How Much Should I Drink
Water and Health
Water is vital to a person’s overall health. There are many vital qualities water plays in the human body. Water is responsible for the cleansing of harmful toxins and waste products which the body produces. Water also helps to regulate a person’s body temperature, metabolic rate, blood pressure, intestinal tract, stress levels, and numerous other major health functions. A lack of water can be extremely detrimental to the overall health of the human body. Dehydration can lead to many health problems which include muscle damage, an increase in the likelihood of contracting an illness, and the deterioration of the overall healthy mental state.
Water is the most abundant natural resource on the planet. Over two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with some form of water. The amazing thing is the amount of drinkable water is very small in comparison to the overall water supply in the world. It is estimated that less than 1% of the Earth’s overall water supply is considered drinkable. With such a small percentage of drinkable water on the Earth many have led panics that eventually the population will run out of viable fresh water supplies. While there is reason and cause for many people to be concerned about the polluting of a fresh water streams, there is no immediate signs that the Earth will stop having drinkable water in the immediate future.
The water cycle is the manner in which water travels throughout the ecosystem. A person watching the water cycle would soon realize that water reaching the ocean, and turning from fresh water into salt water is not permanently gone from the possibility of ever being drinkable again. Through the formation of clouds, salt water is changed into drinkable water, and is then deposited back onto land. Through rain and snow water is stored and reaches fresh water sources, and the water cycle continues. While the water cycle will continue to provide fresh water for a person’s use, it is important that we guard against practices which might interrupt or destroy the water cycle. Certain forms of mining which have hazardous tailings can cause large amounts of harm to massive subterranean water supplies. Dumping of waste into rivers and streams can deposit harmful byproducts into drinking water which will affect the health of those living downstream. The polluting of coastal ocean waters also has a harmful effect on the rain water which is produced and transported onto land. The fear of acid rain is also very destructive to the continuity and health of the drinkable water supply.
The first best way to augment a person’s health through the liquids they drink is to first help to maintain the integrity of the water cycle. This will help a person to have fresh clean water to drink and replenish their bodies. The number of dirty water related illnesses and long term disorders are always rising, and can really destroy any health goals which any person might have.
What is the Right Amount of Water to Drink?
Water is very important to the human body. A lack of water can lead illness and death; however, there is no simple formula telling a person how much water their body needs on a daily bases. The reasons for the lack of quantitative information about water levels in the body are due to the massive amounts of variables which exist and change the amounts of water which the human body is able to maintain and store.
The body can lose water through the breath, perspiration, and bowel movements. The water levels in the body can also be changed based on a person’s diet; foods which are extremely high in sodium can increase the water which is retained in the body due to the effect of sodium on cell bonding. This additional water though doesn’t help a person to maintain a healthy level of hydration, but rather causes the body to require more water to function in order to flush the system of the additional sodium. Water is involved in maintenance of the body’s internal temperature. The levels of water needed to maintain the internal temperature of the body will vary depending of the weather conditions and climate where a person lives. The warmer the climate outside of the body the more water is required inside the body in order to maintain a healthy temperature. A lack of water can lead to exhaustion and muscle fatigue. Studies have shown that those pushing their muscles while at a state of dehydration are at a much higher risk of suffering from a serious muscle related injury. Water is needed for proper muscle function and health. Another factor which researchers are now trying to understand more about is how a person fat percentage influences the amount of water their body requires.
The population of the United States has seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of people who are clinically and morbidly obese. The increase in the overall body mass of the population has lead many researchers to speculate about how much of an increase in water is needed to maintain the larger bodies. There is no definitive research yet on whether or not larger individuals are in more need of water. There is research which clearly shows that a person drinking 500 ml of water will have an increase in their metabolism—usually with the result of the additional water being manifested forty to fifty minutes after a person drinks the water. Through drinking additional water in a diet a person can burn over an extra hundred calories a day, a number which can certainly help a person over a long period of time to lose unwanted fat. Most research also supports the fact that a person who is overweight needs additional water throughout the day in order for their bodies to simply function properly.
Amazingly most Americans do not get enough water in their daily lives. This is quite incredible considering the sheer amount of healthy clean drinking water which the American population has at their fingertips. Some research shows that over half of the population will suffer from some form of dehydration throughout a normal day. Much of this is simply due to a lack of understanding of how much and when a person should partake of water.
Three Approaches to Hydration
There are three schools of thoughts which are commonly used to help a person determine how much water their bodies need.
The replacement approach tries to replenish the water which the body will traditionally lose throughout a normal day. The body will lose about 1.5 liters of water a day through the urinary tract. An additional liter of water is consumed by bowel movements, sweating, and breathing on an average day. This means in addition to a healthy diet, which normally contains about 20% of the fluids a human body needs, a person needs to drink a little more than 2 liters a day in order to maintain a healthy fluid level.
A popular approach to hydration is the eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day approach. There is little to no scientific reasoning behind the eight glasses of water approach to hydration. If a person does follow this method they will get just less than 2 liters of water a day, which as explained in the replacement method is just about how much water the water will lose each day. The real advantage to this approach of hydration is the ease of remembrance provided by the 8 x 8 rule.
The Institute of Medicine doesn’t have guidelines for water consumption, but it does have some general advice for the amount of water which a person needs to drink. It is advised by the Institute of Medicine that a man consumes roughly 3 liters of water a day, and that a woman needs to consume about 2.2 liters of water a day. They say these amounts should provide for the overall health of an individual.
Things to Consider About Hydration
Staying hydrated is one of the best things a person can do for the overall health of the human body. With so much clean water available for consumption it really shouldn’t be a terribly difficult thing for a person to maintain adequate levels of water hydration. There is some new information a person should consider about the vitamin levels in their body.
Many of the essential vitamins in the body are water soluble. This means the body has a great amount of difficulty in storing these vitamins in the body, and the body needs to replenish its supplies of water soluble vitamins nearly daily. Increasing the amount of water a person drinks can influence the amount of water soluble vitamins in the body. Water is used to flush out excess from the body. This means that as a person increases the amount of water they drink, it also decrease the amount of water soluble vitamins the body is able to retain. Some studies have shown that an increase in the amount of water a person drinks can actually have a detrimental effect on the total amounts of vitamins in the body. The solution to this problem according to many studies is to increase the total amounts of vitamins in the body.
The best way to augment the body’s vitamin levels is to take a good healthy daily multivitamin. A daily multivitamin will increase the levels of water soluble vitamins in the body. In this way the body will be able to gain the benefits of drinking an adequate amount of water, and also maintain a healthy level of vitamins and minerals which the body also needs for health.
