Do you have days when you just feel thirsty all day? It might simply mean that you should be drinking a little more. But do you drink enough and feel like this can’t be the cause? Then it might indicate one of these five underlying causes.
What feeling thirsty all the time could mean
1. Insufficient hydration
The most obvious reason for extreme thirst is that you’re not sufficiently hydrated. How much water you should drink exactly is difficult to say since this is different for everyone. Do you live somewhere with a hot climate or do you exercise a lot? Then you should obviously drink more. A good test is to take a look at your urine. The lighter the color, the better.
2. Diet
Your diet can also influence how thirsty you are during the day. For example, we know that the keto diet can have excessive thirst as a side effect. In this diet, carbohydrates are replaced by fat. This means that you eat a lot of creamy things like mayonnaise, cheese and whipped cream and you avoid rice, pasta and potatoes.
3. Thyroid problems
Symptoms of an overactive thyroid gland can differ per person. There’s no reason to panic when you’re experiencing excessive thirst and you have thyroid issues, but do try to keep an eye on the following other symptoms: weight loss, shaking hands, fatigue, anxiety attacks and feeling lightheaded. If you’re experiencing multiple of these symptoms in combination with excessive thirst, you might want to make an appointment with your doctor.
4. Diabetes
A common symptom of diabetes (both type 1 and 2) is feeling thirsty all the time and having to pee a lot. This has to do with the fact that your kidneys don’t work as well because they’re unable to hold back all of the glucose and your blood sugar levels are much too high. Glucose absorbs moisture and that’s why your kidneys will let through more moisture than usual. This results in more thirst and more frequent visits to the toilet.
5. Medication
There are a lot of medicines out there that have excessive thirst as one of their possible side effects. Examples of these are anti-allergy medicines, anti-depressants, and medicines against high blood pressure.
