Health Benefits of Drinking Water

Ok, that one is out of the way, if you are still here, that means most likely that you are a healthy person that is curious to learn to know if s/he drinks enough water and how much water you should drink. Lets see first how much water the body needs - and loses - everyday:

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Whilst there are many symptoms that go together with a dehydrated body (means a body that has not enough water) such as tiredness, headache, dry skin etc a really easy method to see if you need more water is to look at the color of your -drumroll- urine! I know, from friends that serve in the military, that a lot of armies that deploy soldiers into hot climates actually put urine color charts up in each toilet to make this easier – no joke. So, how do you now evaluate your urine at home, without the help of an army approved urine color chart? Very easy. Do you know the color of white wine like Chardonnay? (I am sure you do!), this pale yellow color should be the color of your urine when your body is well hydrated. The darker your urine is, the more in need of additional water is your body. If it has the color of ale or Guinness, you are in real trouble!

Another tell-tale sign is your skin. Just lift, with two finders and gently!, the loose skin on your hand up a bit and let it go again. If it falls back without leaving any folds, you are fine, if it takes some while until the fold disappears - you are dehydrated!

After so much talking about how much water a human body needs, now something about what kind of water you should give to your body. Not all water is equal!

Have you already started to wonder why I write the whole time stubbornly 'water' and don't use the more general term 'liquid'? That has a good reason, actually more than one:

First of all not all liquids add to your daily water intake. Take coffee or beer for example, they contain a huge amount of water, but they also contain certain substances that make them 'diuretic' (forcing the body to excrement more water than normal) and this means that you end up losing more water than what was in the cup of coffee you just drunk. So, when calculating your daily water intake you should only count:

• Clear Water

• Herbal Teas

• Fruit Juices (best diluted with -you guessed it- water!)

and nothing else. And that brings us to the next question:

The simple answer would be, the water you have! Tap water is normally fine in most parts of the world. If you live in an area with hard water or if you simply don't like the taste of it (chlorine is a common offender for this), consider buying a water filter. I prefer the Brita Filter system, but there are also others around. Word of mouth is a good method to see which filter system is the favorite one in your neighborhood – and for your water.

Bottled water is also fine, it is normally of higher quality as simple tap water, but it can also get pricey over time, depending on which brand you prefer. As for teas and juices, also here is true that you get what you pay for. The higher quality you want to have the more you have to pay for it. You can make juices last longer by diluting them with water, that reduces also your overall calories intake.

Remember these old adventure stories that played in colonial Africa and India? Remember 'salt tablets'? Salt is an important factor to keep water in your body, instead of losing it immediately. Take an athlete for example, that runs a marathon race and drinks only pure water, he or she never will make it to the finishing line, they will break down because of – dehydration! The reason for this, seemingly paradox, event is that a runner loses a lot of salts and minerals with his sweat. If he replaces only the lost water, but not the lost salts and minerals, his body is unable to keep the water in the body, he dehydrates despite the fact of drinking enough water. Additionally he will also suffer from severe cramps due to the imbalance of electrolytes in his body. Not nice!

Now, before you now go off and buy some fancy electrolytes containing sport drink, that might not be necessary. For human beings that just exercise normally, normal salt will do. Also here I can tell you a little trick. I used to do a lot of long-distance walking and I always carried a tiny container with table salt with me. From time to time, I would carefully lick some salt crystals. The trick to determine the right dose is simple, as long as it tastes good your body is still in need of salt, when it starts to taste ugly, your body has enough salt. Salt and water need to be in balance (called isotonic) for your body to function at its best, but it is not rocket science to achieve that. You simply have to learn some simple biological facts (which you should have done when you finished this article) and learn to listen to your bodies signals.

Apart of drowning, you mean? Yes, but you must be either very stupid or very unfortunate to die of water intoxication. The few reported cases have been either been contestants in a 'Who can drink the most water'-contest (that are the stupid, or should I better say the misguided ones) and small children or elderly people that suffered from a massive diarrhea or similar cause of a huge water and electrolyte loss and got only the lost water replenished, but not the electrolytes. This is also called water poisoning and is always considered to be a severe mistake in medical treatment of any form of water loss. There are also other, rare cases and diseases known to doctor-kind that can cause this but generally speaking it is really, really difficult for a healthy adult to drink accidentally so much water that it causes health problems. Just keep the above mentioned key points (urine color and regular salt intake) in mind, and you will be fine.

Water has many benefits, one of them is that it really helps to lose weight. This happens via two mechanisms, the first is that drinking water often calms down the hunger signals the brain is sending and second is that it pre-fills the stomach before a meal, making it less likely that you eat too much. Another, less researched reason, could be that a well hydrated body has a better functioning liver which breaks down fat more easily.

Water, as in good hydration, can help to clean up a lot of skin problems and even prevent smaller wrinkles. You will see and feel the difference in your skin after a few weeks of re-hydrating your body! It even helps against cellulite ;-)

Experience shows that old people often lose their appetite for water and literally forget to drink enough of it. And as loss of concentration and orientation is one of the early signs of dehydration, these people enter quickly into a vicious circle of not drinking enough and forgetting to drink due to their confusion. If I would get a dollar for every senior citizen we treated in hospital for this problem, I would be rich and retired by now ;-) The most amazing thing is to see how quickly these patients recuperated after receiving a saline infusion via drip. They were as clear and orientated as you and me in no time, just by replenishing their bodies with water and salt! What brings us to the last question:

This tips are as valid for yourself as for a person you care for.

First of all would be to make sure that there is no contraindication present against an increased water intake (see my disclaimer above).

Then start a water diary to determine how much water and other liquids you actually drink. It is important to make the calculation so that 'good liquids' like water, herbal teas and juices are counted as positive and 'diuretic liquids' like alcoholic drinks and coffee / black tea etc as negative in the end balance. An example:

+1,5l Water

+0.5l Herbal Tea

-0.5l Beer

gives an actual liquid intake of only 1l, as the beer 'equals out' the herbal tea. This is obvious not a die hard rule, but something to bear in mind when you think about how to increase your intake of liquids the healthy way.

After you have determined how much you already drink effectively, you can now increase slowly your water intake up to the desired level. A good way to remind yourself to drink enough is always to have a glass of water at hand and to take sips frequently. Keeping a water diary for a while helps you to see if are are closing in at your goals and helps you to keep on track. An additional help can it be to set aside the bottles of water you want to drink in one day and be determined to have them emptied by nightfall.

You should start your water intake before breakfast and should have drunken nearly all of it around two hours before you go to bed, to ensure an undisturbed sleep. During the day it is better to continuously sip the water, rather than to gulping two glasses down in a short time and then nothing for hours.

If you enjoyed this article it would be nice if you give it a thumb up and / or use the share function to spread the word. If you have any questions, suggestions, critics or praise, feel free to voice them in a comment and I promise to come back to you. Until then, Cheers to water!