Raise a glass to summer … and prevent dehydration

It’s advice that has become a medical truism, but do we really need to drink eight glasses of water each day?

Sure, but consider that only an average, suggests Dr. Mitchell Forman, dean of Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine. And while eight glasses is a good enough baseline, your own daily fluid intake goal will change according to several factors, including just being here to tough out a Southern Nevada desert summer.

The eight-glasses advice is intended to prevent dehydration. Figuring on about 1.2 liters of water each day, “for most adults, under normal conditions and no extreme circumstances or conditions, that’s a fair amount of fluid intake each day,” Forman says.

However, Forman notes that our bodies lose fluid in the form of both sensible loss (measurable fluid loss, such as that which occurs during urination) and insensible fluid loss (such as that which occurs through respiration and sweating).

Here, with Southern Nevada’s typical summertime low humidity, “the water loss you see from sweating and from breathing is phenomenal,” Forman says.

That alone could merit drinking more water daily than the standard eight glasses. How much more?

“You could almost double it,” Forman says. “It depends very much on the conditions. If you spend all of your time outdoors, you could almost double that to 3 liters of fluid.”

Also figuring into this hydration equation are the medical conditions someone has and the medications — diuretics, for example — he or she may be taking.

Forman suggests that people with such chronic conditions as diabetes consult with their health care providers to set their own fluid intake goals. Similarly, he says, check with your health care provider regarding medications you’re on and their impact on your body’s fluid loss.

By the way, keep an eye on the kids to make sure they’re getting enough fluids, too.

“(Children) tend to be more active than adults,” Forman says, and often “can’t articulate when things feel wrong — if they’re feeling lightheaded or dizzy or have a headache or display other symptoms of heat exhaustion. Keep an eye on them to help prevent dehydration that can lead to heat exhaustion or heatstroke.”

Monitor yourself, too, for dry mouth, lightheadedness, dark-colored urine or a lack of urination, or other signs that “you are dehydrated or moving toward dehydration,” Forman says.