I just wanted to mention that it doesn't have to be water necessarily, although if you're dehydrated already, it's undoubtedly the best thing for you in order to rehydrate.
Caffeine is a diuretic, yes, but the amount of fluid you gain from drinking a cup of tea for example, is absolutely not negated by the small amount of water you lose due to its diuretic properties. It's a commonly touted myth. While you're dehydrated it is best to avoid drinks that are diuretics, but otherwise there is no reason why you can't maintain hydration with a cup of tea or coffee or a can of coke.
This is quite interesting and contains links about this subject. There's a lot there, but here's some of it:
?What people need to remember is that fluid is a general term and doesn't refer solely to water. Tea, coffee, squash and milk for children are all equally good fluid replacers. A lot of nonsense is spoken about water being the best way to hydrate, but it simply isn't true.?
- Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George's Hospital, London; Independent on Sunday 20 July 2003.
?Any evidence that caffeine promotes the loss of water from the body has been greatly overplayed in recent years. It is not based on scientific fact. If you are already dehydrated and consume heavily caffeinated drinks, then there might be a very mild risk of it getting worse. But generally it makes no difference if people drink coffee, tea, cola or water.?
- Ron Maughan, professor of human physiology, University of Aberdeen Medical School; same source as above.
?Maughan and his colleagues have also looked at the effects of alcohol, considered to be another diuretic, and found that, in moderation, it too has little impact on the average person?s state of fluid balance. His results, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, showed that alcoholic drinks with an alcohol content of less than 4 per cent such as light beer and lager can be used to stave off dehydration.? - same source.
?Though doctors don't recommend it, many of us could cover our bare-minimum daily water needs without drinking anything during the day.
"Whenever I go to the airport I see all these people carrying around bottles of water, and I wonder, 'What's behind this?' " says Jurgen Schnermann, a kidney physiologist at the National Institutes of Health. "Certainly not science."
The way it's almost always stated, in books, magazines and newspapers, the 8-by-8 rule specifically discounts caffeinated beverages, such as coffee. This is flat wrong. Caffeine does cause a loss of water, but only a fraction of what you're adding by drinking the beverage. In people who don't regularly consume caffeine, for example, researchers say that a cup of java actually adds about two-thirds the amount of hydrating fluid that's in a cup of water. That is to say, one cup of coffee equals about two-thirds a cup of water--if you're not a regular caffeine drinker.
Regular coffee and tea drinkers become accustomed to caffeine and lose little, if any, fluid. In a study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha measured how different combinations of water, coffee and caffeinated sodas affected the hydration status of 18 healthy adults who drink caffeinated beverages routinely.
"We found no significant differences at all," says nutritionist Ann Grandjean, the study's lead author. "The purpose of the study was to find out if caffeine is dehydrating in healthy people who are drinking normal amounts of it. It is not."
The same goes for tea, juice, milk and caffeinated sodas: One glass provides about the same amount of hydrating fluid as a glass of water. The only common drinks that produce a net loss of fluids are those containing alcohol--and usually it takes more than one of those to cause noticeable dehydration, doctors say.?
- www.yourpurelife.com/articles/water.php
?surveys of fluid intake on healthy adults of both genders, published as peer-reviewed documents, strongly suggest that such large amounts are not needed. His conclusion is supported by published studies showing that caffeinated drinks, such as most coffee, tea and soft drinks, may indeed be counted toward the daily total.?
? recent study in the Journal of the American College Of Nutrition revealed coffee-drinkers had the same level of hydration as those who stuck to water. ?Caffeine does cause a loss of water but only a fraction of what you gaining by drinking the beverage,? says nutritionist Patrick Holdord.?
- Daily Mirror, 14 October 2004.
Please be honest with your GP today. Are you receiving any other help?