Medically reviewed by Next Health Clinical Director, Jessica Brewer
We all know how it feels to be thirsty: you get a parched, papery sensation in the back of the throat and on the tongue that tells you it’s time to drink a cool glass of water or another beverage. But many people experience the opposite effect. They might accidentally become dehydrated and feel moody, tired, or experience other symptoms without feeling thirsty at all.
If this sounds like you, you might wonder why you’re never thirsty and what it might mean for your long-term health. Today, let’s explore the causes of a lack of thirst and go over ways you can stay hydrated even if you have this biological quirk.
The Normal Purpose of Thirst
Thirst plays an important role in your body: it tells you when you are dehydrated and need to consume water. Technically, by the time you experience any level of thirst, you are mildly dehydrated and could experience symptoms like:
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- Dry mouth
However, thirst itself is not a major alarm or sign of concern. It’s a normal feeling only meant to inspire you to locate a glass of water.
But the thirst instinct can occasionally be overridden, even if you are mild to moderately dehydrated. When this occurs, you may forget to drink water or may not rehydrate yourself unless prompted in some other way.
For example, your body may alert you to its dehydrated state by:
- Not producing sweat, even when exercising or in hot weather
- Dark urine with a pungent smell
- Skin drying out, even if humidity is at an acceptable level
- Insomnia
- Energy swings
- Cramps, especially when participating in physical activity
Furthermore, if you are never thirsty, it could indicate underlying medical conditions or problems that require more intense intervention.
What Happens When You’re Not Thirsty?
If you’re not thirsty, it usually means you are properly hydrated! In that case, you can continue to drink, but you don’t need to. Odds are your body will pass most of the excess fluids through your urine or sweat.
However, if you’re not thirsty but are dehydrated, you could accidentally slip further into a dehydrated state. By forgetting to drink water (and humans need between four to six cups of water per day), you could accidentally experience the symptoms of severe dehydration, including but not limited to:
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Muscle spasms or cramps
- Confusion or even hallucinations
- Nausea without vomiting
- Seizures or tremors
- Muscle weakness
- Lethargy or malaise
- Blurred or double vision
- Increased appetite
- Unexplained agitation
- Unexplained weight loss
- Moodiness or mood swings
Becoming severely dehydrated is bad for your health both short and long term. Chronic and repeated dehydration may also lead to ongoing medical conditions and may even shorten your lifespan. In short, it’s never a good idea to let your body stay dehydrated at all.
What if You Need Water but Aren’t Thirsty?
If you regularly experience mild to moderate dehydration but are rarely thirsty, your condition could be due to several root causes or health factors.
Genetics
Some people simply may not have as much of a thirst reflex or instinct as others. In these cases, they need to train themselves to drink water regularly, even if they don’t get the urge to drink as often as others.
Even if you don’t experience thirst frequently, you’ll still experience the effects of dehydration just as readily and severely.
Dehydration
Ironically, becoming dehydrated in the first place could prevent you from feeling thirsty as dehydration progresses. The exact cause of this isn’t fully understood, but scientists believe that losing enough water to upset your body’s systems and signals could also be enough to interrupt the thirst reflex.
In other words, becoming dehydrated could confuse your body enough that it fails to send signals to your throat and mouth to tell you you’re thirsty. When this happens, you could accidentally slide even further into dehydration as a result.
If you suffer from this regularly, be sure to consider the other signs mentioned above, which could be indicators of dehydration.
Illness or Chronic Issues
Lastly, certain illnesses or chronic issues may also interrupt your thirst reflex and prevent you from feeling thirsty even if you need water. For example, diabetes, physical exhaustion, and mental disorders may all prevent you from feeling thirsty when your body needs water.
If you are diagnosed with any of these chronic conditions or another disease, your doctor or physician should inform you about the potential for dehydration without feeling thirst.
How To Alleviate Dehydration and Regain Thirst
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter why you don’t feel thirsty when you are dehydrated. There are ways to keep your body properly hydrated and avoid the negative symptoms of dehydration, especially if you’re willing to set up a new routine.
Get Medical Assistance
If you’re severely dehydrated, you should consider seeking medical assistance ASAP. This is especially true if your lack of thirst is caused by a chronic condition like diabetes or an injury. Trauma, in many cases, can also arrest the thirst instinct and cause you to become dehydrated even if your body desperately needs water.
Drink Water and Electrolytes
If you aren’t severely dehydrated, you can set yourself up for success and stay hydrated by creating new daily routines to ensure you drink plenty of water and electrolytes. For example, make sure you have a full glass of water with each meal and prepare a glass of water to sit by your bedside to drink first thing in the morning.
If you set glasses of water in the right places, you’ll train yourself to drink the water without thinking about it. While this won’t fix your thirst instinct (most likely), it will help you avoid dehydration through proactive water absorption.
You might also try setting up reminders or alarms on your phone (for instance, a recurring alarm that tells you to take a drink every four hours).
Try an IV Infusion
Next Health offers IV drip infusions that can help rehydrate your body and give it the nutrients it needs for maximum wellness and hydration. That’s because each IV drip infusion starts with a Myer’s co*cktail Base, which includes water and plenty of electrolytes to ensure maximum water absorption by your body’s cells.
Even better, an IV drip infusion can rehydrate you more rapidly than taking a regular drink. Any fluids and nutrients are provided straight to your bloodstream, so they don’t have to go through your stomach and intestines before absorption.
IV infusions are great for rapid rehydration, especially if you’ve just finished an intense exercise session or sporting event.
Summary
As you can see, it’s not at all rare or even dangerous to not feel thirsty very often. So long as you train yourself to drink water regularly or pay attention to other dehydration signs, you won’t experience any long-term or severe side effects from this quirk.
Plus, signing up for a Next Health IV drip infusion may help you feel hydrated and reenergized in no time at all. Our IV drip therapy is a perfect solution for good health improvement, hangover detox, immune system support, and other health needs.
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