The headache that turns out to be dehydration

The headache that turns out to be dehydration Writing it up because I had to work it out twice and would rather nobody else did.

Reporting what I changed and what happened, with the caveat that I changed two things at once and therefore know less than I would like.

Over 15 weeks: fluid up, salt up, both by an amount I recorded. Symptoms improved. I cannot separate the two changes and I cannot rule out that it would have settled anyway.

How would you design this so the next person gets an answer rather than an anecdote?

Adding the measurement that the opening post says would settle it.

Where I have landed on headache, having got it wrong once in public: the direction is clear, the magnitude is not, and anyone quoting a precise magnitude has borrowed it from somewhere that did not measure it.

The most useful posts here describe what was measured, what was changed, and what happened, in that order.

Two people can read the same figure differently here and both be reasonable.

Orthostatic symptoms: dizziness on standing after lying down can indicate dehydration or electrolyte depletion. Increasing fluids, salt, and potassium usually resolves it.

One of those cases where knowing the mechanism does not help the decision.

Commercial rehydration formulations are designed for a specific purpose and are not equivalent to a sports drink, whatever the marketing suggests.

I would rather be precise about what I do not know than vague about what I do.

The arithmetic in post #5 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.

I would put moderate confidence on the mainstream reading of headache and no more. That is not scepticism for its own sake; it is where the sourcing actually stops.

No disagreement from me. Posting only so the question does not look ignored.

Answering the headache question as asked, then the question I think is meant. As asked: yes, with the qualification below. As meant: it depends on how the first measurement was taken.

Adding salt to food is the intervention most consistently reported as helping and is also the one least likely to cause harm.

Not a strong opinion, just a consistent one.

Post #9 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.

Symptoms attributed to electrolytes here are non-specific and overlap with dehydration, low intake and poor sleep. Attribution from symptoms alone is unreliable.

Speaking for myself and not for anyone else who has posted here.

I read post #8 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.

Offering a way to settle headache rather than another opinion about it. Two measurements, taken the same way, a fortnight apart. If the difference is within the noise, the question was not answerable at this precision.

That is the distinction I keep failing to hold on to. Written down now.

The bit of headache that nobody enjoys is that the answer changes depending on what you are trying to decide with it. Say what the decision is and the thread will converge.