Question

1A. You are on a 2-day hiking trip to the Superstition Mountains.  You pack food and enough water for the trail but 4 hours into your hike, you slip on some loose rocks and fall into a ravine.  Your backpack falls into a deeper crevice that you can’t reach.  All of your water in your backpack is lost, so you decide to go back to the trailhead where you started.  As you hike back, the temperature climbs to 98^OF.  Explain what happens to your urine concentration and why?

1B. If you are lost in the desert in Arizona during the summer, describe why it would not be beneficial to save your urine and try to use it to hydrate your body?

Answer 1

Ans 1a) In this case, there is no water available as it has fallen off with the backpack and while hiking back, the temperature rises to 98 F. When this happens the body tends to conserve as much water it can to avoid dehydration and hence in order to do that, the kidney maintains as much as water it can and reduces the formation of urine. Hence the urine is very concentrated and less. Generally when the temperature is high, in order to cool the body there is increase sweating and to conserve the water, urine formation is less.

Ans b) When you in Arizona, there is increase dehydration and the concentration of the urine formation tends to decrease. Due to the low formation of urine, it tends to contain many electrolytes and ions and hence the urine cannot be used for hydration. With the consumption of the urine, due to the high concentration or accumulation of salt, it tends to cause salt imbalance.