Given that your body is about 60% water, it makes sense that it’s important for your health. It helps flush out waste, regulates your body temperature and lubricates your joints, spinal cord and tissues. According to Healthline, it also aids in digestion, helps with nutrient absorption and prevents constipation — just to name a few things.
Health officials recommend drinking roughly two litres of water per day and sipping it throughout the day means it’ll be properly absorbed by your body, which doesn’t happen when you skull large quantities.
When it comes to excessive thirst, there could be a few reasons behind this. It might be something you experience every now and then, while others might feel it more regularly. If you fall into the ‘thirsty all the time’ category, you should have a chat with your GP about this, as it could be a symptom of something larger.
Below, we’ve listed a few common causes behind excessive thirst.
— Dehydration
Maybe you’re always thirsty because you’re simply dehydrated? It happens to everyone at some stage. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of dehydration include extreme thirst, dark-coloured urine, fatigue and dizziness.
The most common causes of dehydration include excessive sweating, diarrhea and vomiting, hot weather and consuming alcohol. If any of these sound familiar, you’re excessive thirst might be down to simple dehydration.
— Dry mouth
Dry mouth is often caused by smoking, stress and anxiety or as a side effect of certain prescription drugs, including antidepressants and blood pressure medications, according to Prevention. It can also occur as you age.
Dry mouth means your glands aren’t making enough saliva and this can often to lead to bad breath and thick and stringy saliva.
The feeling of dry mouth is pretty unpleasant and can often feel like constant thirst, but it is actually it’s own condition so make sure to discuss it with your doctor if this is a common feeling for you.
— Chronic stress
Stress can also make you feel thirsty as it causes your adrenal glands to under-function and can result in low blood pressure. According to Prevention, this can result in dizziness, anxiety and extreme thirst.
Triggering the feeling of thirst is your body’s attempt at adding more water to your blood, which in turn raises your blood pressure. In order to combat this, you have to work on lowering your stress levels long-term as simply drinking water isn’t enough to fix it.
— Anemia
According to Healthline, “anemia happens when the number of healthy red blood cells in your body is too low.” As these red blood cells carry oxygen to the body’s tissues, a low red blood cell count also indicates that there’s a low amount of oxygen in your blood.
Anemia can often lead to dehydration, so excessive thirst is a common symptom, alongside fatigue and tiredness. If these three things regularly plague you, make sure to bring this up with your doctor.
— Diabetes
Frequent urination, dehydration and feeling thirsty all the time can be early symptoms of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Your kidneys begin to produce more urine when your blood sugar levels are too high in order to get rid of the excess amounts of glucose, as reported by Prevention.
The constant need to urinate will make you super thirsty and often leads to the consumption of more liquids, which makes it a vicious circle. Other common symptoms of diabetes are fatigue, unexplained weight loss and irritability, so chat with your doctor if you experience any of these coupled with excessive thirst.
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