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Drink Water!
Water aids in a variety of health problems, yet we often forget to drink the recommended 6 to 8 eight-ounce glasses of water each day. Some beverages, such as those with caffeine and alcohol, are dehydrating, so if you drink them, you need even more water to compensate.
Your body is one-half to four-fifths water, depending on how much body fat you have. Water makes up nearly 85 percent of your brain, about 80 percent of your blood and about 70 percent of your lean muscle. (Because there are a lot of tissues that have less water, the average is about 50 percent.) The body relies on water for temperature regulation.
The carbohydrates and proteins that our bodies use as food are metabolized and transported by water in the bloodstream. No less important is the ability of water to transport waste material out of our bodies.
Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
Besides helping your body run smoothly, there's some evidence that water helps prevent certain diseases. People who have had kidney stones can prevent further stones from forming by drinking lots of fluid. And in one study, women who drank more than five glasses of water a day had a risk of colon cancer that was 45 percent less than others in the study who drank two or fewer glasses a day. In another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, men who drank at least six glasses of water per day cut their risk of bladder cancer in half compared with men who drank less than one glass, regardless of how much of other liquids they consumed.
Athletic performance can drop by as much as 20-30% if you lose as little as 4% of your body’s water during exercise. Concentration and endurance begin to waver, muscle cramps set in prematurely and other dehydration-induced injuries may follow. Sports medicine experts recommend drinking 18 ounces of water at least 1-½ hours before exercise, and then 6-12 ounces of water every 15 minutes to make up for water lost through perspiration.
Sports drinks are useful when consumed after or during vigorous and prolonged exercise in high heat. But most experts agree that water works better than carbohydrates or sugared beverages for moderate exercise. For instance, if you drink 12 ounces of plain water, your body will absorb 8 ounces of it within 15 minutes. If you drink 12 ounces of a 10% sugar solution, less than 1 ounce will be absorbed in the same period. The typical soft drink is a 10 to 12% sugar solution.
Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study. So Drink Water!
Most drinking water in the United States is safe to drink, but it’s always a good idea to check with your local water authorities and with the U.S. Geologic Survey. The US Environmental Protection Agency has detected trichlorethylene in 25 states during the last 10 years. About 100,000 pounds of the chemical has been released into water and land from steel pipe and tube manufacturing industries in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia between 1987 and 1993, allowing possible leaching into groundwater.
Note: Naturally anything your doctor tells you about special intake restrictions or dietary guidelines should take precedence over any general advice you read in any publication! If your doctor has set limitations for intake of liquids due to kidney insufficiency, be sure to follow that advice first.
Sources: Fiji Natural Artesian Water, The Bottled Water Store http://bottledwaterstore.com/waterfacts.htm, US Geologic Survey, http://wwwga.usgs.gov/edu; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov, The Bottled Water Website http://www.bottledwaterweb.com/
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