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Hydration at Altitude

N40ES

N40ES

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Many Thanks to the Poster several years ago for this tip! NO they are not marbles or M&M's, NOT Jelly Beans either! The container actually popped open in flight and reminded me to HYDRATE during a 4.5 hour flight today from DAB to W29. I set them on the helm while chasing others across the floor. One Beautiful Day along the Mid-Atlantic Coast!
 

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I carry some soft-sided water bottles that I stash in what used to be the 'map box'. One has a long 'hose' on it so I can hydrate easier at altitude if I have my O2 mask on..... Handy! Grapes in a container that pop open at altitude would work pretty well as well! :LOL: PS: Hydration is very important while flying at altitude.....or anytime, actually. It gets dryer as you get higher.........🤩........and staying hydrated helps keep your brain working and thinking well......
 
If you are not hydrated before you fly, you are already behind the curve. Do you pee 6 or more times per day? Does your urine become clear instead of dark yellow daily? If so, you are hydrated.

Personally I prefer to be slightly on the dry side so I can do a 3 hour flight instead of landing with my back teeth floating.

The body is an amazing machine. If you are overly hydrated, urine production is increased. If you are a bit dry, urine production is reduced.

I chuckle when I see people knocking back water on a 30 minute workout.

Maybe I’m clueless but I haven’t seen perfuse sweating at altitude sufficient to be concerned about acute dehydration requiring liquids on a flight of a few hours.

If you are not dehydrated when you take off, you won’t be dehydrated when you land.

I love frozen grapes, however there is a risk of low blow sugar due to post prandial insulin release which is far worse than being a smidge dry.

Can dehydration be an issue? Of course but IMHO, we tend to make it an issue.
 
Webb said:
I chuckle when I see people knocking back water on a 30 minute workout.
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I guess it depends on how hard that 30 minute workout is! 😊 And at what altitude! If I go for a hard 30 minute hike at our altitudes (above 6000 feet!), I'm carrying a little flask of water. To each his own.........
Webb said:
Maybe I’m clueless but I haven’t seen perfuse sweating at altitude sufficient to be concerned about acute dehydration requiring liquids on a flight of a few hours.
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Not clueless, but perhaps not aware of some physiological things that occur.

Sweating is not the only way to lose fluids. In fact, it is not the most common way. There is something in the medical field called 'insensitive water loss'. That is the body losing water just from being in a dry environment. If the body has more water in it than the environment, (nearly always!), insensitive water loss is taking place. That can take place from the largest organ we have....our skin......but also water loss just from breathing. So: we are usually not aware of losing that water; thus, the phrase 'insensitive'. And it is easy to get 'behind the curve' from that loss. Relative humidity becomes less at altitude. Fly for several hours above, say 15k, and you will be losing water. Many variables here........ N40ES had a 4.5 hour flight. Pretty easy to forget about taking in fluids!
Webb said:
If you are not dehydrated when you take off, you won’t be dehydrated when you land.
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Um...........
Webb said:
I love frozen grapes, however there is a risk of low blow sugar due to post prandial insulin release which is far worse than being a smidge dry.
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What? Unless you have other health problems, eating while flying is not going to cause a drop in blood glucose. Your 'post prandial insulin release' (insulin release in response to intake of food) is in response to dealing with the sugar you just took in and us usually well-regulated by multiple feedback loops. Again, unless you have other health problems your blood sugar is going to rise and fall, regulated by this system. Is there something I'm missing here?
Webb said:
Can dehydration be an issue? Of course but IMHO, we tend to make it an issue.
Click to expand...
 
Things that make you go hmmmm.

The 30 minute workout I’m referring to is that cutie on a treadmill barely breaking a sweat while sucking on her designer water bottle and there isn’t enough sweat to ruin her makeup. Yesterday, I spent 30 minutes working on my plane and it required a fresh shirt and a bottle of water. Did I mention it was hot and humid. 🤣

Correct medical terminology is insensible, not insensitive perspiration and that plus respiratory loss which amounts to about a loss of 0.5 to 1 quart of water per day. On a 4.5 hour flight, that amounts to less than a can of soda. Hardly enough to be deleterious.

Eating while flying isn’t the issue. Grapes are high in sugar which is why they are so well suited to making wine. A cup of grapes has around 20 grams of sugar. A pound of grapes is about 2.5 cups. If that lovely bunch of grapes was let’s say was 2 cups, that’s over 3 tablespoons of sugar. Without something to back that snack up such as a complex carb, blood sugar can drop when the body releases insulin. If only the sugar from the grapes is ingested, it can cause a spike in your blood glucose level, then a crash as the pancreas releases insulin. That starts a reflex cycle, although not immediate, where the liver supplies glucose in response to the low blood sugar so there can be a period of hypoglycemia before returning to homeostasis. This of course depends on quantity and period of time of the grape consumption. On the positive side, grapes are a fluid source.

We can agree to disagree because I don’t agree with your counterpoints. Just my point of view but I think dehydration hype we see everywhere fuels the belief we need to be at a max hydrated level 100% of the time. Water sales are big business. And you wonder why I sound a bit cynical. We typically go 8 to 12 hours at night without fluids, yet start the day without being dehydrated. Yes, we need fluids but we are not dehydrated as the day gets started.

People do get dehydrated. It is serious. My main contention is a few hours in the cockpit isn’t going to change a hydrated person to a dehydrated person. And I guess I’m aware of physiological changes that occur. To be fair, I’m a retired hospital director of pharmacy and clinical pharmacist.

All this being said, I throw a bottle of water in the plane for long flights. Comes in handy when I want to wet my whistle.
 
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SHEEEEESH, If you read this far you may have missed the finer points of Hydration at Altitude: Containers do pop open, Grapes do swell up, Publix Supermarkets do not sell smaller quantities, Grapes rolling around cockpit floor are hard to catch in flight creating a distraction. AND the history lesson: I once foolishly prepared myself for a 4.5 hour flight by drinking a bottle of Gatorade just before departure and carrying a second full bottle Gatorade with me. Two hours into the flight I had to pee so bad that I gulped down the second bottle in order to refill it! I ended up still making a mess in the seat! Gatorade needs to make bottles with larger openings! The GRAPES are a much better solution to the problem as well as having on standby the A/C Spruce RED reusable pee bottle if and much less likely needed. Ed S.
 
I like to stay hydrated. I have a supply of these travel johns with me.

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Mostly it's fine, but when it's bumpy, it's a bit challenging. Knock on wood - no spills yet. Staying hydrated helps me feel better.
 
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