Probably the most difficult challenge for many dialysis patients is reducing the amount they drink each day. This is not surprising, as many patients are often recommended to drink less than one litre of water per day. However, this is incredibly important for your health and there are a number of practical tips that can support you in your controlled drinking behaviour.
Learn to estimate how much you drink
Learn to estimate the amount of liquid in your drinks. How much water is in a small, medium, and large glass? How much liquid is in a coffee? These are all things you'll know after a few days of actively looking them up while you sleep.
Drink slowly and in a controlled manner, spread throughout the day
Don't gulp it all down at once! Experienced dialysis patients also divide the total amount they drink throughout the day and get into the habit of regular daily rhythms in order to have good control over their fluid intake.
Drink more warm than cold drinks
You should drink more warm or hot drinks than cold drinks.
Let the liquid circulate in your mouth
So you can perceive the taste and the liquid longer and more intensively in your mouth.
Suck candy, sour drops, or ice cubes and suck out lemon wedges
This keeps your mouth busy, distracts it, and gives you a continuous flow of saliva and liquid to keep your mouth moist.
Try more bitter drinks
Why? The bitters in tea with lemon, bitter lemon and so on stimulate salivation. So you tend to have a less dry mouth and therefore feel less thirsty.
Rinse your mouth several times a day
A wet and regularly rinsed mouth will reduce the feeling of thirst. This works especially well if you add a squeeze of lemon to the water.
Reduce sweet, salty and spicy foods & drinks
They increase your body's sense of thirst. You can find more tips & tricks on low-salt diets in other articles on the Mizu app.
Keep your lips moist
This reduces the feeling of thirst. Lip balm or lip creams are also help with this.
Take medications with your diet
Every medication requires a sip of water - that's how we know it. But have you ever considered taking medication with a bite of food? That way, you can consume the amount of water it saves you at another time.
Watch out especially during the long weekend
It has even been scientifically proven by medical studies that the weekend interval is dangerous. The longer dialysis break causes dialysis patients to be more overhydrated. This becomes visible when weighing in for the first dialysis the following week. Since you have to bridge twice the time without dialysis, consciously reduce your drinking quantity on the weekend or do sports and go to the sauna.
Don't trick yourself
Food also contains fluid. Even if you pretend to not know this in front of your doctor, in reality you surely know that foods like yogurt, watermelon or soups (!) also contain fluids. The red flesh of the watermelon, for example, consists of 98% water.
These tricks should help you reduce the amount you drink. There are a few more that you will find on the internet and in books. Basically, different tricks work for everyone, because everyone is different. It is important that you get used to your personal mix of tricks that work for you. By the way, especially with drinks like Coca Cola, Fanta or beer, you should always pay attention to food additives, because they are often real phosphate bombs.
But the most important tip is still missing!
But we haven't even touched on the easiest way to get your fluid balance under control yet: sweating. The math is simple: the more you sweat, the less you need to limit the amount you drink. Sports of all kinds are ideal for this - the more you sweat, the better. And even if you're not the type of person to do backflips and mountain runs, you can take it easy - even a little exercise will help. Many dialysis patients have also taken to going to the sauna 1-2 times a week. This is another passive way to increase the amount you drink!
