Desert Survival

I must stress having plenty of spares and enough water for everyone in case of abreakdown in the back country. With today's modern transportation, it's quite asimple thing to get stranded 45 miles from nowhere and no water. Make sureyou've got a few gallons of it before you go.

1) Control loss of body fluids. Urinate as little as possible. Save it for whenit can be recycled through a solar still. Don't depend on them to provide yourparty with water. In optimim conditions, a solar still can provide a pint or twoof water a day, not adequate by any means to keep one alive.) Diarhhea in atemperate climate can quickly lead to death by dehydration. Avoid alcohol, whichcontributes to dehydration, and any diuretics such as coffee and caffeinatedsodas.

2) Avoid Sweating. Control your level of perspiration as much as possible. Thismeans avoiding the sun. Stay in the shade. Save shelter construction, watercollection, and all other tasks for night time if possible. Construct a bed thatkeeps you off the ground and allows air to circulate under you if possible. Donot lie on the ground. Try to keep fully clothed as clothing holds the sweat inso it will evaporate slower, cooling the body and decreasing perspiration. Youmay feel cooler without a shirt, but will perspire more and also risk adebilitating and dehydrating painful sunburn. It gets cold in the desert atnight, sometimes, uncomfortably cold. During the day, I'd try to sack out onsomething that circulates air underneath me, but at night, I'd look forinsulation. Some of this depends on the time of year and good ole common sense.Use what you have.)

3) Avoid Smoking. Smoking tobacco will dry the throat and add to your thirst.

4) Suck on a pebble. It's an "old Indian trick" but it works. Sucking on apebble helps produce saliva, keeping your mouth moist and diminishing thesensation of thirst.

5) Avoid Salt Water. Should you find yourself on a coastline do not drink thesea water. Recycle it through a solar still. Have several solar stills. One isnot nearly enough.

6) Do not drink Urine. This would obviously be a last resort, but it will onlycause you more problems as your kidneys attempt to process waste products youare re-introducing to the body. The more dehydrated you are the more toxic yoururine will be. Recycle it through a solar still. Drinking alcohol, salt water,blood, and urine will only increase the effects of dehydration. Water that ismore than 50% salt will increase dehydration while that which is less than 50%contaminated will increase the body's relative water content.

7) Eat Sparingly. Digestion requires water. Proteins require more water thancomplex carbohydrates, starches, and sugars. Raw fruits and vegetation containgreater water content than many processed foods. Avoid salty foods. I've oftenseen middle eastern people eating melons, especially watermelon, in the desertsetting. This idea has alot of merit to it.

Watermelon has a pronounced diuretic effect. Perhaps the Middle Easterners havea genetic or acquired resistance to it.

The "avoid salty foods" does lessen your may reduce thirst, but are continuouslylosing essential salts [electrolytes] in sweat, so don't avoid salt so much thattip over into salt-depletion heat exhaustion. [Very similar symptoms to waterdepletion. Get very thirsty, but no amount of water will quench the thirst andwill even make it worse.

8) Breathe through your nose and limit talking.

9) Avoid rationing. If you attempt to ration water at the rate of one or twoquarts a day you will not avoid dehydration any longer than if you drank a fullgallon. Although you might psychlogically alleviate thirst, in high temperaturesyour body will still dehydrate at a constant rate. Perspiration should berationed. (Which means to ration physical activity) 50% salt solution by weightwould be roughly 500 grams sodium chloride per litre [1000 ml] water, which isclose enough to 1000 grams of water. Water won't dissolve this much salt. Asaturated solution of sodium chloride [ "salt"] in water would be 265 grams saltin 1000 grams of water, or 26.5% solution. Any more added salt would sit on thebottom, undissolved. And certainly wouldn't want to drink a 26.5% solution,Unless had taken a poison and wanted to induce instant vomiting.

Decades ago the advice was to "ration" water to small sips. No real advantage indoing this in most cases. As dehydration increases, the ability to thinkclearly decreases. Better to try to stay reasonably alert than try to rationwater and stumble past water sources in a daze.

Depending on heat and humidity, "rationing physical activity" can mean "noactivity in any possible shade".

"Though the material that gives seawater its salty flavor is composed of manysubstances, sodium chloride, or common salt, is by far the predominant compound.On the assumption that 1 gallon (about 4 litres) of seawater contains 0.231pound (about 105 grams) of salt and that rock salt on the average is 2.17 timesas dense as water, it has been estimated that if the oceans of the world werecompletely dried up they would yield at least 4.5 million cubic miles of rocksalt, or about 14.5 times the bulk of the entire continent of Europe above thehigh-water mark. Seawater contains on the average about 3 percent salt, althoughthe actual concentration varies from about 1 percent (in the polar seas) to 5percent. Enclosed waters such as the Mediterranean and Red seas contain a higherproportion of salt than does the open ocean at the same latitude. Irrespectiveof the source of the seawater, salt obtained by the evaporation of seawater hasthe following composition:

sodium chloride ..... 77.76%, magnesium chloride .. 10.88%, magnesium sulfate.... 4.74%, calcium sulfate ...... 3.60%, potassium chloride ... 2.46%,magnesium bromide .... 0.22%, calcium carbonate .... 0.34%."

Suppose the sea water had a lower salt concentration from a large inflowingriver, tropical storm, etc. At what level of salt would it be worthwhiledrinking? I would hate to guess, personally. Both the magnesium chloride andmagnesium sulfate are used as cathartic effects and are used as purgatives.[extreme laxatives] Which means if you drank much of it you would get extremediarrhoea which would empty the stomach and intestines of both food and fluid,leaving you worse off. Sea water would be fine for solar stills, though.

You need more than one or two. If warm and sunny enough to make the stills workwell, the survivor will probably be dehydrating faster than the stills producewater. Thin plastic is OK for solar stills, is lightweight and cheap, has otheruses.

Dehydration the loss of water from the body; it is almost invariably associatedwith some loss of salt (sodium chloride) as well. The treatment of any form ofdehydration, therefore, requires not only the replacement of the water lost fromthe body but also the restoration of the normal concentration of salt within thebody fluid.

Dehydration may be caused by restriction of water intake or by excessive waterloss. The commonest cause of dehydration is failure to drink liquids. Thedeprivation of water is far more serious than the deprivation of food. Theaverage person loses approximately 2.5% of total body water per day (about 1,200milliliters [1.25 quarts]) in urine, in expired air, by insensible perspiration,and from the gastrointestinal tract. If, in addition to this loss, the lossthrough perspiration is greatly increased--as is demonstrated in the case of theshipwrecked sailor in tropical seas or the traveler lost in the desert--withinonly a few hours the dehydration may result in shock and death. When swallowingis difficult in extremely ill persons, or when people cannot respond to a senseof thirst because of age or illness or dulling of consciousness, the failure tocompensate for the daily loss of body water will rapidly result in dehydrationand its consequences. "

IMHO, this is info is far more accurate than the over-optimistic advice in somesurvival books and manuals, especially the military ones. It is quite possibleto die within hours if try to walk around in the sun. Perhaps this is due tofact that insolation is higher in southern hemisphere than northern. [lesspopulation, lower pollution, much more heat from sun reaching ground per unitarea] Leave a steel crowbar on the ground here for 20 minutes in summer and canbe too hot to pick up with bare hands.