Water, the elixir of life
By Carolin
Welcome back!
Lack of energy? Maybe you’re dehydrated. Water make up about 70% of our bodies and it is involved in nearly every body process.
Even our bones are made of 30% water. Most healthy people can live several weeks without food but only a couple of days without water. Few people know that if you only drink 1-4 glasses of water a day, this can lead to dehydration.
Dehydration causes lack of energy, digestive problems and weakness, increasing thirst, dry mouth, headache, darkening of the urine, a decrease in urination and an inability to concentrate. If the water level in the brain goes down it can cause memory loss. Severe dehydration can cause kidney failure and can become life threatening.
With our current eating and drinking habits dehydration might be a much bigger problem than we think.
Feel like a coffee? Have you ever tried to drink 2 glasses of water instead? It works wonders.
If you drink one cup of coffee you need to dink 2 cups of water to get back to the same hydration level as before you had coffee.
If you drink one cup of soda you need to drink 1 cup or water to get back to the same hydration level as before you had soda.
Some of the great benefits of water:
- Speeds up metabolism
- Moisturize your skin less wrinkles
- Cleans skin removes acne and gives your skin a healthy, youthful color and glow.
- Plays an important role during digestion
- Clean the lungs
- Remove waist through bladder and kidney
- Keeps you cool
- Lubricates your joints
How much do you need
An adult needs about 8 glasses of water a day and even more if he exercises or lives in a hot climate.
Water helps you loose weight
If you want to loose weight drinking a lot of water is crucial. One very simple reason is that we need to drink and many drinks are loaded with calories or chemicals that make us hungry. Water contains no calories or fat and plays an important role to clean and detoxify our bodies.
On top of this water speeds up the metabolism which makes us burn more calories.
People in the risk zone
Frequent fliers
The air inside an airplane is drier than any of the world’s deserts. The relative humidity is in the Sahara desert is around 20-25%, while the humidity on a long-distance flight in many cases can approach 1%.
You can feel the dehydration through digestive problems, thirst, scratchy eyes, bloodshot eyes, dry, wrinkled skin and head aches.
Are you a frequent flier, make sure you drink a lot of water before, during and after your flight.
Elderly
Dehydration is especially a problem for the elderly. Elderly have only 60% water in the bodies, compared to 70% in young adults. This makes them more sensitive to dehydration. Also their kidneys are often not working at an optimum level any more. Also they have a lower thirst and hunger response which often causes older people to eat and drink inadequately.
Babies
Babies and small children are very sensitive to dehydration. Therefore it’s very important to be attentive in hot weather or if your baby has diarrhea or is vomiting. Children in the age 6-12 months need 2-4 cups (0,5-1 liter) of water a day.
Where do I get water from?
Eat water
This is something you might not have thought about but if we prepare or foods in a good way it contains water. Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables contain a lot of water. Instead of cooking all the water out of the food, always eat something raw and fresh with every meal.
Drink water
The more obvious way is of course to drink water. But make sure the water you drink is clean. Unfortunately in many places tap water is full of chlorine, heavy metals, fluoride and hormones. There are inexpensive many water filters with active carbon that removes chlorine and some metals. If you want to remove fluoride your need a system that works with reverse osmosis.
Check with the local authorities about the water quality in your area. If the water quality is insufficient and you do not have a filter you can buy filtered water or spring water.
Related reading:
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