Suffer With Headaches Or Just Dehyrdated?

One symptom that always seems to increase around summer time is headaches. I can't tell you how many times I have a client come in and say ‘I've had such a terrible headache all day’, even if it's someone that never usually struggles with them.

One of the first questions I always ask is ‘how much water have you drunk today?’. The answer is almost always ‘not enough’. 

Most of us are guilty of not drinking enough water, but for most of the year we can get away with it with seemingly very few side effects. But once the sun comes out and we start to sweat more, our lack of hydration becomes glaringly obvious.

The amount of water we each need per day depends on multiple factors. Our sex, our height, our weight, our age, our activity levels, the climate we live in. There is no single correct answer for how much you should drink a day. However the average should be between 2-3L per day. Ideally this should be just plain water, but small amounts of tea, coffee or juice are okay.

In the summer, when it’s hot and we’re sweating more, we naturally lose more fluid throughout the day. This means we need to drink more to replenish that fluid in our body. The same goes for people that exercise regularly or have a physically demanding job. 

If you’re sweating a lot, you also need to make sure you’re replacing the electrolytes lost too, plain water isn’t going to be enough to fully rehydrate you. A quick and easy way is to get an isotonic sports drink like a lucozade, as a premade option. Alternatively, you can get effervescent tablets that you can use whenever needed.

We're all guilty of not drinking enough, but water is so vital to our health that we can't survive very long without it. Next time you notice yourself getting a headache, stop and ask yourself ‘have I drunk enough water today?’. The answer is probably no, so drink some and see if that solves the problem. If not, get yourself booked in with us and we'll helpl figure out what it is that's causing your headaches.