5 Tips to stay hydrated during the summer heat

It’s ice cream and lemonade season! But it’s also the season of heat waves, sunburn and dehydration. To live this summer to its fullest, the following are some tips to stay hydrated:

1. Drink water: Water makes up 60% of our body. It stimulates biochemical reactions, discards waste, stabilises the heartbeat, supplies nutrients to all organs, maintains body temperature, aids digestion, forestalls constipation, enhances blood circulation, and cushions our joints and tissues. All of these tasks come to a halt when you don’t drink water, or rather enough of it. Our body requires more water than usual during hot summers, so ensuring at least 13 cups of water daily is indispensable. Mobilising multiple sources of hydration is how one can live in hot HYDRATED summers.
2. Cooling down: Staying hydrated is more than just drinking water; it means modulating your body temperature. During hot summers, we are more vulnerable to heatstroke. It’s essential to avoid overheating your body by consuming liquids at regular breaks, wearing light and loose-fitting clothes, avoiding dark-coloured clothes, and staying indoors during the afternoons when the sun is high. Don’t forget to pack a water bottle wherever you go this summer vacation.
3. Steer clear of anti-hydrating liquids: Liquids like coffee, energy drinks, sugary soda, beer, alcohol, lemonade, flavoured milk, smoothies, and sweet tea do the opposite of hydration. They contain sugar, sodium, and other ingredients that dehydrate our tissues, and avoiding such liquids is advisable by experts at Sancheti Hospital, Pune. If we have them anyway, drinking enough water after finishing them is recommended.
4. Fancy water: Plain old H2O may sound tedious. Sometimes adding a little razzle-dazzle to your water is vital to keeping you hydrated. Slices of lemon, lime and oranges make your glass look more inviting, enhancing its taste by infusing the water with fresh berries, pineapples, lemon, and cucumber. One can even freeze them inside ice cubes and plop them in the drink as one goes. Fresh mint leaves, basil, ginger, rosemary or cilantro also add a rejuvenating glow to our water. These natural preservative-free flavours will make you feel like a flamboyant health guru.
5. Eating water: Devouring the right food can make up 20% of the water intake of your body. Coconut water is a mineral-rich drink high in magnesium, sodium, potassium, and calcium; it quickly replaces lost fluids and electrolytes caused by exertion and hot weather. Eating oats in the morning can keep you hydrated till lunchtime as oats expand and absorb water. Watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, peaches, oranges, skim milk, cucumber, and lettuce are some foods with more than 90% water content.

Experts at Sancheti have suggested that dehydration can have vast ill effects like sleepiness, headache, light-headedness, burning urine, decreased elasticity, dry skin, high heart rate, and low blood pressure. The heat waves cause more sweat, leading to substantial water loss; drinking ample water and taking cold showers calm our muscles and prevent us from sweating a lot. Don’t forget to replenish yourself before, during, and after your hot summer body workout!