Water is an essential nutrient for all persons; thus, maintaining a chronic state of optimal hydration is recognized to provide health benefits. Fluid balance is maintained via thirst, a feedback-controlled variable, regulated acutely by central and peripheral mechanisms. However, voluntary drinking is also a behavior influenced by numerous social and psychological cues. Therefore, whether "thirst-guided" [...]
Studying the effects of dehydration on cognitive function presents a variety of unique and difficult challenges to investigators. These challenges, which are addressed in this article, can be divided into three general categories: 1) choosing an appropriate method of generating a consistent level of dehydration; 2) determining and effectively employing appropriate and sensitive measures of [...]
This review presents recommendations for fluid needs and hydration assessment for recreational activity. Fluid needs are based on sweat losses, dependent on intensity and duration of the activity, and will vary among individuals. Prolonged aerobic activity is adversely influenced by dehydration, and heat exposure will magnify this effect. Fluid needs predicted for running 5-42 km at [...]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23252054
Personal recollections of dehydration meltdowns during the Kona Ironman Triathlon, reflections on their cause, and the author's experiential recommendations regarding hydration, prevention of dehydration, and "beat the heat and humidity" measures. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23147099n
PURPOSE: This work combines and reanalyzes five years of exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) research at 161-km ultramarathons in northern California with primary purposes to define the relationship between post-race blood sodium concentration ([Na]) and change in body weight, examine the interactions among EAH incidence, ambient temperature and hydration state, and explore the effect of hydration status [...]
The skin is a barrier membrane that separates environments with profoundly different water contents. The barrier properties are assured by the outer layer of the skin, the stratum corneum (SC), which controls the transepidermal water loss. The SC acts as a responding membrane, since its hydration and permeability vary with the boundary condition, which is [...]
Attention on beverage intake, specifically sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), has increased in recent years. A brief valid, reliable and sensitive assessment tool for quantifying beverage consumption and determining its influence on weight status could help to advance research on this topic. The valid and reliable 15-item beverage questionnaire (BEVQ-15) estimates mean daily intake of water, SSB [...]
Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is characterized by nutrient malabsorption and occurs following surgical resection, congenital defect, or disease of the bowel. The severity of SBS depends on the length and anatomy of the bowel resected and the health of the remaining tissue. During the 2 years following resection, the remnant bowel undergoes an adaptation [...]
Good fluid intake in children is vitally important as they have immature thirst mechanisms, relatively high rates of fluid loss and are physically active. Poor fluid intake may affect children's cognitive functioning as well as bladder control. Research shows that children drink seven times as much soft drink as water. Schools have a vital role [...]