PROPER HYDRATION STRATEGIES
REDUCE LOST TIME INJURIES
We aim to demonstrate how important a proper hydration strategy is for the safety and productivity of your workers.
When combatting dehydration, the focus is ensuring the worker is consuming enough fluid to minimise blood volume and electrolyte loss. Working in hot environments, wearing personal protective equipment increases heat load, which results in sweating to assist the worker in maintaining a safe core temperature.
The sweat/fluid that ends up on the skin to assist this natural cooling comes from the water component of our blood. Our blood is around 80% water and as we sweat we reduce blood volume. The key to a sound hydration strategy is to ensure this blood volume loss is kept to a minimum. If the volume of sweat that the worker is losing is not properly addressed through fluid intake, the associated blood volume loss impacts on brain and muscle function. Obviously, the greater the percentage of loss, the greater the negative effect on cognitive function and productivity. Not to mention the accumulative effect dehydration has on the immune system
Another important consideration with sweat loss is how the blood changes viscosity. As the water component of our blood is lost through sweat, the loss of this water increases the thickness of our blood causing the heart to have to work a lot harder to push blood around the body. Resulting in the efficiency of the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the brain and muscles to slow.
As mentioned, the other important aspect to focus on, along with water, is the electrolytes that are lost in sweat. While there is a lot of negative talk about sodium, it is in fact the most abundant electrolyte lost in sweat, and sodium needs to be the main focus of any workplace hydration strategy.
Sodium is extracellular, meaning it is mostly present in the bloodstream and it is for this reason that we lose more sodium in our sweat than any other electrolyte. If the sodium concentration of our blood drops too low it can cause seizures, coma and even death. While this is rare and the extreme, it highlights the importance of sodium and emphasises how critical the replacement of sodium is when workers are experiencing sweat loss.
When sweat loss is occurring and the sodium component of sweat is not being addressed correctly, this sodium loss compromises the transmitting of messages from the brain down the central nervous system. This ultimately effects fine motor skills and normal muscle function. Sodium does get a bad rap in the media, but we are not talking about the general population when discussing proper hydration strategies for workers experiencing sweat loss. We are talking about addressing the components of sweat that are most important to the health, safety and productivity of your workers, which is all based off years of applied research.
To highlight again how important sodium is to your workers. If you are sent to hospital from a heat related illness it is most likely you will be given a saline drip. In most instances this will be a Hartmann’s solution, which is a one litre bag of pure water with 3000 mg of sodium, 190 mg of potassium and 0 mg of magnesium.
Drinking plain water only, especially when experiencing sweat loss can lead to water intoxication, otherwise known as hyponatremia. Consuming just plain water addresses one important part of what is being lost in sweat, the other important part is sodium. If the sodium concentration of our blood drops too low, it can be life threatening. Emphasising again how important sodium replacement is when experiencing sweat loss.
Just this small amount of information on sweating and
the physiology of sweat provides the worker with
an understanding of what is important to replace and
why it is important to replace when experiencing sweat loss.