5 Deadly Complications Due to Left Dehydration

The suggestion to drink eight glasses of water every day must be familiar to your ears. Do you comply with these recommendations? If so, lucky. You mean having a lower risk of dehydration, aka lack of fluids.

In fact, the human body consists of 70 percent fluid. Every percent of the fluid serves to help the body's organs to function properly. So, when the body is in a state of lack of fluids or dehydration, the performance of important organs will experience disruption, it can even stop functioning altogether.

Dehydration and deadly complications behind it

The liquid in the body can come out in the form of sweat, urine, breath steam, or feces. If you are unable to replace the fluid that comes out due to the process, it is not impossible that dehydration will occur later.

When you are in a dehydrated state, you will experience the following symptoms:

Excessive thirst

Body is weak and tired

Dry skin

Tears don't come out

Sunken eyes

Sunken crown (in children)

The degree of skin elasticity (turgor) decreases

Lips and dry mouth

Dizzy

Decreased frequency and amount of urination

Urine is deep yellow

Decreased blood pressure

Pulse rate increases

When you feel the symptoms as above, you are advised to drink water immediately. If this is not the case and dehydration lasts for a long time, you have a very high risk of experiencing complications like the following:

1. Kidney failure

One important function of the kidneys is to remove metabolic waste substances that are not needed by the body through urine production. When dehydrated, these residual substances will still accumulate in the body and can cause muscle protein blockage (myoglobin) in the kidneys.

Do not stop there, dehydration can also cause kidney stones and urinary tract infections. In advanced conditions, these conditions can lead to kidney failure.

2. Disruption of electrolyte balance

Electrolytes are needed by the body to deliver electrical signals between cells. When dehydrated, the amount of electrolytes will decrease and cause the process to experience interference. In the end, what happens next is a heart rhythm disorder, irregular heart contractions, to seizures.

3. Shock

Lack of body fluids can cause a decrease in blood pressure. If blood pressure drops very dramatically, what will happen is shock.

Shock is an emergency condition that requires immediate help, because the condition can cause disruption of the supply of oxygen and nutrients to all important organs in the body.

4. Decreased awareness

Dehydration can cause blood circulation ― which is rich in oxygen and nutrients ― is impaired. This situation causes vital organs to not work properly. In the end, what happens is a decrease in consciousness, even into the comma phase.

5. Death

A decrease in consciousness until the coma phase due to dehydration that is not immediately overcome can cause various important organs in the body to completely stop functioning. When it's like this, death is no longer possible.

Knowing that dehydration can cause various deadly complications, you should always strive to meet daily fluid needs. One way is to consume water. In addition, try also to combine these behaviors with the application of a healthy lifestyle at all times. Thus, you don't need to worry about dehydration and the deadly conditions that are behind it.