water | MY SPECIAL DOCTOR

.Driving dehydrated is as dangerous as doing it drunk

25 February 20246 January 2024 by clemente.ferrara

Driving while intoxicated is absolutely prohibited as it can lead to tragic outcomes, both for the driver and for any unfortunate bystanders. But this condition is not the only one that poses a danger. In addition to driving under the influence of alcohol, it is also highly inadvisable to drive dehydrated as the dehydration brings with it numerous symptoms that can decrease reflexes and the driver’s attention, thus increasing the likelihood of making driving errors, just as is the case with individuals who have had a little too much to drink.

The study

According to a 2015 study funded by theEuropean Hydration Institute and conducted by Loughborough University (UK), drivers who did not consume enough water but, instead, only 25 ml of water every hour, made more than twice as many mistakes as subjects who hydrated properly. Dehydrated drivers made the same number of mistakes as subjects with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the current limit in the United Kingdom. This finding explains how driving dehydrated can be just as risky as drunk driving, as the symptoms experienced by the individuals in question are almost the same. Let’s see what they are.

Symptoms

Symptoms found in dehydrated individuals may include: fatigue, dizziness, dry mouth, slowed reflexes, and headaches. All factors, therefore, that can easily decrease reflexes and alertness while driving causing an accident. The most worrying finding also is that most of the subjects (about two-thirds) who have taken in little water fail to recognize the symptoms of dehydration and therefore drive unaware of their dangerous condition. In contrast, according to a 2013 study, individuals who drink half a liter of water before following any kind of mental activity ( driving is among them ) have reflexes 14 percent faster than dehydrated individuals.

Therefore, it is necessary to have proper hydration before driving, especially if you have to embark on a long road trip. It may be helpful, in this case, to be in the habit of carrying a bottle of water in the car so as to hydrate constantly along the journey and thus avoid a significant decrease in reflexes and a dangerous drop in attention.

How, how much and what to drink indoors

20 February 20246 January 2024 by Redazione My Special Doctor

“The cold season is here. Fewer hours of daylight, frigid temperatures, frequent rain and a whole host of inclement weather cause many of you endurance enthusiasts to take refuge within the walls of facilities like ours that can adequately support them in winter training. It is exciting the energy you spend on it daily and the commitment you put in during your trainings! Beware, however, playing sports in an enclosed environment inevitably results in a change in the physiological needs of the body undergoing training. Let’s pay attention to hydration first of all! Let’s see how.”

Valentina

You need to know that
To succeed in improving yourself, whether in training or in competition, you need to know how to hydrate yourself before, during, and after each performance.
Hydration status is in fact a very important factor in both your health and sports performance, and since the adult body is composed of up to 50-60% water, all bodily functions depend on proper hydration status.

Sports performance: what happens to your body
During performance, athletes push their bodies to the limits of their potential. Without proper hydration, it is impossible to express one’s performance capabilities to the fullest. During strenuous activity, the body loses fluids and basic salts through sweating, which must then be recovered. Regarding replenishment, it is correct to weigh yourself before and after each workout so that you know the exact amount of fluids consumed and can replenish them in the right amount. The key is to drink little more than you lose, for example if you lose 1.5l you should drink 2l of water.
In essence, increased hydration enables better performance and faster recovery. This is primarily true for high-intensity endurance sports such as triathlon.

Swimming, running, cycling
Indeed, in all three triathlon disciplines, insufficient hydration carries the risk of lowered levels of muscular endurance and strength. Generally, a swimmer should consume about half a liter of water for every 40 minutes of training. Therefore, it is good to always have a couple of water bottles on the side of the pool to sip during short breaks in the training session. As for running and cycling, the parameters are less defined, but it is a good idea to always have water with you that you can drink in small sips during training.

What and how much to drink
There are many energy drinks and supplements on the market, but the optimal drink must contain potassium and magnesium, because these salts essential to muscle function are lost during sweating. Be careful not to overdo it; drinking too much plain water, for example, results in more work for the kidneys, which need sodium and potassium to perform their function, and since the former is usually in excess in the diet while the latter is at a deficit, too much work by the kidneys would result in the use of potassium needed by the muscles.

When to drink
It is not possible to establish standard hydration times, there are many subjective variables, and it is always very important to listen to your body and follow your thirst sensation. As a guideline, we say that it is okay to drink before physical exertion to prevent future dehydration, that it is okay to drink during physical exertion but in small sips to allow for better assimilation, and that it is okay to replenish what has been lost during training.

Source : Tri60

Esophagus at risk with hot drinks

18 February 20246 January 2024 by Redazione My Special Doctor

“Don’t drink the water too cold, or you’ll get a stomachache!” How many times have we heard this from mothers and grandmothers? Definitely, many. No one, however, has warned us that very hot drinks can also be harmful, and in a far more serious way. According to research recently published in theInternational Journal of Cancer, drinking tea or other liquids with a temperature above 60°C (140°F) can increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer: by as much as 90 percent, from 2 cups and up.
Research details.

Microplastics in water: a lurking danger

15 February 20246 January 2024 by rosanna.feroldi

Seas and oceans invaded by bottles, saucers, glasses, straws and shopping bags. Fish and birds killed by excess plastic ingested or filtered through gills. Idyllic beaches awash in garbage that will take centuries to dispose of. These are disturbing scenes, to say the least, that the media have been proposing for several months in an effort to raise awareness of the environmental disaster for which we have “unknowingly” made ourselves responsible and the urgent need to remedy. Before our health also loses out. But it is not only the macroscopic plastics abandoned in nature that we need to worry about. The microparticles released from beverage and food bottles and containers and the plastic fragments that may be present, albeit invisible, in the drinking water that flows from taps and that we take in without realizing it also deserve much more attention and more research than has been done so far. This is highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its recent Report “Microplastics in drinking-water,” which takes stock of the state of scientific evidence on the subject. In summary, although currently available data do not indicate significant risks to human health from microplastics present at low levels in drinking water, WHO believes there is an urgent need to undertake new studies on this issue and to immediately activate policies aimed at curbing the production and use of plastic items to avoid exacerbating the already critical environmental damage. The Report reassures that plastic fragments larger than 150 µm (invisible to the human eye) that may be present in drinking water and in foods to which it is added during preparation are not absorbed by the intestines and should, therefore, not have a metabolic impact. Smaller particles may, on the other hand, enter the body, but the average amount absorbed should still not be a health detriment. On the other hand, the conditionalities are many and the certainties few, partly because the problem is relatively “new,” because standardized methods for measuring human exposure levels to microplastics have not yet been developed, and because any adverse effects may only manifest themselves over the long term or in a manner that is not clearly referable to a single material or compounds derived from it once absorbed by the body (catabolites). While waiting for new useful data, WHO suggests treating drinking water and sewage with purification systems already in use to remove various chemical agents and pathogens responsible for gastrointestinal diseases, which can also remove microplastics, protecting both humans and the environment. Proper filtration of wastewater, for example, can remove up to 90 percent of the microplastics present. Unfortunately, not all areas of the world have these purification systems nor do they have the ability or sensitivity to invest in actions that protect the environment. As much as this is a global problem, which needs to be addressed at the policy level as well as the scientific level, everyone can help reduce the impact of large and small plastics on the environment and human health by: choosing alternative, easily biodegradable/recyclable and health-safe materials as much as possible; preferring items that can be reused for a long time instead of single-use; sorting items properly; and never abandoning waste in the environment.

Source: Microplastics in drinking-water. Geneva: World Health Organization 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash