What are the home remedies for Dehydration?

When we looses much fluid than we intake then our body gets dehydrated. Every single cell of our body needs water and oxygen to perform its functions properly. Generally people gets dehydrated when they suffers from vigorous exercise in hot weather, diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating and increased urination. If dehydration is not treated on time, it may leads to serious complications. Here we have listed some of the useful home remedies for dehydration.

What are the home remedies of dehydration?

Increase the consumption of water

This is the very first step to deal with dehydration. You should increase the consumption of water intake. Drinking much water is generally enough to rehydrate the body of an adult. You should drink sufficient amount of water even if you are not feeling thirsty.

ü Have small amounts of water & clear fluid for the entire day.

ü Consume carbohydrate or electrolyte containing drinks.

ü Suck on popsicles made up of juices and sports drinks.

ü Suck on freeze water bottles or ice cubes on regular intervals.

Have homemade Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS)

Restoration of lost fluid & minerals on regular basis is very important when anyone gets dehydrated. You can prepare a homemade ORS to restore the lost fluid & minerals from your body. 

ü Take 4 cups of drinking water and add ½ tsp of salt & 6 tsp of sugar into it.

ü Stir thoroughly till the sugar & salt completely dissolve in water.

ü Drink this homemade ORS several times in a day until you recover from dehydration completely.

Yogurt, an effective remedy

Yogurt is an effective home remedy for dehydration caused due to diarrhea or vomiting. Yogurt is enriched with electrolytes. It soothes the stomach and is an easily digestible food.

ü Have a small bowl of yogurt for few times in a day. You can also add a little amount of cottage cheese in yogurt.

ü You can also have plain boiled rice with yogurt and little amount of salt in it.

Water-enriched fruits & vegetables

When you are suffering from mild dehydration then you should add water-enriched fruits & vegetables in your diet. According to a study, water-enriched fruits & vegetables hydrate our body twice as effectively as a glass of water does. These fruits & vegetables have hydrating salt, minerals & sugars, hence they functions similar to isotonic drinks used by athletes.

Some of the water-enriched fruits & vegetables are- watermelon, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, papaya, lettuce, spinach, tomato, cucumber, celery, radish and zucchini.

Banana treats dehydration

Eating banana is a very good home remedy to treat mild dehydration. When anyone suffers from dehydration, he/she looses minerals from his/her body such as potassium. Banana is a very good source of potassium, hence you should add banana in your diet to restore this important mineral in your body. Apart from this, consumption of banana also helps in restoring normal functions of cramped muscles that has been occurred due to excessive loss of water in the body.

ü Eat one to two bananas in a day to restore lost mineral.

ü You can also have banana in the form of banana smoothies.

Rehydrate your body with coconut water

Coconut water is a very good home remedy for dehydration. It contains high electrolytes that make it quite hydrating drink. Coconut water is also low in calorie & sugar. If you are suffering from dehydration then you should drink coconut milk a few times in a day to rehydrate your body.

Healthy drink, buttermilk

Buttermilk is a helpful remedy to deal with dehydration. Buttermilk supplies important minerals lost during excessive sweating which is one of the main causes of dehydration.

ü Drink a glass of buttermilk a few times a day to recover the lost minerals from your body.

ü You can also mix ½ tsp of dry ginger into a cup of buttermilk and drink it for few times a day.

Lemon water, an excellent remedy

Lemon water is another important remedy to treat dehydration. This helps in soothing and hydrating your body. Along with this, lemon water also provides you energy and refreshment.

ü Take a glass of water and add the juice of ½ a lemon.

ü Now mix 1 tsp of raw honey, ½ tsp of black pepper powder and a pinch of salt.

ü Drink this refreshing drink at regular intervals of time in a day.

What are the complications involved with Dehydration?

Dehydration occurs when we lose excess fluid than our intake and our body does not have enough fluid to perform normal functions. If we do not replace the lost fluid from our body then we get dehydrated. There are many complications may caused due to dehydration. Let’s have a look on few complications may caused due to dehydration. 

Complications involved with Dehydration

May lead to heat injury

It is very important that we drink enough fluid during workout, if we do not do so then it may cause heat injury. Scarcity of fluid in our body may also lead to some serious issues such as from mild heat cramps to heat exhaustion or potential life-threatening heatstroke. Doing exercise everyday is a very good habit no doubt but do not forget to replace the amount of fluid lost from your body. 

May cause cerebral edema (Swelling of brain)

In some cases it happens that when you are getting liquid again after being dehydrated, your body tries to pull excess fluid back into the cells. This may leads to swelling in some cells. The consequences may be severe when the brain cells swells up. 

May lead seizures

Electrolyte (such as Potassium & Sodium) is a very important component that carries electrical signals from one cell to another. If you have imbalanced electrolytes composition then the normal electrical messages can be mixed up which may cause involuntary muscle contractions or in some cases may also lose consciousness. 

May cause hypovolemic shock (Low blood volume shock)

Low blood volume shock is one of the most severe complications of dehydration. In some cases it may become life-threatening complication as well. This situation occurs when low blood volume lead to decrease in blood pressure & also decreases the amount of oxygen in our body.

May lead to Kidney failure

This is one more serious health issue may caused by dehydration. Kidney failure due to dehydration may happen when our kidney is not able to remove excess fluid & wastes from the body.

Sometimes may cause coma & death

If dehydration is not treated properly on time, it may cause serious health issues. Sometimes in severe cases the patient may go into coma and sometimes may cause death also.

What causes Dehydration?

When our body does not have enough water to replace the lost water throughout the day then our body gets dehydrated. Our system gets dries out. In some cases dehydration may cause due to simple reasons such as when you do not drink enough of water. There may be any reason for not drinking enough water such as if you are busy, if you are travelling, if you are camping etc. Some of the other causes of dehydration are as follows.

What causes Dehydration?

Due to diarrhea or Vomiting 

When diarrhea comes on sudden & violent then it is a severe kind of diarrhea. In this kind of severe diarrhea our body looses lots of water & electrolytes in short span of time. If anyone starts vomiting along with diarrhea then his body loses even more tremendous amount of water & minerals. In this condition our body gets into severity, especially kids & infants. Diarrhea can be caused due to bacterial & viral infections, food sensitivity, any kind of reaction to medication or a bowel disorder.

Due to fever 

Generally, when we have high fever the chances become more for to become dehydrated. If anyone has fever including diarrhea & vomiting then he loose even more fluid & minerals from his body. 

Due to excess sweating 

Loss of water during sweating is a very common reason for loosing fluid from our body. If you do hard activities & do not replace the lost water during activity then you may become dehydrated. Most commonly hot & humid weather enhances the amount of sweating & the fluid you lose. However, in winter also we may get dehydrated if the lost fluid has not been replaced. Hence it is very important that we replace accurate amount of water or fluid that we have lost throughout the day to prevent dehydration. 

Due to enhanced urination 

Dehydration can also be caused because of undiagnosed & excessive diabetes. There are few medications (such as diuretics & some medications for blood pressure) that may also cause dehydration. Excessive diabetes & certain medications generally lead to urinate more than normal.