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Dehydration: How exactly does it kill you? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I mean, I've heard that you can typically only survive about three days without water, but what exactly causes your body to fail when you dehydrate too much?

I guess one point is lack of salts (if you sweat a lot) but I'm specifically wondering about lack of water (although a closer explanation about how lack of salts will kill you is also appreciated)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The coach won't be giving them salt directly, but will always provide a sports drink which contains salts.

Ever watch any sport and a player falls over with a cramp? They have drunk too much water and not enough electrolytes.

Here's a study from one hospital in Oslo, Norway. Norway is not considered a hot region of the world. Between 2010 and 2015 they treated 31,000 patients in the ER from a population of 135,000 for electrolyte imbalance. That's roughly 18 patients a day. This is not some sort of fringe case.