Dehydration is Responsible for More Than You Think

Do you know the signs of dehydration?
Dehydration is very common on Keto and Atkins
Here's an extensive dehydration symptoms list

Do you have any of the symptoms of dehydration?

When I was living in Utah and the humidity rose too high or a storm moved into the area, I suffered with a lot of:

• dizziness
• vertigo
• inner-ear swelling
• ear pressure
• and ear pain

Because of that, I started experimenting a bit with drinking less water to see if that would help me any.

Both Atkins and Keto recommend that you drink plenty of water when in the state of dietary or nutritional ketosis, but I wasn't sure if that was the best thing for me to do.

I had no clue that the above short list were all symptoms of dehydration, and not signs of drinking too much water.

Prior to this experiment, I'd been drinking about a gallon of water a day!

I know that sounds like a lot -- four 32-ounce cups of water per day -- and for someone with Meniere's Disease it was. It made my ears swell, so I was in quite a bit of pain by the time I got to the last quart.

The water I was drinking was in addition to the amount of diet soda I had per day, but I was cutting back on the amount of caffeinated soda I was drinking, so I didn't realize that I was disrupting my fluid balance.

Effect of Dehydration on the Inner Ear

The inner ear is a fluid-filled system, so it is greatly affected by dehydration. 

Fluid balance is maintained by charged particles called ions that travel across the membranes of the inner ear. This fluid helps you maintain your balance and also transmits sound.

The inner ear needs adequate blood flow to supply the nutrients for fluid homeostasis. Dehydration causes blood flow to go down because blood volume decreases, creating mineral imbalances.

Mineral imbalances lead to:

• dizziness
• tinnitus
• a feeling of fullness in the ears
• hearing loss
• loud rushing sounds
• loss of coordination and balance
• nystagmus

These are also typical symptoms of Meniere's disease, caused by water fluctuations in the inner ear.

The ear sends a signal to the brain that says you're moving, while the eyes send a different message to the brain.

It's the conflict between the brain and ear that results in the dizziness that's felt by those with Meniere's disease or vestibular dysfunction.

The inner ear contains a sac that floats within a thin layer of fluid. Inside the sac is more fluid, but of a different kind. If these two fluids get mixed together, it will create serious problems.

Meniere's disease is thought to be caused by an imbalance between the two fluids, with too much fluid building up inside the sac and causing the sac to swell.

This is called endolymphatic hydrops.

Meniere's disease is a problem outside of the brain and brain stem because it's the ear that is mis-communicating with the brain, due to the inflammation and potential lacerations of the ear structures.

This condition is progressive.

Unfortunately, there is no treatment that can stop the progression.

Vestibular migraines are known as central vertigo and this is a problem with the brain stem itself, rather than the structures of the inner ear.

While typically a migraine instigates a headache, atypical migraine causes neurological symptoms, such as weakness, tingling, numbness, and dizziness because communication between the brain and nervous system is disrupted.

The brainstem contains the body's centers for balance, including the relays for all of the information sent to the brain from the inner ear, so vertigo is a common symptom that something is wrong with your posterior circulation, such as a blood clot.

Autoimmune conditions can also cause damage to the inner ear or the brain stem and result in vertigo and progressive hearing loss.

Physical trauma, where the head is hit, can also result in an injury to the brain stem. Vertigo may come and go, during the post-traumatic period, resulting in pressure to the inner ear, and eventually lead to Meniere's Disease.

Additional causes of dizziness include:

• alcohol intake
• epilepsy
• heat exposure like heat stroke
• hypothermia
• insulin emergency
• oxygen deficiency, like shortness of breath
• uremia (toxin build up due to kidney failure)
• trauma, like shock or head injury
• infection
• psychosis
• poisoning
• stroke

As you can see, dehydration isn't the only cause of these symptoms.

For example, vestibular neuritis, also known as labyrinthitis, is thought to be inflammation of the vestibular nerve provoked by a virus, but there isn't a lot of science to back up that theory.

The vestibular nerve does become inflamed, affecting your hearing, but no one really knows why. Anti-inflammatory medications are often used to treat it, rather than anti-viral medications.

As far as the dizziness and fullness in my inner ear is concerned:

Drinking less water did help me initially, but if I cut down too much, it only made other things worse. Plus, if the humidity is very high, the humidity causes my ears to swell and hurt, no matter how little water I drink.

Here, in Texas, the pressure on my ears from living too close to the mountains is now gone.

My ears do not always feel stopped up. Only when the wet weather is continuous. The vertigo is in remission and the brain fog has faded, but dehydration continues to be a big problem for me.

And I'm still having trouble with my ears. They are itching a lot more than they used to.

One of the first things I noticed when I first wrote this post was that I was getting consistent headaches, especially after moving back into a low carb, protein-sparing modified fast (PSMF) diet.

I'd heard that headaches could be a sign of dehydration, and since initial weight loss from restricting carbs is mainly due to water and glycogen, I thought I'd do a little more research on dehydration to see what I could find out.

What are the Symptoms of Dehydration?

Induction headaches are often caused by
dehydration instead of carbohydrate withdrawals

Many folks believe Induction headaches are caused by sugar and caffeine withdrawals.

Other people believe that the Atkins Flu or Keto Flu is caused by an imbalance of electrolytes, which can be corrected by simply taking supplements or eating more sodium.

Since electrolyte imbalance can be caused by dehydration, I wanted to see how much dehydration contributes to these flu-like symptoms that are so common during the first month on a ketogenic diet.

I was really surprised to find out just how much can be attributed to dehydration instead of unbalanced electrolytes.

We hear all the time that as low carbers we NEED to drink plenty of water, at least half of our current weight in water, which for me would be three 32-ounce glasses of water per day, instead of four.

The most common reason given for drinking that much water is to flush out excess ketones and help the body mobilize and process body fat.

However, dehydration is responsible for far more symptoms than most low carbers think.

The list of symptoms of dehydration is pretty long, but is basically consistent over all the web pages and articles that I have looked at.

Of interest to me was the fact that in general, low carbers believe that many of these symptoms are thought to be caused by something other than dehydration.

For example:

A complaint of muscle cramps will generally come with the advice to up your potassium, when the best advice would be to get all of your electrolytes -- sodium, magnesium, and calcium, as well as potassium, plus water intake -- into BALANCE.

A complaint of a loss of skin tone and/or loose, wrinkly skin will generally result in people telling you to up your dietary fats. But these are signs of dehydration, too.

So here's the lengthy list of dehydration symptoms for you to take a look at:

• urine that is dark yellow
• fatigue
• feeling wasted
• headaches or head pounding
• dry mouth
• depression
• retching
• dry mucus membranes
• feeling light-headed
• dizziness
• ears feel plugged up; difficulty hearing
• difficulties seeing and focusing
• stomach cramps
• low blood pressure
• rapid heart beat
• weakness
• inability to sleep
• slow thinking
• fever
• sunken eyes
• whole body aches
• shivering or chills
• cold sweats
• dry flushed skin
• muscle cramps with extreme muscle pain
• loss of skin tone and/or loose skin and/or wrinkles
• constipation
• confusion
• ringing in the ears (tinnitis)
• loss of balance and coordination
• difficulties communicating properly
• delirium
• flu-like symptoms, similar to a hangover
• difficulties swallowing
• chapped lips
• wrinkled hands
• very dry skin, skin has a flaky appearance
• ear aches and ear pain
• crying without tears
• excessive mucus
• stuffed up sinuses
• hunger goes up

In addition to the above symptoms, I also discovered that dehydration causes or contributes to:

• rheumatoid joint pain
• arthritis in general (due to a water shortage in the joint)
• low back pain and arthritis of the spine (due to a water shortage in the spine and disks)
• angina (due to a water shortage in the heart and lungs axis)
• migraines (due to a water shortage in the brain and eyes)
• asthma (caused by drought management programs of the body).
• atrial fibrillation

With asthma, which particularly caught my attention, since I suffer from that too, free passage of air is obstructed, due to the inflammation, so water doesn't leave the body in the form of vapor.

Issues With Salt and Sodium

Here's another interesting tidbit.

Asthmatics, as well as those on low-carb diets, NEED extra salt. Salt breaks down the mucus plugs in the lungs that obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.

The common advice given among low carbers is to cut down on salt and sodium intake, due to potential water retention or glycogen storage after a cheat.

This might NOT be the best advice for everyone.

In fact, if you suffer with asthma like I do, and are trying to low carb at the same time, it can even be detrimental.

What Causes Dehydration?

The thing about dehydration is that thirst is not the only, or even the first sign, of dehydration. By the time you're actually thirsty, you're already dehydrated.

Common causes of dehydration include:

• being too busy to drink
• you dislike water
• water is not available
• you have frequent diarrhea
• frequent vomiting
• excessive sweating
• continuous fever
• pre-diabetes and diabetes 
• frequent urination
• antihistamine medications
• antipsychotic medications
• skin burns

In addition, hyperthyroidism is also a problem. Rapid transit time of anything you eat or drink can contribute to dehydration. If food and beverages race through your system, then water won't be absorbed properly.

Any condition like celiac disease or hyperthyroidism that affects your ability to absorb nutrients or fluids through the intestinal wall can create serious problems with dehydration.

Hot flashes can also contribute to dehydration because the body will have to use more bodily fluids to cool itself down.

Allergy meds make you dehydrate faster than normal, especially if you take them every day instead of just when you need them.

Alcohol and caffeine do the exact same thing, so if you're suffering from dehydration, you'll want to cut way back on alcohol and caffeinated drinks.

Risks go up when you:

• live in a higher altitude
• participate in athletics
• play sports
• have a chronic illness
• drink alcohol
• have chronic diarrhea and/or vomiting
• are on medications
• are an older adult

Diarrhea is the most common cause of dehydration, but of interest for those on low-carb diets is that higher blood sugar levels increase urination, and therefore, fluid losses -- along with the normal tendency for the kidneys to excrete extra sodium and potassium due to the state of nutritional ketosis.

Why You Need to Set Up a Good Water-Drinking Plan

If you are on a low-carb diet, you need to make sure that you have a healthy water drinking plan in place, and that you are following that plan.

In fact, this is a good idea for everyone, and not just for those who are doing low carb. As you can see from the symptoms above, many people do not drink enough water.

Water has many roles in the body, and you need to provide that water; otherwise, your health will suffer and your body's ability to mobilize body fat will be severely impaired.

Nutrients and oxygen are transported in the blood stream, so you need your blood volume to be adequate to do that, and you also need enough blood volume to be able to remove wastes and toxins by elimination.

Water is how the mouth makes saliva, so a lack of water affects oral health, as well.

Since water is inside each cell, water contributes to the cell's ability to provide energy. This is why you get tired if you don't drink enough water.

High blood pressure is very common in people who are chronically dehydrated. And high blood pressure places a lot of stress on the body.

The amount of exercise you get, daily temperature of your environment, and the state of your health all affect just how much water you need to drink on a daily basis.

The brain is about 75% water, as well as every other cell in your body, so when you don't drink enough, the dehydration results in histamine being produced. And histamine causes a lot of pain.

Granted, histamine isn't the only reason you get headaches, nor is dehydration necessarily the only reason you get any of the other above symptoms, but the thing to remember is this:

Pain of any type is your body's way of putting out a cry for help.

SOMETHING IS WRONG either physically, mentally, or emotionally.

But most people tend to medicate the pain and ignore its root cause far too often.

Just because the pain disappears when you take a pill (now that you've told it to shut up by feeding it a pain reliever medication) that doesn't mean the problem has been solved.

You have only pushed the problem off into a corner where you don't have to deal with the real cause anymore.

If you don't sweat very often, this is a sign that your body is trying to conserve the water it already has. Along with being inside each and every body cell, water is around every body cell and in your blood vessels, so water makes up the majority of your bloodstream.

When the body gets too hot, you sweat to cool down.

However, if you sweat too much, that can actually cause dehydration because you're losing more water than you're replacing.

The body can redistribute the water it has to systems that need it most, but that won't be to help you lose body fat. In fact, dehydration will slow down your metabolism and interfere with fat oxidation, which will work against your low-carb diet, rather than help it.

Probably, the most detrimental aspect of dehydration is that when you are in this condition, the body is unable to eliminate toxic wastes, so the toxins accumulate and cause all kinds of havoc, especially inflammation.

When you reach the point where you're actually suffering from about a 2% loss of body fluid, overall, your physical and mental performance can be reduced by as much as 20%!!!

Water seems to be something that many people think they drink a lot of, when in reality, they don't.

I saw this very clearly when my in-laws told me that they drink a lot of water, but when I watched exactly how much they drink, it wasn't very much at all.

To them, a bottle of water was one of those small, 8-ounce bottles. A single cupful. And they were trying to do low carb by drinking maybe 5 or 6 of those a day, thinking that was a lot.

If you're dehydrated, you need to correct the problem.

So the point is this:

If you are not keeping track of just how much water you're drinking, you might not be drinking enough. And it's really hard to get back into the habit of drinking plenty of water once you've fallen out of the habit.

It's like starting all over again.

Drinking plenty of water really needs to become a permanent lifestyle change. Not just because you're low carbing, but because it's one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.