Caffeine: Why it Will Dehydrate You

Posted by Brandon Harshe on December 17, 2007

When people speak about the dangers of caffeine, dehydration is usually not one of them. The usual suspects of dangers include addiction (it’s the most addictive drug in the US), fatigue, and exhaustion. If you don’t believe me, you can always read this.

But what I want to convey is this: caffeine, on top of all it’s other dangers, is also considered a diuretic.

What is a diuretic?

According to Wikipedia, a diuretic is "any drug that elevates the rate of bodily urine excretion." In layman’s terms, it makes you pee more.

So what’s the big deal? You might be thinking "Doesn’t peeing more mean that I’m getting enough water to drink?"

No, not exactly. What it means is that, as a diuretic, caffeine basically rids your body of any and all excess water, making your cells crenate (shrivel up). To give you an indication of how serious it is, professional bodybuilders get disqualified from competition for using diuretics, but not the majority of steroids. However, it should be known, that pro bodybuilders use it for a competitive advantage, so it’s a ban based on cheating more than health.

The reason why I bring this up is that people in this country don’t drink enough water. I didn’t believe it until I’ve had the chance to observe some people close to me recently. One of these people will wake up and grab an iced tea on the way to work, drink diet soda during the day, more iced tea, coffee in the afternoon to keep going, iced tea on the way home, and never once touch a glass of water during the day. This person tends to be a go, go, go type of person, and it’s obvious why.

We’re all told to drink 8 cups of water a day minimum. In my opinion, that is way too low, especially where we live. Being in Arizona, the minimum someone should drink is 8 pints of water (1 gallon). The summers get way too hot and dry here for people to drink any less than that, but they do. Every summer, I hear about people dying of dehydration out here. Usually it’s elderly people who are incontinent, but other times it’s not. I just don’t get it.

If we are 70% water ourselves, doesn’t it make sense to keep that number where it is?