Smart urinals???

[jaylach]

I hope this is not offensive to anyone but can't really see a reason as to why it would be so.

This, at first, sounds funny and off the wall but is actually probably a good idea.

I was watching Good Morning Football this morning and was struck by a story they presented. The NFL's Jacksonville Jags has installed 'smart urinals' in their locker room. They have a sensor that checks the urine for hydration. If the sensor shows a green light you are... ahem... 'good to go'. If it lights up yellow you need to hydrate yourself. If it lights up red you need to see a trainer about an IV.

Out of the gate it sounds kind of silly but, with the hydration issues in the NFL, I think it is actually a really good idea.

 

[Ichthys]

I can’t see the need for it. If your pee is transparent, like water, you’re hydrated. If it’s yellow you’re not. The degree of yellowness tells you how much you’re not.

 

[Colin_T]

What if you had a vitamin B tablet and have yellow tinkle?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

When I'm thirsty, or sweating a lot, I drink a lot of water. How oh how did our ancestors ever survive?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Maybe football players are not as smart as our ancestors?

And what if some foreign enemy hacks into the NFL urinals? The could change green to red and red to green.................

 

[jaylach]

LOL! Keep in mind that a LOT of NFL players are not all that smart as they went through college due to being able to knock someone down. Dehydration is actually a big problem in the NFL.

 

[gwand]

When I'm thirsty, or sweating a lot, I drink a quite a lot of water. How oh how did our ancestors ever survive?

The ancestors with poor sense of thirst probably didn’t survive

 

[jaylach]

The ancestors with poor sense of thirst probably didn’t survive

The thing is that dehydration isn't about thirst. I've lived in Ft. Worth Texas and Jacksonville Beach Florida. In both places you can become dangerously dehydrated and never feel thirsty due to the high humidity. This leads to heat stroke.

 

[gwand]

You are correct. However, before I retired, I was a Neuroendocrinologist and took care of many patients with reduced thirst sensation. Several NFL players were my patients in fact. They were required to be on a fixed water ingestion schedule that varied by ambient temperature and humidity. Many older adults acquire this abnormality as a function of aging.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I don't necessarily wait until I'm thirsty. I just know to drink a lot when it's hot or I'm working hard. I think it's harder in team athletics because there's a pressure to go, go, go, and you don't want to stop to drink often for fear of appearing weak or letting everyone down. Highly physical sports like football might be even worse yet because the ability to press on through pain and discomfort is seen as a great virtue, so players just get in the habit of ignoring what their bodies are telling them.

Maybe the key to preventing dehydration is not caring what your teammates think...but that doesn't make for great football teams.

 

[Colin_T]

When I'm thirsty, or sweating a lot, I drink a lot of water. How oh how did our ancestors ever survive?

Our ancestors survived because they can store water in their butt cheeks (yes that's true) and they don't need as much water as modern white people do. This is legit, the Kalahari bush men, Australian aboriginals, and central American Indians don't need as much water as white folks do to survive. They adapted to survive on less water. These groups of people can go for several days without drinking and not suffer cramps or dehydration like most people do. It's due to them evolving in dryer climates and having less water to drink.

On the other hand, eastern Europeans had access to lots of water and lost the ability to store water and sweat less, and we need to drink a couple of litres of water per day so we don't drop dead.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The college Football Allstars-

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Our ancestors survived because they can store water in their butt cheeks

I'm not fat, I'm just storing water for a dry day...

 

[Colin_T]

I'm not fat, I'm just storing water for a dry day...

it's like sitting on a water bed