Thirst – Intracellular Thirst and Extracellular Thirst. 

“Thirst” is largely defined as “a craving for something to drink”.

But do you know that thirst has some types and kinds to it?

And that your body and mind respond to these kinds of thirst differently?

That is what we are going to talk about today!

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We all carry brains inside our skulls on our heads, right?

Inside these skulls of ours, there is a particular organ in the brain called the hypothalamus.

This hypothalamus is quite hidden in our brains and is solely responsible for regulating body temperature, sleep and appetite among other functions.

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With special sensors on it, the hypothalamus monitors the concentration of useful compounds like sodium in your blood

Just in case your body signals for more intake of water, the brain should be able to pick up that signal in time.

And that is how the brain interprets two types of thirst….we will use easier names to distinguish them.

We have intracellular thirst and extracellular thirst.

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When it comes to intracellular thirst, its real simple.

This is the kind of thirst we feel when we need to drink more water!

How it come about is quite complex but let’s see if we can find an easier way of understanding this science.

First of all, the other name of intracellular thirst is osmotic thirst and it basically happens when water is drawn out of our body cells.

Case in point is when you go to the bar, have some salted nuts or fries and two bites or chews in, you feel you really need a drink! (please don’t let the bar owner or party organiser know that I snitched on them)

That is because the concentration of salts in your body has just grown bigger hence sucking out as much water out of your body cells as possible hence the urgent need to have a drink!

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Now, we turn the page to extracellular thirst.

The other name for extracellular thirst is hypovolemic thirst and with it,

The body loses fluids through processes like sweating or bleeding or any other way as a guarantee that the volume of your blood is reduced.

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Now, don’t crucify me since I am no medical personnel.

I wrote this article with a particular leaning towards the psychological part of the brain and how it deals with thirst.

Also, there is tonnes of publications, more detailed, of course about thirst that you could fancy reading slowly, in your free time.

Photo credit: Psychology 

Isn’t the human body a fascinating organ, in its wholeness?

Isn’t the human brain even more fascinating when you learn things like this about it?

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Hey, do not make life so hard for your body.

Because if you do, the body has a very nasty way of responding back to you and chances are very high you will not like the experience!

You could turn out disoriented, have a low blood pressure, develop a rapid heartbeat, fever, lack of sweat, and inelastic skin could show up on you!

Drink your water as much as you can and let the body organs inside you do the rest, okay?

We don’t want you all dehydrated and super skinny and fazed out like you haven’t seen the sun in ages, eh?