How do we actually measure dehydration ? Now , you hear different things like if you pinch the skin on the top of your hand and it takes more than three seconds to , uh , lay down again flat , then you're dehydrated .
Well , then there's a chance that you're dehydrated . But again , these are not perfect measures of dehydration . You may be surprised to learn and I was surprised to learn that most of the basis for these statements , like even a 2% dehydration state can lead to significant reductions in cognitive or physical performance are based on not direct measures of hydration , but rather on measures of reductions in water intake , which is a different thing , right ?
You hear this kind of stuff and you should probably be wondering , is any of that true , to some extent , it is true , although it can vary quite a bit by how old you are or whether or not you're , um , the skin on the top of your hand tends to be looser or not , depending on whether or not you're leaner or not . So , in other words , those are not absolutely objective measures of dehydration . Now , it is true that if normally you can pinch the skin on the top of your hand and it returns to its normal flattened position within about 1 to 2 or three seconds and it does not do that within five or more seconds .
How do we actually measure dehydration ? Now , you hear different things like if you pinch the skin on the top of your hand and it takes more than three seconds to , uh , lay down again flat , then you're dehydrated . You hear that ?
You hear , ok , if you are to , uh , press on your fingernail and see a change in the color of the tissue , just be below your fingernail , which indeed does happen and it does not go back to its original color within 1 to 3 seconds . Then you're dehydrated . You hear things like this .
