Sports Med Blog

You can become dehydrated in cold weather

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Published on Thursday, 07 January 2010 22:11

Written by Anne Moss Rogers

I was out shoveling the driveway and I didn't feel dehydrated. But I started to feel dizzy after a while and even though I wasn't feeling thirsty, I thought to drink some water. But I noticed I was very thirsty once I started to drink water and after a few minutes I started feeling a little bit better.

We often ignore symptoms of dehydration when it's cold outside.

When you are active outside in the cold, you body is working hard to keep you warm. And you do sweat and need replenishment. It can really sneak up on you because you are not expecting it.

So before running or shoveling or anything else you do outside in the cold, do eat something salty and make sure you hydrate. It's a little tougher sometimes since water freezes outside when it's really cold which makes it difficult to drink it. While there is some water in caffeinated drinks, there is the diuretic effect of caffeine so you need to drink more non caffeinated liquid.