JJB Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 I have had an overactive bladder for 19 years. I am confident I have been dehydrating myself almost daily since that time...it is incredibly difficult to function in life if you're headed to the bathroom every 10-15 min. However, I have not noticed any negative effects from this. I have always made sure I had water during exercise or other times that I was sweating a lot, but that was pretty much it. I used to drink 2-3 diet sodas per day. For the last year and a half, most days I've been drinking a small cup of coffee in the morning, and 1 or 2 cans of seltzer. I rarely felt any thirst unless I ate something really salty. My naturopath recently had me get a pretty comprehensive blood test done, and there were several red flags pointing to dehydration. She is sort of insisting that I drink 60 ounces of water a day now (per the standard recommendation here, I should be drinking ~70). I've kept it up for 2 weeks, but it's bordering on torture! Oddly, I am thirsty more often now, and I have become somewhat constipated almost every day. I'm not feeling any magical benefits. Does anyone have any motivation to offer, other than the vague "water is good for you" mantra? If nothing bad happened after 19 years, maybe I've just adapted to living on less! If you have any personal experience with this...like maybe "my life became perfect 3 months after I started drinking water," please share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andria Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 Well, I do think that if your blood tests revealed several abnormalities that indicate dehydration you can't really say that your body has adapted on less water. You definitely won't function optimally while dehydrated. It would have been best for you to have increased to that 60 oz gradually. It sounds like what you are experiencing is medullary washout in your kidneys. So, if you went from virtually drinking nothing to that 60 oz you likely washed out the natural pressure gradient in your kidneys by flushing out important solutes/minerals. This in turn will cause you to lose more water (because of the loss of pressure gradient) the more water you drink thus resulting in excess thirst and constipation (your colon is resorbing more water to compensate for water lost through your kidneys). So, in short you want to increase you salt intake and can add remineralizing drops to your water especially if you are drinking filtered water (most especially reverse osmosis water). Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJB Posted June 1, 2014 Author Share Posted June 1, 2014 Well, I do think that if your blood tests revealed several abnormalities that indicate dehydration you can't really say that your body has adapted on less water. You definitely won't function optimally while dehydrated. I know, I know...I'm trying to talk myself out of "needing" to drink all this godawful water! It sounds like what you are experiencing is medullary washout in your kidneys. So, if you went from virtually drinking nothing to that 60 oz you likely washed out the natural pressure gradient in your kidneys by flushing out important solutes/minerals. That is very interesting, thank you! I'm just drinking water filtered by my fridge. I think you're right, I should have increased gradually. My poor kidneys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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