Drink water today!
You've probably come across this preaching during the course of your day, once or perhaps twice and maybe you rolled your eyes at the constant reminder to drink water. You know this already so what’s the fuss?
Is drinking water overrated?
About 70% of the human body is made up of water. When an individual is dehydrated, there’s shrinkage of body cells. As more water and fluids leave the body, the skin becomes dry and wrinkled, the eyes become sunken and the eyeballs soft. A person will also experience headaches, tiredness, weakness and other associated symptoms. 
Dehydration can be caused by decreased water intake, increased loss of water or both. However, the most common cause of dehydration is failure to drink fluids.
Why should you drink water? What are the benefits?
- Disease prevention: Certain medical conditions can be prevented by drinking adequate water. Some conditions like kidney stones, constipation, urinary tract infection can be avoided. Water is also important for the absorption of nutrients from food and this helps to keep you healthy.
- Boosts Metabolism: Drinking water has been shown to increase the rate of metabolism. An increased metabolism allows for the production of energy needed to carry out one’s daily activities and helps to maximise performance.
- Improves Brain Health: Staying well hydrated helps the brain function better as focus, alertness and short term memory are improved. It also improves mood. Individuals with poor water intake are prone to tiredness, confusion and anxiety.
- Improved blood circulation: Optimising your daily water intake will boost your circulation which will have a positive impact on your general health.
- Aids in digestion and nutrient absorption: Drinking water before, during and after meals eases the breakdown of the ingested food. Water also helps to dissolve the minerals, vitamins and other nutrients in the food and make it easily available for transportation to be utilised by the body.
- Weight Loss: Do you know you can lose weight by drinking water? If you are overweight or just trying to lose weight, drinking more water while dieting and exercising might just be the trick needed to shed that extra kg.
- Prevention of dehydration: A state of dehydration is dangerous to the body as water is required for many bodily functions. It is important to drink enough water to replenish water is lost through urine, sweat, stool. Brain swelling, seizures, kidney failure can develop if severely dehydrated.
- Regulation of body temperature: Sweating during a physical activity or a hot day is the body’s way of cooling off to maintain and regulate the body temperature. This water lost from the body must however be replaced and if you are sweating more than usual, endeavour to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated as this is important to maintain the body temperature.
- Excretion of waste products from the body. Waste products not excreted from the body become toxic. Waste products are excreted via sweat, urine and bowel movements and these functions heavily rely on water in the body.
- Protection of tissues, joints, spinal cord: Conditions like arthritis worsens when the intake if water is not adequate. This limits participation in physical activities. Water helps to lubricate the joints, spinal cord and tissues.
- Creation of saliva: Saliva contains enzymes that help in the breakdown of food in the mouth. Presence of saliva helps to keep the mouth healthy. Dehydration decreases amount of saliva produced.
- Cosmesis: Water has been demonstrated to have a significant impact on the skin. It prevents skin from sagging as it increases skin elasticity and tightness. A tighter skin also leads to smaller pores. Smaller, tighter pores means less clogging and less acne. It also balances the PH of the skin which in turn helps to give a clear skin by decreasing acne breakouts and blemishes. Some people are prone to itchy skin. Water reduces itchiness as staying hydrated ensures that your skin is less likely to crack and become itchy. Drinking enough water leads to faster healing, slows aging and improves complexion.
In summary, drinking water does more than just quench thirst; it has enormous health benefits, ranging from disease prevention to aiding optimal function of the kidneys. So when next you feel thirsty, put these facts in mind and treat yourself to a full glass of water.
