On the Road to Euhydration
Author: Peyton Hines | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Spring 2025
Over the last year, I have been studying the validity and reliability of the weight, urine, and thirst (WUT) hydration system with Dr. McDermott. The WUT hydration system is a Venn diagram that individuals can use to assess their hydration status by looking at their body weight, urine color, and how thirsty they feel. When combined, dark urine color, high levels of thirst, and lower body weight (than normal) provide a strong indication of hypohydration. WUT may be used for anyone, but is especially useful for athletes or military personnel, so that they may assess their hydration status and adequately replace fluid loss throughout a workout in order to avoid the potential health effects hypohydration may cause. Hypohydration is the state of total body water deficit and dehydration is the process of achieving that state. On the other hand, hyperhydration is a state of excess total body water and rehydration is the process of attempting to achieve hyperhydration. A perfect balance of total body water is euhydration.
When I began my search to find a mentor, I wasn’t sure what kind of topic I wanted to research or even how to begin the process of finding a mentor. Last fall, I took a Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries class and had the privilege of Professor McDermott teaching the class. He introduced his research specialty in thermoregulation- a topic I had previously done a project on in my human physiology lab. I enjoyed learning about thermoregulation and how hydration status can affect the body’s responses to exercise so I figured his lab might be a good place to work on my thesis. He was super informative and welcoming when I asked him to be my mentor. He picked a thesis topic for me based on his current lab project and data collection began the next week!
Through research for my thesis proposal and working in the lab, I learned a lot about the specifics of hydration status within the human body and all of the potential acute and chronic effects of hypohydration (dehydration to those not in the hydration field). I also discovered that I do not drink nearly enough water throughout the day, oops! One challenge we had to work through was figuring out how to measure total urine volume if someone filled up multiple liter jugs. We ended up dumping all of the jugs into a large bucket and measuring based off of that. We also ran into a few issues with participants not providing realistic urine output for an entire 24-hour period and having to scratch certain data points to ensure accuracy.
Dr. McDermott is an outstanding mentor! He is always willing to answer questions, review my thesis proposal work, and offer encouragement to keep going. Shawn Wierick and Rosie Perez, two graduate students working in the lab, also spent a lot of time and effort working on data collection and helping to review my work and ensure accuracy. Next, I plan to finish the data analysis for our study and then work on my honors thesis throughout my senior year. I plan to defend my thesis in Spring of 2026 before I graduate! After graduation, I plan to continue my education and earn my doctorate as a physical therapist.