Related topics: water ยท cholera

Novel approach to curing crop diseases tested

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sugar may be a treat for humans, but for aphids it can be life threatening. A $452,000 grant to Cornell and Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) will fund research exploiting this vulnerability ...

World's first 'green' synthesis of plastics from CO2

By combining a CeO2 catalyst with atmospheric carbon dioxide, researchers from Osaka City University, Tohoku University, and Nippon Steel Corporation have developed an effective catalytic process for the direct synthesis ...

Mediterranean Sea dried up five million years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Upward movement of the Earth's crust transformed the Straits of Gibraltar into a dam. Approximately five million years ago, the Mediterranean Sea dried up after it was sealed off from the Atlantic Ocean. ...

Providing robotic carers and smart systems for the elderly

As people enter old age it can become increasingly difficult to maintain a good quality of life without help. Perhaps a faltering memory leads to missed meals or drinks, or a decrease in mobility leads to loneliness and social ...

Solar-powered disaster relief

As water and fuel remained scarce in the weeks following the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, one resource that relief teams could have used to help prevent dehydration literally surrounds the Caribbean island: the ...

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Dehydration

In physiology and medicine, dehydration (hypohydration) is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water (Ancient Greek: ὕδωρ hýdōr) from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism. Dehydration of skin and mucous membranes can be called medical dryness.

There are three types of dehydration: hypotonic or hyponatremic (primarily a loss of electrolytes, sodium in particular), hypertonic or hypernatremic (primarily a loss of water), and isotonic or isonatremic (equal loss of water and electrolytes). In humans, the most commonly seen type of dehydration by far is isotonic (isonatraemic) dehydration which effectively equates with hypovolemia, but the distinction of isotonic from hypotonic or hypertonic dehydration may be important when treating people who become dehydrated. Physiologically, dehydration, despite the name, does not simply mean loss of water, as water and solutes (mainly sodium) are usually lost in roughly equal quantities to how they exist in blood plasma. In hypotonic dehydration, intravascular water shifts to the extravascular space, exaggerating intravascular volume depletion for a given amount of total body water loss. Neurological complications can occur in hypotonic and hypertonic states. The former can lead to seizures, while the latter can lead to osmotic cerebral edema upon rapid rehydration.

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