It is not uncommon to hear that water is so important to our body health. But you might be wondering to what extent is this true?
The fact is that water makes up the large part of our body weight and is normally important as it is involved in many of our body functions, which include: Flushing out our body wastes from our body, regulating our body temperature as well as helping our brain properly function.
We do get most of our water through drinking beverages, but also a portion of water is contributed in a small portion from the food we consume daily. Some people have went to extra miles making sure that they keep track of their daily water consumption. Others have event turned drinking water as their means of maintaining their body weight.
But let us get deep and see why is water so important to our body.
It helps in creating saliva
There is no doubt that water is one of the important component in our saliva. Besides, saliva has some small amounts of mucus, electrolytes, as well as enzymes. This is so important when as it breaks solid food and maintains your mouth moisture and healthy.
In order your body to efficiently keep producing enough saliva, you need to have a regular fluid intake. But your body’s saliva production might decrease due to aging or certain therapies or medication.
In case your mouth is so dry than it should and increasing the amount of water that you drink is not helping, that means there is a problem with your body health. You must rush to see a doctor who will be able to determine what the problem might be.
Water is important when it comes to body temperature regulation
Maintaining your body and making sure that it is hydrated is so important as it will maintain your body temperature. Naturally, your body loses water via sweat when you are performing physical activities or when you are exposed in hot environments.
Your body sweat is important in keeping your body temperature regulated, but your body temperature will eventually rise if you do not drink water to replace the one that had lost through sweat. This happens due to the fact that your body will have lost electrolytes as well as plasma whenever it is dehydrated.
In case you are experiencing extreme sweating more than you should, make sure that you have plenty of water so as to avoid dehydration.
Water is essential in protecting your body tissues as well as spinal cord and joints.
Drinking more water helps in lubricating as well as cushioning your joints, tissues and spinal cord. This will enable flexibility and easy movements of the body joints as well as the spinal cord. Having smooth body movements will enable enjoy physical activity as well as lessen issues of discomfort that comes due to issues such as arthritis.
Water act as lubricants along the joints and enhance smooth body movements. Make sure that you have enough water so as to avoid dehydration.
It is essential in waste excretion of waste products via perspiration, urination as well as defecation.
Your body depends on water to urinate, sweat as well as bowel movements.
Sweat is so important in regulating the body temperature especially when you are conducting physical activities such as exercising or if you are exposed to warm temperatures. You will have to replenish the lost fluid due to sweat.
Besides, you need to have sufficient water in your digestive system so as to get healthy stool and prevent constipation. People who do not drink enough water are normally facing constipation issues.
Kidneys are so important organs as they help in filtering out waste products via urination. Drinking enough water will help you to make your kidneys perform more sufficiently and prevent your kidneys from developing kidney stones. If you ignore drinking enough water and suffer from kidney stones, medication that would help in removing the stones will cost you reasonable amount of money. Besides, kidney stones will make you experience very severe pains.
It enhances physical performance
Consuming plenty of water while performing physical activities is very important. If you are an athlete then you may perspire up to 6%-10% of your body weight during physical performance.
In addition, hydration affects so much of your body strength, endurance as well as power. You might be extremely affected so much by the effects of dehydration if you participate in training or activities that need extreme muscle power such as basketball.
Water is essential in preventing constipation
Consuming meals which are rich in fiber is not the only way in preventing constipation. It is also so important to ensure that you consume enough water so as to make sure that your bowel movements have sufficient water.
In case you do not drink enough water, fiber and magnesium, there is high possibility that you will suffer from constipation.
In case you are facing constipation, you will have to drink carbonated water as well as plain water as it will help ease your problems. But prevention is better than cure, so make sure that you drink enough water all the time.
It is so helps in the digestion process
Unlike what many people do believe, experts have proved that drinking water prior, during, or after having a meal will enhance your body break in breaking the food that you eat more easily. This is essential in helping your food digestion to be more effectively and get the maximum output from each meal that you consume.
The body works to analyze the changes in what you consume and its contents, whether they are solid or semi-liquid. Making sure that you consume enough water will help your body perfectly digest your food to the required rate.
It is crucial when it comes to nutrients absorption
In additional to water being one of the basic compounds that help with food breakdown, water is also important in enhancing the absorption of vitamins, minerals as well as other nutrients contained in your meal. After they have been absorbed, these nutrients are transported to other parts of the body. If your body is dehydrated, it will not be able to absorb vitamins effectively as it should.
It is so important when it comes to losing weight
Different studies have linked weight loss and fat with consuming water. Overweight women and girls are known to consume less water as compared to those who have successfully managed to control their body weight. If you drink, more water while having the right diet and exercising might help you so much in losing extra pounds from your body.
Besides, water helps in making your body have a fullness feeling that will help you consume less calories. This is essential for those who want to maintain or lose weight.
Drinking water helps in improving blood oxygen circulation within the body
Water is a media within the body that carries nutrients as well as oxygen throughout your entire body. Making sure that you have the required amount of water on your daily basis is important in ensuring that your body as sufficient blood and oxygen circulation. Besides, this will have a positive effect upon your health life in general as water is known for enhancing different body activities.
Water is important in fighting body illness
When you drink enough water, that can enhance your body health and prevent certain medical conditions which include; constipation, kidney stones, urinary tract infection, exercised-induced asthma, and hypertension.
Also water is essential in absorbing important vitamins, nutrients as well as minerals from the food that you eat, which will eventually increase you possibilities of keeping your body healthy.
Making sure that you drink the required amount of water each single day is so important as it will prevent your body from being dehydrated and this is so important and making your body stay in perfect health.
Water is essential in boosting energy
Making sure that you drink enough water helps in triggering your metabolism. Boosting the metabolism has been linked with positive effects upon the energy level.
One of the studies that were conducted found that, consuming 500 milliliters of water worked to boost the metabolic rate to 30% within both men and women. These effects remained for at least an hour.
This proved that water is so important in boosting the body’s energy through improving your metabolic activities.
It is essential in cognitive process
Keeping your body hydrated is a foundation in making sure that you maintain your cognitive shape. Different studies have shown that not drinking enough water can have a negative effect upon your focus, short-term memory as well as alertness.
People who are undergoing body dehydration have been reported to have memory loss, poor focus, poor visibility as well as poor body response. Making sure that you always consume sufficient amount of water on a daily basis will keep you away from such problem.
Water helps in enhancing mood
If you do not drink enough water that can affect your state of mind as well as your mood. Dehydration might lead to fatigue as well as confusion. Besides, dehydration might lead to anxiety.
People who do not drink enough water are known for suffering from mood swings. Besides, some people an even faint due to dehydration that results in the rise in body temperature. When the body temperature exceeds the minimum required temperature, hormones are destructed, and different body functions start failing resulting to fatal organ failures that can eventually lead to death.
Water helps in maintaining the skin texture and color
Sufficient water intake helps in maintaining skin texture by keeping it with enough moisture. Besides, it helps in maintaining collagen production. But water consumption alone is not enough when it comes to reduction of effects that are associated with aging. This process is also linked to your genes and helps in protecting it from sun through enhancing melanin.
People who do not drink enough water have dry skin, which seems to be dehydrated with no moisture. Normally they look old beyond their age, due to insufficient water within the body.
Water prevents dehydration in general
Dehydration occurs when your body has insufficient water. Due to the fact that water is so important to so many metabolic activities in the body, dehydration can have major negative effects that can harm your body.
Extreme dehydration can lead in several number of extreme complications which include; kidney failure, swelling in your brain as well as seizures.
You have to make sure that you consume sufficient amount of water so as to replace what has been lost through sweat, urination as well as bowel movements so as to avoid experiencing dehydration.
Developing a habit of drinking enough water on your daily basis will help in enhancing your health as well as keeping you from other medical issues.
But how much water should one drink?
Paying attention to the amount of water that you have to drink on your daily basis is so important for maintaining your health. Normally many people drink water when they are feeling thirsty, and this is how they regulate their own daily water consumption.
As stated by the National Academies of Science in Engineering as well as Medicine, the overall water consumption from both beverages as well as foods that have proven to meet most needs of people are as follows:
Having 15.5 glasses of water which account to 125 ounces per day is enough for many men, while for women 11.5 glasses which accounts for 91 ounces per day is perfect.
A lot of people acquire about 20% of the daily water consumption from the food they consume. The remaining percentage depends on directly drinking water and other water based beverages. This means that men would consume about 100 ounces which is 3 liters of water from drinking beverages whereas women will consume about 73 ounces which is about 2.12 liters from consuming beverages.
In case you are having physical exercises you will have to drink more water or in case you are living in hotter regions, you have to consume more water to avoid dehydration.
Other means of assessing hydration involves the time when one feels thirst and when the urine color turns to orange. When you feel thirsty that indicates that your body is having enough water and that means it is dehydrated. When you have dark urine or colored urine that indicated dehydration. Having pale or non-colored urine normally indicates that your body has sufficient water. The solution is to start consuming the required amount of water so as to replace the lost water from your body.
The bottom line
Water is so essential in every part of your body function. Not only does consuming enough amount of daily water will help your state of being, it may might even improve your general body health. To ensure that you have enough water on your daily basis, you can do the following:
You must carry a bottle of water wherever you go. This will ensure that you consume water anytime whenever there is a need for that. Besides, having a bottle of water by your side will remind you that you have to drink water. When you do it often, it will eventually turn into a habit hence you will find yourself that you cannot move around without having a bottle of drinking water.
Make sure that you keep record of your water consumption. Make sure that you always aim to consume maximum amounts of water and that is the half your body water in ounces, on a daily basis. When you do this, you will be able to be a hundred percent sure that you have consumed the required amount on a particular day. Also, this technique will encourage you to keep on drinking water which is good for your health.
Ensure that you reach half of the recommended water consumption amount by midday. It is not bad if you finish an hour prior to you getting in bed. For beginners, drinking water might seem a hard thing to do, but after a week, of consistent consumption, your body will get used to the situation and eventually it will adapt and demand more water every day.
Ensuring that you have a right amount of water and not just water but clean water is so essential for your health. As we have already mentioned most of our body organs are made up of water, from saliva, blood, hormones, sperms, semen, etc. If your body is exposed to hydration that means there essential body activities will cease to work and that might lead you in a critical fatal condition.
There are many cases that have been reported people losing lives due to dehydration. It does not cost you much or need physical energy to drink water. Just start today and develop a behavior of making sure that you have at least 3 liters of water if you are a male or 2.2 liters if you are a woman.
