Is Drinking Enough Water Essential To Your Health
Water is one of the most important things you need for your body. In an emergency situation, there are always three things you will hear that you need: food, water, and shelter. Water makes up about seventy percent of our bodies, and even mild dehydration can lead to lots of complications.
So how can you stay properly hydrated? How do you know you are drinking enough water? A great way to keep track of how much water you need is to take your weigh in pounds, and drink half of that in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh one hundred pounds, you should be drinking at least fifty ounces of water a day. You would need more if you are exerting yourself a lot throughout the day. Another way to see ice you are hydrated is the colour of your urine. It seems gross, but this can actually tell you a lot of things about your health. Hydrated urine is clear, or just has a faint yellow hue. Dark yellow, brown, or bloody urine are all progressively worse signs of dehydration.
Why do you need to be hydrated, though? Is it really that important? The answer is a huge YES! Below are just a few of the ways drinking enough water is important for your health:
Helps Detox
Staying hydrated helps your bodily systems flush out chemicals, toxins, and other waste. Drinking plenty of water aids digestion, and increases the efficiency of your liver, kidneys, digestive tract, and lymphatic system. It can prevent constipation, kidney stones, urinary tract infections, indigestion, heartburn, and more.
Contributes To Oral Health
Proper hydration helps you with saliva production. This may seem like a small thing, but dry mouth can contribute to all kinds of oral health issues. Without saliva, (and the act itself of drinking water,) you cannot wash away debris and tiny food particles throughout the day between brushings. These little pieces of food begin to rot inside your mouth; creating bad breath, cavities, and even periodontal disease. Having enough saliva through hydration can help prevent all of this when combined with good oral hygiene.
Helps The Circulatory System
Dehydration slows your blood flow, and makes it difficult for your circulatory system to get the oxygen and nutrients it needs. When this happens, your heart has to work much harder to pump your thickened blood, which could potentially lead to palpitations or even a heart attack. Drinking enough water improves your blood flow, nutrient distribution, and allows for sufficient oxygenation of the blood.
Improves Brain Function
Without water, the neurons in your brain can misfire, fire slowly, or simply not fire at all. This can make it very frustrating to get through the day… You will lose your train of thought, be unable to focus, and you may also find it difficult to communicate properly. When the body is dehydrated, it begins to slowly shut down. Cognitive function decline is the most obvious example of this happening. Staying hydrated helps to keep your brain at peak performance.
Keeps Skin Clear
Since water is so important to the flushing out of toxins throughout the body, it can be easy to develop acne and other skin conditions without it. Dehydration leads to dry, cracked skin; as well as allowing toxins to settle beneath the surface of the skin so even washing your face and showering won’t help clear your skin. Believe it or not, hydration is the true key to any skin care regimen. All the masks, scrubs, and washes in the world are useless if you aren’t drinking enough water.
These are only a few of the innumerable ways drinking enough water improves your overall health. Start properly hydrating today, and see just how amazing something so simple can impact your life in tons of positive ways!