Maintain hydration with 80-proof?

I always thought that alcohol acts as a diuretic, in the sense that is makes you pee, leading to dehydration. I can't wrap my head around why alcohol would make you dehydrated any other way, regardless of its concentration.

If I take some harmless dry chemical that suck water out, then put it a small glass of water yielding a non-toxic sludge with some water on top, wouldn't drinking the whole glass end up hydrating by the water was on top?

In the biological system, the only thing that would draw water out would be an imbalance in ions, specifically sodium. The drawing of water is due to a process called osmosis. This is why drinking salt water could potentially kill you of dehydration.

When you say dry chemical, are you talking about a liquid or a solid? I'm confused about your description, and how it ties into the original question. 

Dry by definition contain no liquid, I also mentioned sludge which is a mixture of dry & liquid. The sludge part wouldn't be hydrating, but the water would, just as the alcohol + water would maintain hydration, but once there's more than the balancing ration, it would become hydrating. If you drink a 3% beer, you're hydrating for sure.

Noted.

Alcohol and water dissolve due to their chemical structures being both polar. Any alcohol capable of forming hydrogen bonds with water are soluble, such as those we drink. In fact, they dissolve in water readily, that is, in any amount.


Assume we put a piece of cloth into a small glass of pure water. The cloth will absorb x amount of water, and the rest will be water. Drinking this mixture, which you call "sludge" would rehydrate you, yes.

Perhaps there's a language barrier between us, which is not making me understand your intention. Apologies.

We have a lesson on proof alcohol in case you're interested: