Dr Ranjit Jagtap: What effect does dehydration have on the cardiovascular system?

 Water flushes waste from your body through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements, maintains your body temperature and lubricates and cushions your joints.

Water is important for the health of your heart. Your heart beats 24 hours a day, pumping around 2,000 litres of blood. You can assist your heart do its work by remaining hydrated - that is, drinking more water than you lose, says Dr Ranjit Jagtap.

Dehydration

When you lose more fluid from sweating, sickness, fever, or urination than you consume through food and water, you become dehydrated. Dehydration can harm your heart and cardiovascular system, among other organs and physical systems.

Your blood volume, or the amount of blood circulating through your body, reduces when you have enough water. Your heart beats quicker to compensate, raising your heart rate and blood pressure.

Dehydration also causes your blood to hold more sodium, thickening it and making it more difficult for it to flow through your body. Keeping your body hydrated makes it easier for your heart to pump blood. It permits oxygen to reach your muscles, allowing them to operate more efficiently.

Dehydration is a dangerous illness. It can cause everything from swollen feet to a headache, as well as life-threatening conditions like heart attack or heat stroke.

Thirst, a dry or sticky mouth, not peeing much, dark yellow urine, headaches, and muscle cramps are all signs of mild to moderate dehydration.

The elderly, persons with chronic diseases, youngsters, and athletes are the most vulnerable. Dehydration has a deleterious impact on the heart and circulatory system, among other organs and body systems.

Signs and symptoms

Not urinating, or pee that is very dark yellow or amber in colour, dry, shrivelled skin, sunken eyes, irritability or bewilderment, dizziness or lightheadedness, fast heartbeat and respiration, listlessness or unconsciousness, or delirium are all symptoms of severe dehydration. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, get medical help at Dr Ranjit Jagtap Clinic right once.

Impact of dehydration on cardiovascular system

Increase in heart rate

Baroreceptors on the walls of major blood arteries in the chest and neck monitor circulatory system pressure. Baroreceptors measure the stretch of the vessel walls. Blood vessels overwork when blood volume is too high, whereas vessels stretch slightly when volume is too low. Because your blood volume falls when you're dehydrated, vessel walls don't extend as much as they should. The brain receives this information from baroreceptors, which increases your heart rate to compensate for the reduced blood volume.

Blood Pressure Is Raised

Dehydration can cause a rise in blood pressure, which may seem paradoxical. As your blood volume decreases due to dehydration, your body adjusts by holding more salt in the blood. High blood salt levels force your body to shut small blood vessels called capillaries, resulting in high blood pressure.

The pressure in major blood veins rises as more capillaries collapse, raising total blood pressure. It is more difficult to circulate blood adequately since it has grown more concentrated and thicker. To assist move the blood along, your body "squeezes" blood vessels, which elevates blood pressure.

Cardiac Output is Reduced

Cardiac output is calculated by multiplying the volume of blood pumped out every beat by the heart rate. Your typical cardiac output would be 7,000 millilitres per minute if your heart pumps 100 millilitres of blood every beat and your heart rate is 70 beats per minute.

Cardiac output measures how efficiently the heart pumps blood throughout the body. Your cardiac output drops dramatically when you don't have enough water. Despite the higher heart rate, the quantity of blood the heart can pump every beat is in limits due to the overall low blood volume.

Hypotension due to orthostatic pressure

When you suddenly transition from laying down to sitting or standing, your blood pressure drops considerably. They call it orthostatic hypotension. It has a common link with dehydration, and symptoms include dizziness, lightheadedness, and fainting.

According to Dr Ranjit Jagtap News, Orthostatic hypotension might happen when you're dehydrate because your blood volume isn't enough for your body. It regulates your blood pressure and heart rate as it should when you shift positions.