per day depending on the circumstances In the US, the reference daily intake (RDI) for water is 3.7 litres per day (l/day) for human males older than 18, and 2.7 l/day for human females older than 18 Water intoxication (which results in hyponatremia), the process of consuming too much water too quickly, can be fatal. The best example is the personal experience of colleague yoram chaiter , which gives a clear evidence of the consequences of chronic dehydration |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 9/10/2012 12:18 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2056
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
I'm sorry if I came across as aggressive, yoram. Maybe I should drink more - but I get sleepy then! And I should have taken into account different climates. At the Olympics, working in the 30+C heat and humidity of the Aquatic Centre, we were told to make sure we drank enough, two bottles of water a day at least in addition to our normal diet. I poo-pooed that too, but after two days of infrequently passing rather concentrated urine, I realised that it was true, and started to drink the water. But my kidneys did their job, retained water when I was losing more per cutem than normal and maintained my internal homestasis. I was nowhere near heat stroke or actual dehydration, in fact normal, with kidneys working a little harder than usual. John |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 9/10/2012 3:15 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1180
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
I drink loads, but I do loads of exercise, so sweat a lot, generally. I find I'm most dehydrated after swimming - hard to notice how much one sweats in a swimming pool, but it's significant. We were told back in college, when rowing, to drink when thirsty, and keep an eye on the colour of our urine. I still drink when I'm thirsty, and if it's looking a bit too green in the loo, I drink a bit more. I'm away now to have 500mls of "Green Machine" drink. |
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Re: Coffee and Tea are not enough
posted at 9/10/2012 7:18 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1789
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 23/5/2013 |
A very important issue concerns the thirst mechanism. As we get older it works less well. Therefore elderly can feel not thirsty and get dehydrated. Now a bit more information. Air conditioning can cause dehydration. The air humidity drops, we los more water. So be careful with air conditioners too.When you sit in the cool room it does not mean you should drink less. John my friend, of course I've written what I wrote with humour... But really, many of you are not used to the heat and the water problems. Now it's getting warmer all over the globus and those issues become more realistic than they were before.
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Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Coffee and Tea are not enough
