Fall is here, but healthcare professionals say the risk of dehydration is still with us. Colder weather reportedly reduces your body’s ability to know when you’re thirsty. Dr. Brett Bentley, a physician at University Medical Center and associate professor at the University of Alabama, said the most common way to check how hydrated you are is by doing the urine color test.
“You want your urine to be as close to clear as possible. If it's any shade of yellow, you are probably not adequately hydrated, and so we preach the importance of just drinking enough fluids make sure that your urine is clear. And you really should be urinating almost every hour on the hour. That's a good sign that you are well hydrated, he said.
However, there are other ways to check if someone is dehydrated, including pre and post workout weight checks and the skin turgor test.
“One of the other ways to kind of check it, that we do at Alabama, but I think a lot of our high schools do it as well, is checking pre and post workout weight measurements. And so the goal should be that you only lose about 2% of your body weight over an intense practice or an intense workout. And so the way that you can prevent that excessive weight loss is by having plenty of fluid intake during the practice or during the workout,” Dr. Bentley continued.
Hydrating early and often is a way to help prevent heat related illnesses. Dr. Bentley said the reason many athletes experience muscle cramps is because they are not hydrating properly before games.
“The problem with most of these athletes is they just really started drinking adequately, the morning of the game and making sure they get good salt intake the morning of the game. It really starts 48 to 72 hours beforehand,” he explained. “So it's not what you're doing on game day that's going to prevent muscle cramps and other exertional heat illnesses. It's what you're doing on Tuesday and Wednesday early in the week… Water is obviously the easiest thing to get, the cheapest thing to get, but you want to make sure you get plenty of electrolytes too. Whether that's Gatorade, Powerade, Pedialyte and just increase salt in your diet as well.”
