Can Thirst be Turned Off?

Florida Guy

Senior Member
Messages
324
Usually, pwme/cfs are thirsty. Its good to drink a lot of water but too much like drinking 10 liters of water a day is excessive. I've always drank 2 liters a day which seems ok. The rda for water is a quart but that assumes the person drinks coffee, tea, soda or other liquids so 2 liters is probably about right.

Recently I noticed I'm drinking a lot less. Several days ago I saw that my recycle bag which I empty every 2 days was light and it was light the time before. So I counted the bottles and there were only 5 half liters so I was drinking only about 1.25 liters a day which is not good. I tried drinking more and the next 2 days I drank almost 7 1/2 liters, better but not good enough. Now I force myself to guzzle frequently to combat the decline

They say older people might lose the sense of thirst but I assumed it would happen gradually if at all. Has anyone noticed this? Another weird thing that happened was about a month or month and a half ago I woke up super early in the morning with a raging thirst that forced me to get up and drink water. I was not thirsty when I went to bed and this has not happened before. Now I have to remember to drink
 

Tammy

Senior Member
Messages
2,255
Location
New Mexico
I have not had a good sense of thirst since the onset of CFS................28 yrs. ago. I set up a small pitcher of water each morning so that I know how much I'm getting in. I think the amount of liquid a person needs each day will vary depending on their diet.
 

Dysfunkion

Senior Member
Messages
598
I don't have a big sense of thrist myself normally, maybe if I didn't drink anything all day I'll notice something is off but I don't get the urge to drink to quench thirst unless some outside influence triggers it. Same with hunger. These senses are there and I have actually lost them before so I know what it's like for them to be absent but they're not very strong unless extreme circumstances are reached.
 

Florida Guy

Senior Member
Messages
324
I don't have a big sense of thrist myself normally, maybe if I didn't drink anything all day I'll notice something is off but I don't get the urge to drink to quench thirst unless some outside influence triggers it. Same with hunger. These senses are there and I have actually lost them before so I know what it's like for them to be absent but they're not very strong unless extreme circumstances are reached.
Yes, about the same here. I have to drink from habit, not from thirst. I haven't even gotten any dry mouth recently and I used to get that. I seem to feel better when I've drunk enough.

Another good thing about drinking lots of water is that it thins the blood a little. Thick, low volume blood makes the heart work harder. When blood volume is low, the heart beats faster to make up for it
 

linusbert

Senior Member
Messages
1,758
same for me , not much sense either. i usually notice when lips are too dry or so.
i also needed to drink like 0,5 - 1 liter in the morning before i got up, otherwise i would got mild vertigo.

the last years i drank 75g glucose water a day (over the day) - i replaced that last year with bread.
i had a total drinking volume over the day of 2-3 liter plain water + 1 liter glucose water.

since i changed that, slowly my blood pressure and heart rate came down. i do not need to drink that much in the morning and also not over the day. like the body somehow adapted.
i have now 2-3 liters in glas bottles near me. i try to always get the 2 liters and adjust when pee is turning too yellow. also when its hot especially when i was in the sun doing my 20min vitamin D sessions, the body seams to demand water and i can drink 0,5 - 1 liter bottle in short time. also no side effects then. its like the body actually needs it.
i suppose my sense of drinking slightly came back. maybe i was overhydrated the years.
isnt that insane?? a body function working normal again.. now after writing this i notice.

though its not the same feeling as i was young, where i had a special feeling about thirst like there is for hunger , just different. now i do not have that feeling but i look at a bottle of water and there is this somewhat cravy feeling like i need to and also when i drink, i can drink a lot in that moment. and later its fine, i do not want to drink for hours.


whats odd though, i can only trink low mineralized water. if i drink water with lots of hydrogencarbonate or calcium i suppose, my main symptoms are getting worse. if its too much hydrogencarbonate my stomach feels puffed up. i feel that the puffed up feeling of stomach gets better with acidic drinks like vinegar or some juice. probably too less stomach acid or so.
 
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Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
6,418
Location
Alberta
I'm pretty consistent at 2 litres/day. That's total, including water used in cooking and beverages. I store my rainwater in 20 L buckets, and those last 10 days.

I'm always extra thirsty after driving. I wonder whether that's from the extra airflow during the drive, or the stress or extra neural processing of driving.
 

Florida Guy

Senior Member
Messages
324
though its not the same feeling as i was young, where i had a special feeling about thirst like there is for hunger , just different. now i do not have that feeling but i look at a bottle of water and there is this somewhat cravy feeling like i need to and also when i drink, i can drink a lot in that moment. and later its fine, i do not want to drink for hours
I'm learning to guzzle and not just take a sip

I'm pretty consistent at 2 litres/day. That's total, including water used in cooking and beverages. I store my rainwater in 20 L buckets, and those last 10 days.
Are you off grid living off the land? Grow any vegetables?
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
6,418
Location
Alberta
Are you off grid living off the land? Grow any vegetables?
Yes I'm off-grid. This computer is powered by a solar panel. Instead of a refrigerator, I put containers of water outside to cool in the night, and swap those into my cooler. In Alberta climate, it works well enough. The cooler generally doesn't go over 15C in summer, and meat lasts a surprisingly long time (2-3 weeks) under those conditions.

I have grown vegetables, but didn't bother this year, except for some lettuce in a pot. Of the vegetables that will grow here (I've had frost in July and August), I'm intolerant of many, and simply dislike the others. Carrots are tedious to keep properly watered by hand (water hauled from the creek), and don't get full-sized before the ground freezes, so it's easier just to buy some.

There are some fruit trees that will produce in this area, but not many, and I'd have to protect them from deer, moose, and beavers, so I didn't bother. Native berries are sparse. I managed to find I think 8 wild strawberries, the largest only 4 mm diameter. Raspberries are reasonably abundant.

I haven't been desperate enough to strangle (snare) any bunnies for dinner yet.
 
Messages
93
I was the opposite - desperate thirst and life-threatening low sodium levels. Improved when I took measures to increase blood volume. Funny how some ME/CFS patients are dying of thirst and others hardly have it at all. Haven't got my head around that one yet!
 

linusbert

Senior Member
Messages
1,758
Yes I'm off-grid. This computer is powered by a solar panel. Instead of a refrigerator, I put containers of water outside to cool in the night, and swap those into my cooler. In Alberta climate, it works well enough. The cooler generally doesn't go over 15C in summer, and meat lasts a surprisingly long time (2-3 weeks) under those conditions.

I have grown vegetables, but didn't bother this year, except for some lettuce in a pot. Of the vegetables that will grow here (I've had frost in July and August), I'm intolerant of many, and simply dislike the others. Carrots are tedious to keep properly watered by hand (water hauled from the creek), and don't get full-sized before the ground freezes, so it's easier just to buy some.

There are some fruit trees that will produce in this area, but not many, and I'd have to protect them from deer, moose, and beavers, so I didn't bother. Native berries are sparse. I managed to find I think 8 wild strawberries, the largest only 4 mm diameter. Raspberries are reasonably abundant.

I haven't been desperate enough to strangle (snare) any bunnies for dinner yet.
actually awesome!

I was the opposite - desperate thirst and life-threatening low sodium levels. Improved when I took measures to increase blood volume. Funny how some ME/CFS patients are dying of thirst and others hardly have it at all. Haven't got my head around that one yet!
its a paradoxical symptom for sodium deficiency, incredible thirst for water despite dilluting salt in blood even more. this kind of deficiency must be very slowly corrected, if done to fast it could be potentially deadly. even some clinics do get this sometimes wrong, i ve read a case where a patient died in a clinic because of giving too much sodium.
 
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