It affects athletes everywhere. It can be worsened by heat, humidity, amount of sweat, and strenuousness of activity. It causes thirst, headaches, nausea, fever, and even death. But what if I told you that it could affect you too, and that the beginning stages might be taking place within you right now?
For sophomore Amanda Sparks, the mention of dehydration provokes an all too familiar memory.
After engaging in a tough run up some steep hills near Hellstern with her Cross Country team, Sparks passed out as a result of a mix of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
“I tried to catch my breath and started walking back toward Hellstern and that’s all I remember until I got halfway to the ER,” said Sparks.
The amount of suggested water intake is displayed through this simple mathematical equation; take your weight and divide by two, that number is the amount of ounces of water you should drink daily.
Athletic trainer Chad Fink adds that the amount of water intake for athletes is considerably more, “If you lose 5 pounds of water in practice, you need to drink about 5 liters of water,” said Fink.
He helps keep the Wildcat football team ready to win by always keeping them hydrated, which can be quite the daunting task.
During the summer he weighs the athletes before practice and again afterward to determine how much water weight they have worked off or sweated out. Once he finds the amount lost, he again recommends they drink that number in liters of water.
But hydration is not something that comes over night, it is something you must prepare your body for.
School nurse Janet Gershner, who has a son who plays football, always asks that athletes keep themselves well prepared for the heat.
“I usually ask them to start drinking days ahead,” said Gershner, “Drink days before so you can get your volume (of water) built up so the heat wont zap you from sweating so much.”
Girls Basketball Coach Sandy Wright answers the question, “When do you know you’re hydrated enough?” with a gross but simple solution.
“You need to check your urine,” said Coach Wright, “if your urine is yellow or a darker color, an orange-ish color, then you obviously aren’t getting enough water throughout the day. It needs to be more of a light yellow or clear color.”
For Sparks, who blacked out and cant quite recall what happened before being halfway to the Emergency Room, Coach Wright offers a very accurate typical series of events.
“You get really hot, and you’d think that you’d be sweating, but you may not sweat, you may get clammy. You get dizzy, and get a bad headache.” says Coach Wright.
But one thing that they all can agree on is that in this Arkansas weather, dehydration is not something to be taken lightly.