The Effects of Dehydration
The healthy function of the human body relies heavily on regular intake of potable water. Water comprises 60% of an adult body and up to 70% in infants. Water makes up a large portion of all the individual tissue types in the human body including bones.
Water travels throughout the body via osmosis which is a physical effect of water where it tends to naturally equalize the substance concentration which are dissolved in it. Using human cells as an example, when a higher mineral and protein concentration exists outside the cell, water will travel through the permeable cell wall in order to equalize the solution. The opposite is true when mineral and protein concentrations are higher inside a cell than they are in the surrounding environment.
Chemical reactions within the body rely on water as a medium for various processes to function correctly. Molecules that are being reconfigured rely on water for those functions to be carried out successfully.
The temperature of the human body is directly related to water consumption. Temperature is maintained in a stable way because of water’s property of being about to hold heat and that temperature variations are going to occur slowly instead of abruptly. Rapid temperature fluctuations can cause damage to tissues and interrupt body processes. The circulatory system is directly involved using water in the body to adjust the body’s temperature by either gaining or shedding heat at the skin surface, then pumping that temperature-adjusted blood back into the core. Water then transfers that heat to tissues and fluids at the core to regulate the body’s overall temperature. At the surface, blood vessels constrict to reduce blood flow when the body needs to retain heat. If the body needs extra cooling, sweat is triggered by the brain to be produced on the skin which has the effect of cooling the skin by the evaporative cooling effect. This in turn cools the blood which is...
