The Second Kryptonite: Hypohydration

We have all heard people tell us that we do not drink enough water; I am a repeat criminal myself when it comes to staying hydrated. Hydration is an important aspect of performance in all aspects, whether athletic, at work, at school, even focusing on making dinner at home. Since water makes up at least two-thirds of the body, water is the most essential thing the body needs for survival…yet our brains only trigger the feeling of thirst well after we have fallen below the amount of water our body needs! That is why the second Kryptonite in this series is called “hypohydration”, which is a state in when the body is 1-5% under its proper hydration level. 

Hypohydration and How it Weakens the Human Body

Our second human weakness focuses on the lack of water. I won’t focus so much on dehydration as much as I will hypohydration, because it is easier to recognize when you are dehydrated. The Position Statement of the National Athletic Trainers Association says that both a lack of adequate fluid replacement, or “hypohydration”, and excessive intake, or “hyperhydration”, can compromise athletic performance and increase health risks. Hypohydration, even at a modest level of 2%, can compromise athletic performance, maximization of the transfer of metabolic heat, mood, and recovery from exercise. Extreme deviations on either end of the physiological range can compromise health and organ function.

The Position Statement also notes that more than 50% of athletes at all competitive levels (youth through professional) arrive to workouts hypohydrated. When access to fluids based on thirst and voluntary fluid intake is adequate during activity, humans replace roughly 2/3 of sweat losses. Maintaining hydration status with minimal variation (+/- 1%) allows the body to optimally thermoregulate and maintain cardiovascular function. You would think that a small deviation would not make that much of a difference in performance, however some studies help prove otherwise. For more information from the Position Statement, visit their link here.

(Photo Credit: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/8/1866/htm)

According to the article “Dehydration and What It Does to Your Muscles and Body”, water makes up 73% of the brain and heart, 64% of skin, 79% of muscles and kidneys, and 31% of bones. Because water makes up a large portion of muscles, dehydration lowers their performance and elasticity, decreasing the efficiency of the muscle performance. Dehydration can also make pain levels worse, usually taking the form of headaches, muscle aches, arthritic pains, back pains, and more. This creates a weakness in both the deep muscle support system and the human spring, which will reduce the amount of weight you can carry and the amount of force you can absorb. This weakness also forces those same systems to work harder to do the same work, so it is important to keep adequate hydration levels to ensure you keep your superpowers!

Hypohydration also has a mental effect; a in certain study to determine the effects of dehydration on drivers, it was found that the dehydrated drivers showed similar patterns to those driving under the influence of alcohol (unnecessary lane shifting, delayed reaction time in braking). This is because the brain is largely made of water! So if the brain is responsible for tuning the muscles for impact to the human spring and activating the deep muscle system for joint support, a lower hydration state would cause a slight delayed reaction time in tuning, making the human spring and deep muscles even less effective than the loss of muscle elasticity.  You can read more of this article here.

How to Avoid the Kryptonite Hypohydration

The best way to avoid the Kryptonite of Hypohydration is to have a regular water intake routine. In the article “Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You’re Dehydrated”, it mentions that a human’s thirst mechanism falls behind the actual level of hydration. It is common that athletes are not trained to drink water when they are not thirsty. If our brains are not telling us to drink more water, then they will be focused on something else, most likely on school, work, or other things we stress about. The link for this article is found here. 

(Photo Credit: https://www.successfitness.ca/10-ways-to-increase-your-water-intake/)

Another reason to have a regular fluid intake routine is because of the effects of dehydrated tissues over time. In the study “Rehydration Capacities and Rates for Various Porcine Tissues after Dehydration”, the researchers’ results suggested that the initial level of dehydration plays a role in the ability of tissues to rehydrate. The results additionally found that significant decreases in the liquid mass fraction after complete rehydration were found in lung, tendon, fat, and muscle tissue when previously experiencing a 30% - 40% loss in mass from dehydration. Basically, if a tissue becomes too dehydrated, it may permanently lose its capacity to rehydrate to the initial liquid volume. This will have a lasting impact on the human spring and deep muscle system. Lastly, hydration behaviors varied between tissue types, meaning different tissues will rehydrate faster than others. This further necessitates the need for proper fluid replacement practices.

Keeping the proper amount of water running through your body is important to keep it functioning at full capacity! Even though sports drinks claim they help with a full hydration, water is still the most essential fluid your body needs to function. Normally I hear the recommendation to drink your body weight in ounces, however if you are falling behind you should probably drink more. Your body will rehydrate, but it takes time; that’s why it is important to drink plenty of water before a competition or hard training day. Hypohydration is easy to come back from, but the next kryptonite, muscle imbalances, will be a little tougher to avoid.