Water

Water

Water has no caloric value, but it contributes about 65% of body weight and is essential to the body’s normal functioning.  In general, water helps provide the body with other nutrients it needs and helps rid the body of what it does not need.  Water has many functions, including these:

1.      Helping to maintain the balance of all the fluids in the body

2.      Lubricating the body’s moving parts

3.      Dissolving chemicals and nutrients

4.      Aiding in digestion

5.      Helping to transport nutrients and secretions throughout the body

6.      Flushing out wastes

7.      Regulating body temperature through perspiration

The amount of water in the body directly affects the concentration and distribution of body fluids and all the functions related to them.  The body maintains a careful balance between water consumed (in foods and beverages) and water lost (through urination, perspiration, and respiration).  In a healthy fluid balance, water input equals water output.  Measuring an ill person’s level of water intake and output can help determine the best fluid replacement regiment to use.

People obtain most of their water from beverages such as tap water, milk, and fruit juices as well as coffee, tea, and soft drinks.  On average, a person needs to drink six to eight glasses of water a day to maintain a healthy water balance.  The daily need for water varies with size and age, the temperatures to which someone is exposed, the degree of physical exertion, and the water content of the foods one eats.  Someone who is eating mostly foods with a high water content, such a fruits and vegetables, can drink a little less water than someone who is eating mostly foods with a low water content.

If people get too little water or lose too much water through vomiting, diarrhea, burns, or perspiration, they become dehydrated.  Signs and symptoms of dehydration include dry lips and mucous membranes, weakness, lethargy, decreased urine output, and increased thirst.  Severe dehydration can lead to hypovolemia, a reduction in result in inadequate blood pressure that affects the functioning of the heart, central nervous system, and various organs – a condition known as hypovolemic shock.  If dehydration progresses so that water is lost from body cells, death usually occurs within a few days.

Procedure 49-1 explains how to educate patients to drink the right amount of water each day to prevent dehydration.  Make sure patients know whether they are to drink extra fluids to replace fluids lost in an illness or to help rid the body of waste.

Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman

Book:  Medical Assisting – Administrative and Clinical Procedures – Including Anatomy and Physiology by Booth Whicker Wyman Pugh Thompson (Third Edition)

Chapter 49 – Nutrition and Special Diets