It's Gettin' Hot in he-ah!

Whew, it's gettin' hot in he-ah. 11 am and it's 80 degrees out. It's supposed to get up to 98 degrees by the end of the week. I've walked you-know who already and now I need to get to the backyard and see if the damn gazebo is fixable. I know whether it is or not I'll n ever buy another one unless it's a permanent wooden or heavy structural material. Getting ready for the annual party in a couple of weeks. Of course the next Dance Week is in between now and then. Needless to say I'm a little taxed at the moment.

Hydration is a real concern now. Issues surrounding too little hydration include heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and even death. Last year I wrote on the subject of hydration/de-hydration so I'm going to put it on here again for you as a reminder. So here it is for ya.

Waters importance to the body is 2nd only to oxygen in sustaining life. It doesn't provide any energy but it does deliver and distribute nutrients, oxygen, immune cells and hormones as blood plasma as well as remove waste. It does this and much, much more to all of the billions of cells in each of our bodies. Blood also carries away the carbon dioxide and lactic acid formed when nutrients are broken down for cellular energy.  Water also helps in regulating the body's temperature. Water conducts heat up to 26 times faster than air, moving warm temperatures away from the core of the body to the peripheral or skin. This helps to produce sweat which goes through the skin through ducts and then cools the body when it evaporates upon hitting the air. Ta-da! See, I've always said sweat is a good thing.

Water is also very critical to blood volume maintenance. Blood volume directly impacts blood pressure so if your blood volume is off so is the pressure and cardiovascular function. Even a dehydration level of only 3% -5% of body weight can result in a compromised cardiovascular function and therefore impact your performance during athletics, especially aerobic sports.

If you're exercising and your body begins to dehydrate and the water is not replenished, the effects due to the blood volume decreasing will be less blood flow to & from the heart and the muscular system reducing the amount of oxygen delivered. The effect will mean more of an anaerobic workload. This will lessen the body s ability to perform as when properly hydrated. Fatigue will set in faster, rate of perceived exertion will rise and lactic acid levels will build quicker. 

Can you over-hydrate? The answer to that is YES! Its called hyponatremia or water intoxication. It's better to over-hydrate than dehydrate but it can have its issues. It's really an issue of low sodium levels. Sodium is a very important electrolyte, especially to the muscular and nervous systems. Characteristics of over-hydration include muscular weakness and in-coordination, disorientation and can even lead to seizures and coma.  Replenishing the body with sports drinks containing sodium and chloride instead of just water can help prevent the possibilities of hyponatremia. Endurance and ultra athletes are at a greater risk of this problem but non-endurance athletes don't really have much of a danger for it. Good news!

How do you know if your not properly hydrated? One easy way is with your urine. If your urine is clear or light yellow you're doing great. However, if its a bright yellow, amber or greenish color, you  can assume that you're dehydrated.  Now, if you take vitamins and/or minerals, some of them can affect your urine color and therefore it may not be a good choice for accuracy. So, please, drink plenty of fluids.and preferrably not sugary sodas. For most of us water is the best choice for hydration but other sources include coffee, milk and sports drinks. We'll talk more on these later.  Keep exercising and replenishing your fluids, summer's a comin' and it's gonna get hotter. Stay safe.

In this kind of heat that we get around here and the exercise levels here's another great tip for all of us; if you exercise 60 min. or more, you should ingest 7-10 oz. of fluids every 20 min.

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