Living in Arizona has made me realize the importance of staying hydrated, expecially in summer. Doing some review of literature on this matter caused me to re-discover an excellent article. “Current US Military Fluid Replacement Guidelines” by Kilka, Latzka, Montain and Sawka is a wonderful work on this subject for several reasons.
The article addresses several areas that were previously unanswered such as overhydration, electrolyte imbalance, type of clothing and gear and practicality.
A series of tables that look at WBGT (wet bulb globe temperature) and level of work exertion make the data easy to understand. Previous articles I have read did not actually quantify what was “easy work” versus “hard work”. Obviously, the majority of this data comes from military participants and looks at work related to typical military duties.