I’ve been wondering, after reading Dune, if someone can acclimatise to a state of dehydration. The human body is remarkably adaptable; one can adapt, in a way, to a state of less food by slowing one’s metabolism and burning fat reserves, and if the change is not too drastic, this can be done indefinitely.
But I’m wondering if the same is for water. Can the body slow perspiration and water loss through other means to permanently become accustomed to dehydration?
Sure you can get used to it, it’s also known as death.
If you prevent water loss that’s not the same thing as adapting to a dehydrated state.
It has actually well proven in the Mideast that humans sweat the same amount all the time (IE if its always hot, your always going to sweat) – what does change is your electrolyte output in the sweat.
Check how salty your sweat is at the begining of the summer, and then check it at the end. Same amount of sweat, less salt.
The Israeli Army tried water rationing to try and adapt soldiers to less water in the desert. It had disastrous results – they lost many people due to heat stroke.
I would say that much as you can’t adapt yourself to needing fewer than about 800 calories a day without wasting, you can’t cut down past a basal level of water. Since you die quickly without water, I wouldn’t try experimenting with that limit.
thanks for the catch edwino – I could remember somewhere around the Mideast, but I couldn’t remember speciffically where.
I’ve never heard that about the Israeli army, but it certainly isn’t their policy now. When I served in the IDF, you could be severly punished (I think maybe even jailed) for dehydrating (if it was your fault). The idea is that when you are in the army, your body is army property, and by dehydrating, you are damaging army property.
curwin:
It was a policy called “water discipline.” It failed miserably.
http://www.britannica.com/magazine/article?content_id=41741&query=einstein
is a legitimate cite that I got when I typed the keywords israeli, water, discipline, and desert into google.
There were many others. The Israeli Army did a complete turnabout after the failure of this strategy – they now teach commanding officers to force water onto the soldiers, as you have related.