Dehydrationoccurs when your body loses more water than it absorbs.
Dehydration can happen forreasonsincludingillness, sweating from exercise, or spending too much timein the heat.
Rehydrating properly can help ease and prevent stomach and abdominal pain from dehydration.
LaylaBird / Getty Images
LaylaBird / Getty Images
Water makes up 60% of an average adults body weight.
We lose water normally through metabolism, breathing, sweating, and removing waste.
Consuming water through beverages and food helps restore water lost from these bodily functions.
If youre dehydrated, your bowels can become sluggish, leading toconstipation,abdominalpain, and cramps.
This can lead to muscle cramps throughout the body including in the stomach and abdomenanddizziness, which can causenausea.
Both acute and chronic dehydration can cause abdominal pain, which in some cases may be severe.
Dehydration can also lead to decreased blood flow (ischemia) in the digestive tract.
This has been seen in endurance athletes, such as marathon runners, and in older people.
Crampy abdominal pain is one symptom of this.
What Does Dehydration Feel Like in Your Stomach?
If youre dehydrated, you might feel weak and thirsty.
You may also experience abdominal or stomach cramps.
Other Dehydration Symptoms
Dehydration is serious and can be fatal if not treated.
Your symptoms may lead you to suspect you are dehydrated.
To diagnose dehydration, they will perform a physical examination and ask about your symptoms.
They can also check your blood and urine for further indications of dehydration.
Certain things also increase the chances you will become dehydrated.
These include:
What Helps Relieve a Stomachache From Dehydration?
How totreatyour dehydration can depend on what’s causing it.
You should avoid drinks with caffeine or alcohol because they can make dehydration worse.
Oral rehydration electrolyte solutions(such as Pedialyte) are often given to children who are dehydrated fromstomach bugs.
However, these can be expensive and unpalatable.
Some believe it to result from problems with how the brain and the gut interact and communicate.
Gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritisis brought on by an infection of the intestines.
Symptoms of gastroenteritis can includeabdominal painor cramping,nausea,vomiting,watery diarrhea, and sometimesfever.
Constipation
Constipationis a common cause of abdominal pain.
Without treatment, dehydration can cause severe complications and even death.
A healthcare provider should also be contacted if you think your baby or toddler might bedehydrated.
Abdominal or stomach pain is a common symptom of dehydration.
If you think you might be dehydrated, its important to rehydrate by drinking fluids right away.
Without treatment, dehydration can worsen and cause serious complications that might require hospitalization.
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