Nope drink enough water can have unexpected consequences for your arthritis. Here’s how dehydration can increase joint pain, but making a habit of drinking enough water each day can benefit your sore joints.
As temperatures rise, it’s easy to become dehydrated (very quickly) and not even realize it. But give up water during the heat it’s dangerous, and becoming dehydrated when you have arthritis can cause additional pain and problems.
Dehydration causes a number of symptoms, including drowsiness and dizziness, and increases the risk of heat injury or low blood volume shock. But it can also affect the mechanisms that keep your joints working smoothly; it can reduce the fluid that cushions joints or increase inflammation throughout the body.
Ensuring adequate hydration could be important in terms of joint health.
How dehydration affects your arthritis
When you’re dehydrated, the parts of your body that help keep arthritis aches and pains at bay may not work as well.
Water helps create synovial fluid, a thin layer of fluid that cushions and provides nutrition to the joints. According to studies, synovial fluid also reduces friction when you move your joints. Not drinking enough watermakes it difficult for your body to create synovial fluid, which can lead to more friction and pain.
Synovial fluid can reduce friction and rubbing in joints, and water is important for maintaining healthy tissues and our healthy joints.
Drinking enough water improves the function of synovial fluid and cartilage
Water is also crucial for cartilage, as 65 to 80 percent of cartilage is made up of water. (That percentage decreases with age.) Cartilage is a strong, flexible tissue that covers the ends of bones. Your cartilage allows your bones to glide over each other, which helps you move, and it also protects your bones by keeping them from rubbing against each other.
When we drink water, we not only help stimulate the production of synovial fluid, but also help with cartilage regeneration and cartilage lubrication to reduce joint inflammation.
It helps to think of cartilage like a sponge: when you have enough water, it’s soft. When it dries out, it becomes stiff and difficult to move.
Hydration also supports blood supply to cells in the heart and other organs, which is important for people with an underlying health problem that may affect other organs, such as arthritis.
Drinking enough water keeps the health of organs affected by arthritis in check
Rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis affect other organs, and we know that hydration is important for the protection of our hearts, our skin and other organs, so it is also good stay hydrated to allow a good volume of blood to those organs.
Hydration also helps muscles work properly, and we need our muscle function to help with the function of our joints.
How much water should a person with arthritis drink?
So how much water should you drink? According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the adequate intake of water, which can come from beverages (such as water and tea) and foods (such as fruits and vegetables), for men over the age of 19 is 3.7 liters (about 16 cups) liters each day, with 3 liters (13 cups) coming from beverages.
For women, the AI is 2.7 liters (about 11 cups) of water, with 2.2 liters (9 cups) coming from beverages.
This number, however, can change depending on the season and your level of activity. For example, if you spend time working outside in the heat, drinking a cup of water (8 ounces) every 15 to 20 minutes is recommended.
It is also recommended drink water at intervals throughout the day instead of drinking a lot of water at once, as the latter can cause discomfort.
Likewise, you don’t want to drink too much water. According to the Mayo Clinic, this can lead to hyponatremia, a rare condition that occurs when the kidneys are unable to remove excess water, lowering the concentration of sodium in the blood to a dangerously low level. This can cause muscle spasms and cramps, as well as headaches, fatigue, and nausea.
Is your joint pain related to dehydration?
If it’s hot outside and you’re feeling particularly uncomfortable, dehydration is likely to be at least partly to blame. Even mild dehydration can have an effect on pain level.
Synovial fluid and cartilage tissue cells need water to help reduce friction and maintain movement between joints. Even small amounts of dehydration or not drinking enough water a day can contribute to joint pain.
Depending on how dehydrated you are and your specific condition, your symptoms may be mild or severe.
I don’t know if we can set a time course, but obviously the more dehydrated you are and the more time passes, the more apparent joint pain or other symptoms will be. There are also other more serious conditions, such as heat stroke and muscle breakdown, that can occur with severe dehydration.
Common signs of dehydration, according to the Cleveland Clinic, include:
- Headache, confusion, or delirium
- Tiredness/fatigue
- Dizziness, weakness, and lightheadedness
- Dry mouth and/or dry cough
- High heart rate but low blood pressure
- loss of appetite
- Reddened skin, swollen feet, and muscle cramps
- Heat intolerance or chills
- Constipation
- Dark-colored urine (should be pale and light in color)
You may see dehydration symptoms improve five to 10 minutes after drinking water. But if you think your symptoms are severe or taking longer to improve, you should seek help.
Serious symptoms of dehydration can include:
- A body temperature of 39 degrees Celsius or higher
- Muscle spasms
- Red, hot, dry skin
- Nausea
- rapid pulse
- seizures
- lack of sweating
- Confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech
- Dizziness
- Fainting, loss of consciousness
- hallucinations
How to avoid dehydration
the best way to avoid dehydration is to drink before you are thirsty. It is especially important to monitor your water consumption when your region is experiencing a heat wave.
to see if you’re drinking enough waterTake a day to track how much water you drink and any symptoms you may experience. Gradually increase the amount of water you drink each day, while continuing to manage your symptoms. You will know that you are drinking the correct amount of water when the symptoms disappear. However, you may need more water in times of high temperatures. But having a baseline water intake level can help you adjust as the seasons change.
In addition to increasing your water intake, you should make sure you get enough electrolytes. These are minerals such as sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, phosphate, and magnesium that have an electrical charge and help balance the amount of water in the body. You can get them through liquids like milk or foods like bananas and watermelons.
Of course, drinking enough water is easier said than done. But there are several simple steps that can help you make hydration a part of your daily life.
Drink water when you get up in the morning, try to drink water with meals, and drink water instead of sugary drinks. You could even try replacing at least one sugary drink, like soda, with water every day until drinking plain or fruit-infused water becomes a habit.
And remember, it is not enough to drink a lot of water from time to time. You must increase your total water intake every day to reap the long-term benefits of hydration.
The idea of developing hydration as a habit is important, because the more habitual something becomes, the less conscious attention we have to give it.
5 tips to make hydration a habit
- Set reminders. Use your phone, for example.
- Give yourself visual cues. Try to place reminders in places where you will see them regularly. For example, notes, images, etc.
- Set attainable goals. Hourly goals can feel more manageable than setting a big goal like drinking a certain number of glasses per day.
- Do challenges with other people. Most things are easier to accomplish if you have a partner (or two, or three).
- Flavor your water. It’s true that plain water can get boring, but adding fresh fruit, cucumbers or mint makes it more appealing.