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I understand that the two leading causes of death from dehydration is imbalance in electrolytes and loss of blood pressure. I'm trying to understand what role water is playing in these cases and how the loss of it causes these imbalances, focusing for now on the blood pressure angle.

While I understand that blood is made up heavily of water, I'm still a little confused why dehydration so quickly leads to drop in blood pressure. Why can't the body continue to pump the already existing blood through the body, where is it using the water to keep the blood pressure up and what vital function is no longer being performed that causes that pressure to drop?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hmm.... So I can imagine, that because of a reduced water level in the blood, it becomes more sticky and is pumped harder through the vessels. This may decrease the blood pressure $\endgroup$
    – SeRe
    Jul 22, 2016 at 23:51
  • $\begingroup$ May this article helps you, too :) reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/31ini6/… $\endgroup$
    – SeRe
    Jul 23, 2016 at 1:14

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The blood pressure is the exertion of force upon the blood vessels by the blood fluids. Thus having less fluids will results in decreased pressure.

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