10 Health Reasons Why You Should Drink More Water
By Golb on Jun 12, 2007 in Featured, General Health
- Water is an essential component of the human body. The human body is made up of about 43% to 75% of water - depending on age, body fat, etc [if fat is taken out of consideration, the nominal water content is about 72% of body mass - according to this source]. You could probably survive for 4 to 8 weeks without food (source), but it is estimated that lack of water could cause death in about 10 days, at room temperature (source).
- Water acts as a nourishing agent. Water circulates through the blood and helps transport nutrients and oxygen towards organs and cells. It acts as a solvent for many nutrients and essential salts and makes them available for absorption by the body.
- Water is a cleansing agent. It also serves as a medium to carry metabolic wastes away from the body - this is accomplished in the form of urine and sweat. Think of it as a detoxifying agent. This is one of the most important functions of water in our body (although not very highly appreciated often in daily life).
- Water helps reduce the risk of kidney stones. The kidneys filter out waste products from the blood and channel them out of the body through the process of urine formation. Increasing concentration of certain salts in the urine increases the risk of kidney stone formation - and in most cases this risk can be reduced by drinking a lot of water and diluting the urine. It is usually recommended that adults prone to kidney stones should try to drink about 12 eight-ounce glasses of water everyday (normal adult recommendation is about 8 glasses).
- Water helps reduce the risk of sunstroke. Water is the single most important factor in the highly critical function of regulating your body temperature. On sunny days, we sweat (in other words - excrete water) more and the evaporation of the sweat has a cooling effect on the body. In the absence of sufficient water (when dehydration occurs) in your body, this temperature regulation breaks down and body temperature increases - and this leads to sunstroke. Severe sunstroke has the potential to damage your vital organs.
- Water helps lower the blood pressure. When you lose more than optimal levels of fluid due to various conditions (not drinking sufficient water, heavy exercise, illness, etc), the body tries to adjust for the loss of water by constricting blood vessels so that the rate of loss of water (due to sweating and respiration) is reduced - which in turn leads to higher blood pressure. Drink ample water to prevent this from happening. Of course, this is applicable when the higher blood pressure has been attributed to the lack of enough fluids in the body [don’t confuse this with special diuretic treatments for certain heart, liver, and kidney conditions - in which sometimes it is necessary to remove excess fluids from the body to lower the blood pressure].
- Water minimizes the risk of heart disease. This follows from the the above point - increased dehydration causes your cells and tissues to absorb water from the blood stream and thus decreases the volume of the blood flow (probably that’s why constriction of blood vessels and the subsequent increase in blood pressure occurs - read #6). Increased blood pressure is a sign of a heart that’s working harder than it should - it tries to pump more blood to excretory organs to compensate for the reduced volume. This could probably worsen a heart related ailment. Sufficient water intake will ensure that this does not happen.
- Water keeps your skin in good condition. In the process of sweating, it also removes impurities in the skin and cleanses it - leaving you with a healthy and younger looking skin. Dehydrated skin cells can cause your skin to appear wrinkled or sagging.
- Water does not contain calories. Feel free to replace those sugary soft drinks with water; water does not contain any calories - so unlike the soft drinks it’s not going to increase your weight. Some studies have pointed towards how increased water consumption can in fact cause weight loss. Americans consume about 13 billion gallons of calorific drinks every year. You can imagine the net effect that can be achieved by replacing all that with water. Make it a habit - whenever you go to a fast food joint or a restaurant, ask for water instead of a soda.
- Water suppresses appetite. This follows from the above point. Since water does not have any calories, it acts as an ideal *filler* material in your stomach and gives you a sense of “I am full” - which in turn decreases your appetite. This works best for people who are already over-weight and are controlling their appetite in order to lose weight. If you are anorexic, this isn’t for you.
10.5 BONUS - Water is (almost) free. Obviously, I am not talking about bottled water here. Most water supplied by municipal taps is good enough for drinking and comes fairly cheap. You get it for free in restaurants, fast food joints, and drinking water fountains in your workplace or school. You don’t require credit cards or cash to ask for it.
There are other more subtle but critical roles played by water. For example, read this (source):
Drinking plenty of water every day is especially important for people with bipolar disorder, because certain medications may increase your risk of becoming overheated.
It goes beyond just medications for people with bipolar disorder, it’s applicable to a lot of medicines which cause excess urination (diuretics).
The recommended daily intake of water for a normal adult is about 64 ounces or 8 full eight-ounce glasses.
Now, apparently some people have trouble consuming that much water in a day; but don’t worry, here is a solution if you have that problem.
By the way, there is a subtle difference between drinking “enough” water and drinking “excessive” water. Like all other excesses, this one also carries it’s share of troubles if you push it to the extreme. So be sensible and drink “enough” water everyday.
“The recommended daily intake of water for a normal adult is about 8 full eight-ounce glasses.”
Is a common myth that can’t seem to die. It’s true that on average the human body needs 64-83 ounces of water a day (8×8oz = 64 oz, hence the myth) but the fact is that the MAJORITY of water you need to consume in a day is from the foods you eat (remember we are mostly water, so is most everything we eat.)
Infact drinking too much water can be harmful! It dilutes the salt in your body, which can cause you to become anywhere from dizzy to dead. It’s a documented fact that marathon runners have died from drinking too much water and not having enough salt (when we sweat we lose water AND salt.) The condition is called hyponatremia. These are the “electrolytes” that are marketed in sports drinks such as gatorade. There was also a woman that recently died from water intoxication when she drank two gallons of water in a short period of time for the “Hold your wee for a wii” contest.
For a healthy individual your thirst response should be more than enough to signal you should drink water, and your urine color can also provide you more than enough information, if it’s yellow or brown you need water, if it’s clear you’re fine.
If you want to drink more fluids that’s fine but over-doing it has no added benefits and can be harmful or even fatal.
Jared | Jun 12, 2007 | Reply
Good article and addition to knowledge
Rubab | Jun 12, 2007 | Reply
While it’s true that there’s no strict science that indicates that you need to drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day, it’s a far cry from hyponatremia. As Jared alluded to, it occurs from extremely rapid consumption of a prodigious quantity of water. To use his example, it’s not uncommon for a marathon runner to consume several gallons of water over the course of the race, particularly on a hot day.
This is far beyond the capacity of the average person. In fact, from my experience, for most folks drinking a mere 64oz of water proves to be too much, especially if they typically drink non-water fluids (i.e., coffee, tea, soft drinks) throughout the day.
Many people have a blunted thirst repsonse due to chronic underconsumption of water.
There’s no science to suggest that there’s any difference between obtaining water from consumed food or straight up.
Eugene Thong | Jun 13, 2007 | Reply
Jared: “If you want to drink more fluids that’s fine but over-doing it has no added benefits and can be harmful or even fatal.” - yes, overdoing it will cause problems, so one has to be sensible enough while consuming liquids - but like Eugene points out below, you need to really drink like a lot of water (in a short period time) to get close to hyponatremia. If you are a average adult, consuming 8 glasses of water over your normal waking period (16 hours) will only make you urinate more. Also, 8 glasses is a general rule of thumb - if you drink a little less or little more doesn’t really upset anything.
Also, I would again like to point out that it’s not feasible for people who are already suffering from the problem of excess fluids - these are folks who are under diuretic treatments to reduce the fluid in their body.
I do agree with the fact that we get a lot of water from our food - but that thing can be easy to generalize; everyone doesn’t have a well-balanced diet and sometimes it’s important to remind them to drink more.
Eugene: “There’s no science to suggest that there’s any difference between obtaining water from consumed food or straight up.” - that’s true, I don’t think it should make a difference.
Of course they could drink carbonated drinks and replace water, but that’s not very healthy. Also, there have been some issues about the amount of caffeine some of these drinks contain - which might lead to a diuretic tendency, nullifying the the water consumption. Again, there isn’t a thorough scientific study to support this.
8 glasses is a rule of thumb, not a strict guideline. Depending on dietary habits (and level of physical activity), individuals may need a little bit more or less.
Thanks for mentioning “Many people have a blunted thirst repsonse due to chronic underconsumption of water.” - that’s interesting; probably that’s why I hear many students on my campus fainting of dehydration during summer days - they just forget to drink enough water.
Golb | Jun 13, 2007 | Reply
It’s a common misconception that people need to drink more water. However, this is not the case. The fact is that drinking even a small glass of water can kill you, and even if it does not, it will shorten your lifespan dramatically. DO NOT DRINK WATER. Instead, drink only quinine and lemon juice.
Lawrence Tureaud | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
I was wondering wouldnt it be more healthier to drink like good fruit juice, so you get all the benefits of water with all the other vitamins?
ibrahim | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
Fruit juices have their own advantages (in terms of vitamins, and other dietary requirements) — you may drink fruit juices to replace bodily fluids, but only as long as you watch (and are comfortable with) the sugar and the calories — especially, if you have a tendency to put on weight.
Plus, you got to pay for fruit juice — or for the fruit if you are making the juice at home.
Golb | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
I still have the occasional diet soft drink when I’m out of the house, but at home, I make juice spritzers. I put about an inch of juice in a tall glass and top it off with generic club soda. It adds up to about 6 ounces of juice a day, but because it’s so diluted, it does help fill me up.
Mary | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
re: 10.5 — Water is hardly free! I pay the City of Dallas each month for my water. Some municipalities tax their citizenry to pay for the water and the systems that process it and make it potable. Just because you do not pay cash on the spot every time you take a drink of tap water does NOT mean that water is “free”.
Logan | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
Well that’s why I say “almost” free. Of course you pay for water that comes through the tap and pay a monthly fee for it. However, it would be instructive to calculate how much you pay for 64 ounces (about 1.89 liters) of water as compared to 64 ounces of soft drinks or coffee.
According to this source, the price for a liter of water (in 2003) was $0.0007 in Houston (I don’t think Dallas would be much more expensive) . Assuming you drink the recommended quantity everyday, you would drink about 700 liters of water in a year. Even at an increased rate of say $0.001 per liter that comes out to $0.7 for an year’s consumption. That’s why it’s “almost” free.
Golb | Jun 15, 2007 | Reply
Ya, i definetly wasn’t drinking enough water… so i got some crystal light on the go things to help with flavor..
only 5 calories and its helping me stay hydrated… win win
Ambellamy | Jun 17, 2007 | Reply
>> BONUS - Water is (almost) free.
I don’t fully agree with it. Coming to place like US, it really surprises me that water is costly! Go to any fast food restaurant and those cocks charge you for water. Why? so that you buy soda instead.
XXX | Jun 19, 2007 | Reply
I ‘ve been drinking water (abt a litre and qtr) in the morning. My allergy and acidity are gone. I have not fallen sick for the last 5 years. I am all for water tharapy.
Vijay | Jun 23, 2007 | Reply
Interesting read! Linked your article on my blog where I write on business travel. I had no idea I did not take in enough water until I talked to a dietician!
Nikhil | Jul 22, 2007 | Reply
DOES WATER DRINKING RAISES BLOOD PRESSURE
RAJ | Aug 11, 2007 | Reply
yea i was told this by my moms doctor when i went with her and that african american weight loss guy that be on tyra banks and celebrity fit club also said this.
Candice | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
my last comment was referring to the 1st comment about the not haveing to drink 8 glasses of water because it’s already in the food you eat
Candice | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply
Human body consists of the water on 75%. this is the main reason. We must support aqua balance in organism to survive.
But thanks for your article, I’ve read a lot of useful facts.
Ambulance Nurse | Jan 8, 2008 | Reply
Excessive drinking of water can also be hazardous…I usually drink about 2 litres of water a day…But for being perfectly fit I drank about 3 lits a day for 2 days & that has led to edema in my feet…Do I need to visit a doctor !! What do you suggest…? So nothing in excess is good….
Purba | Mar 4, 2008 | Reply