By Dr. Kevin Kita
When somebody comes in my office and they are in a lot of pain I know right away that they are not drinking enough water. I tell 95% of the people coming into the office that they need to drink more water. Drinking more water is very important and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Just 24ozs of water low is considered being dehydrated. I have had some people come in my office as much as 100ozs low in their fluid intake.
The serious problems of dehydration can include disc problems. The discs between each vertebra in your spine is mostly made of water, so if your dehydrated the disc shrinks just a little and that can put added pressure on one of your spinal nerves and cause pain. About 99% of the people that come in my office with sciatic pain are dehydrated. The disc shrinks and presses on the sciatic nerve and the person will have excruciating pain. If someone is chronically dehydrated it can lead to herniated discs and bulging discs because their spine is less stable than normal a person.
A person who is dehydrated can have headaches all the time because the blood does not circulate as well to the brain which also can lead to dizziness, heaviness in the head, blurred vision, and hearing loss.
Chronic pains such as back pain, neck pain, and hip pain can be caused by dehydration because the muscle, tendons, and ligament tend to become tight. This causes lack of flexibility and joint stiffness. People will come in thinking they have arthritis, when they are only dehydrated. They will tell me how come my medical doctor doesn’t tell me to drink more water. I tell them it is because pills are much more profitable then drinking more water. I have had many yoga enthusiasts and instructors come in complaining of all of a sudden not being able to get into certain postures. I tell them to drink more and they can now get into postures that they were unable to get into.
Dehydration can actually cause water retention. You wouldn’t think that if you were dehydrated that you would have a problem with water retention. The body releases something called histamines when we are dehydrated. Histamines cause the body to hold on to water because our body is wondering when is the next time we are going to drink water and doesn’t want to release any water that it already has. Histamines can also cause chronic inflammation of the body, skin to become plump, and can also cause fake allergic reactions. There are a lot of times when someone comes in my office thinking they are allergic to something when all they are is dehydrated.
When someone doesn’t drink enough water their digestion is compromised. If someone is dehydrated they can’t produce enough acid to breakdown the food that they just ate. Most times acid reflux is actually lack of water causing indigestion because food is not being properly digested.
Now, in order to rehydrate properly you should drink room temperature water or warm water because the body can absorb that type of water faster. If someone is severely dehydrated they should add a pinch of sea salt in their water to make it even easier to rehydrate. Avoid distilled water because distilled water has no minerals in it and just goes right through the body without any of it being absorbed. Avoid cold water or ice water because that just shocks the body and you just end up going to the bathroom with very little being absorbed. People that are severely dehydrated from being in the desert they are first given warm water because they know that is the easiest way to quickly rehydrate a person.
– Dr. Kevin Kita, Chiropractor, Author, International Speaker, and Radio Host