Hydration

[Richie]

Since the original query has become immersed in nappies and condoms .........
How can you assess whether you are adequately hydrated, Apart from the obvious lack of craving for beer etc?

[Gavin Yates]

The piss test ...

Urine should clear or slightly coloured. If it's darkly coloured then you're dehydrated.

Hydration is NOT a good swig on the boat 20mins before entry but the lead up days to diving.

I have made the mistake of getting lashed on a Thursday and then trying to half-heartedly rehydrate on the Friday to get narked on a relatively shallow dive on the Saturday.

I don't get narked if I'm properly hydrated until around 40m and even then it's plenty copable. If I'm dehydrated then 25m can feel really uncomfortable.

[Dr Stevil]

There are a variety of medical methods to assess hydration status, but obviously as divers we need something more suited to "the field": a few of the more practical methods would be to monitor urine output, especially colour - low output with darkish colour indicates dehydration. Another is the condition of your mucous membranes (lungs, mouth nose etc) this is a bit difficult for self assessment but if your nose feels dry and irritable inside, or you have an irritable cough with increased air intake it could indicate some dehydration. Another is "capillary refil time, eg press on your finger nail or pinch some skin (which has a good blood supply) for a couple of seconds, then let go and see how long it takes for the colour to come back, over 3 seconds capillary refil suggests up to 10% dehydration.

If we belive the "8 glasses a day" idea , most of us are likely to be dehydrated most of the time, incidentally that idea is just that - an idea - there have not yet been any good studies to back it up with hard data, but if we're aiming for 8 and fall short we should be fine.

HTH
Steve  

[Ben Harris]

Get some army surplus rehydration packs if you have been out on the piss. Used to use them climbing. Dead horrible but effective. Possibly bad for you though. Also great for hangovers.

[Ian Daly]

Hi Ben,

As my old troop sgt used to say " If you aint pissin' clear water every hour I wanna know why!" - I personally don't want to know but it seems like a pretty good system.  If you do dring plenty of water ensure that you don't enter dilutional hyponatraemia.  Keep your electrolyte levels up with bananas of if needed Diorlyte in a glass of water.  

HTH

Ian Daly

[Mr T.]

Oh Shite,

You mean your pish is supposed to be clear??!! So pishing neat Jamiesons' pre-dive no good for ya?? Woops.

[Ben Harris]

Bren, its what your body is used to. Personally my liver has toxic shock attacks when water runs through it. It needs 40 proof now to run effectively!

Yours is probably on white spirits by now!!

[Lawrence Debono]

How is your tap water in England? I suppose it varies from area to area. Haven't been there for 20 years myself.

In my town "Guelph", the water has a lot of minerals and calcium. In fact everyone uses softeners to take the minerals out. That makes it undrinkable and the chemicals have an awful taste. All I drink now is bottled water. We got good local beer too :-)

We have an advantage when diving up in lake Huron, we can take short sips during diving. I wouldn't do it anywhere else especially in shipping lanes or near the industrial areas around Hamilton or Toronto.

Lawrence

[PaulC]

Ho ho! Thought you meant sips of beer for a moment there, Lawrence - I've only ever seen that done in the Red Sea (by a German, yes) and although I love a jar it's one thing I won't do.
As for hydration I don't disagree with any of the above but I'm not sure about the 8 glasses or 2 litres or whatever the recommendation is: I actually drink very little (in the way of soft drinks!) if I'm not exercising (workdays are the exception when I need the caffeine to keep me alert and interested in my exciting and well remunerated job); when I am exercising I tend simply to respond to thirst stimuli. I am fully aware that that is pas recommande, not what the books say and so on: I say that simply to add my 2 cents.
Paul