IN FRATERNAM MEAM: POSTMORTEM: DYING OF THIRST

IN FRATERNAM MEAM

Thursday, December 02, 2004

POSTMORTEM: DYING OF THIRST

What happens to your body?

*** 12 Hours Without Water
Humans need at least three liters of water a day in a desert environment. Within half a day of drinking his last drop, even the fittest outdoorsman will weaken."As the volume of water in the blood dwindles, the body starts to function inefficiently," explains Wayne Askew, professor fo Nutrition at the University of Utah. The heart begins to pump blood away from the extremities, causing the legs and arms to feel like lead weights.

*** 24 Hours Without Water
A plummeting leverl of h2o creates a shortage of blood, the body's cooling mechanism; sweat diminishes to a trickle. Body temperature soars, and the skin begins to turn reptilian -- rough and acaly --. "The skin loses all its elasticity" Askew explains. "The sweat glands atrophy."Body weight starts to drop rapidly.

*** 48 Hours Without Water
After losing as much as 6 percent of its weight, the body sags with fatigue, nausea, and muscle cramping. "Lacking water to support metabolism, the liver can't generate energy-producing sugar". Askew says. Dehydration dementia may set in. There may be hallucinations, an urge to run, or attempts to drink the last of the bladder's now thick, dark urine.

*** 72 Hours Without Water
Body weight diminshing by 10 percent. The face is gaunt, the brain operates like a flickering bulb, and body temperatures is as high as 107 degrees. "This is a very dangerous time." Askew says. Most body functions are near collapse. The strained lungs and irregularly beating heart sputter until total cardiovascular failure brings the ordeal to a silent end.

(Jay Cheshes/MAXMAG)

posted by infraternam meam @ 3:35 AM

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