Quote:
Originally posted by mcrowder
Last Saturday - a normal day, mid-to-high 70's in the afternoon, actually kind of chilly when the day started at 9.
Didn't feel especially thirsty during the day. Worked 6 games, and drank 1 gatorade between games 5 and 6. No abnormal loss of sweat, felt great all day.
Saturday night I started running a mild fever. No big deal. 2 Tylenol, and go to bed. Sunday morning, still a fever, getting achy. Advil, Tylenol, Advil, Tylenol. Dammit, which kid got me sick.
Monday, went to work. Left at noon feeling like crap. Temp 103.6 - went to the doctor. I was "dangerously dehydrated". Find out I now have a kidney infection. Took until this morning to get my temperature under 100 for more than an hour at a time.
Worst part - had to find a substitute for my 5 ball games this week! 
Wanted to pass this along. If I can prevent just 1 of you from having the week I just had, it's worth it.
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Kent Holm, a contributing writer for Officiating.com, has provided us with a four-part series (
Fluid Dynamics) on the latest
research into hydration. The separate articles will show up on 18-19-24-26 May. Here's one section from Part I:
Feeling "thirsty"
Thirst is defined as "a sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat caused by need of liquid" and "the physical condition resulting from this need."
Conventional wisdom indicates that by the time you are thirsty, you are already somewhat dehydrated. Another NFHS recommendation is to drink enough to replace any weight loss from exercise, and, ideally, to do that within two hours of exercising. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) President W. Larry Kenney, Ph.D., backs that up, indicating that "... thirst alone is not the best indicator of dehydration or the body's fluid needs."
He goes on to say: Relying on thirst to determine an active individual's fluid replacement needs is inadequate, especially so in older exercisers. As we age, thirst becomes an even poorer indicator of the body's fluid needs.That's sound advice for officials who are certainly "older" on average than the players we officiate. We keep getting older, while the kids we officiate, maintain their same relative age. But of course we still need to keep up with them!
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