# Dying of dehydration and I find a beer. Should I drink it? (alcohol dehydrates you)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 28, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090 "2021-05-28T14:05:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/41 "2021-05-30T11:57:29Z")
I’ve often questioned the proposition that beer is dehydrating and now I have some info to back up my belief. That said, what is going on when, after a night of too much beer, I can drink a lot of liquid ( water, more beer, whatever) the next day and not have to pee for what seems like a very long time? Much longer than if I hadn’t been drinking the previous night.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/42 "2021-05-30T19:35:28Z")
Apologies for a not very GQ response, but STM that the answer has already been given…
I don’t like drinking water. Never have. So I’ve gone years where I drink a lot, but never water - lots of diet coke and tea, some alcohol, occasionally some juice (but often none of that), basically mostly “dehydrating” drinks.
Numerous times I met people who would tell me that you had to have 8 glasses of water a day or you’d die. I still do now and then. The fact that I never drink water and am still alive (and my kidney function is good), never changes their opinions.
Lots of people are like this, so there are plenty of informal real-life experiments going on. Serious alcoholics often only drink booze and coffee or caffeinated drinks, and though they usually die younger than average, they don’t die so quickly, within days, that it would - or should - lead you to think that drinking beer is worse than not drinking anything at all.
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### Author:  [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/43 "2021-05-31T19:48:06Z")
If beer is hydrating then why do I feel so dehydrated after a night of drinking?
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### Author:  [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/44 "2021-05-31T20:12:47Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> If it’s resolved that beer is better than nothing, is beer better than water? Suppose you’re on an island with no food, but you can either have unlimited clean, fresh water, or unlimited clean, fresh beer. Which would keep you alive longer?
A variation on the old joke, drinking the water would just make it _seem_ like you are living longer.
I’d drink the beer. May be a shorter life but I’d be happier.
> [@steronz](#):
>
> If beer is hydrating then why do I feel so dehydrated after a night of drinking?
I was, let’s say, a copious drinker in my youth. I never once felt dehydrated or the need to drink a lot of water the next day. The need to brush my teeth immediately, however, happened every time.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/45 "2021-06-04T12:05:21Z")
I think beer or wine would help hydrate you. Beer is mostly water. Your body is designed not to get rid of water when you are dehydrated. If I was in the desert and came across something very alcoholic, I would hopefully remember that ethanol boils off before the water does and try to heat up the bottle. The boiling point decreases as the alcohol increases, as low as (who can remember?) eighty degrees Celsius?
> **[2014-ts-ethanol.pdf](https://www.umpqua.edu/images/areas-of-study/career-technical/viticulture-enology/downloads/conferences/technical-symposia/2014-dec-wine-chemistry/2014-ts-ethanol.pdf)**
>
> 1146.78 KB
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2021, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/46 "2021-06-04T12:37:38Z")
If you’re dying of dehydration, the body’s biggest priority needs to be keeping the kidneys hydrated so the body can remove metabolic waste. Here are ways that beer is bad for that:
1. As mentioned, alcohol is a diuretic. Weak beer probably has enough water to offset the dehydration, but you likely don’t get much if any beneficial hydration out of beer.
2. Dilates the peripheral blood vessels, shunting water away from the kidneys.
3. Increases perspiration, causing additional fluid loss
4. Contains carbohydrate, which itself demands some water in order to be absorbed, metabolized, and excreted
If nothing was on offer but a cold one, I’d probably drink it anyway just for the sensory relief in terms of temperature and wetness. But I wouldn’t rely upon it to offer any benefit at all in terms of hydration.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-of-dehydration-and-i-find-a-beer-should-i-drink-it-alcohol-dehydrates-you/943090/47 "2021-06-05T03:52:55Z")
Just beer?
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