Do you feel dizzy, bloated or cranky after waking up? Do you suffer from headaches often? Worried that you are losing your youthfulness and feel exhausted all the time. This does mean that you don’t drink plenty of water and your body is suffering from mild chronic dehydration about which you are unaware.
You must have heard this hundred times that if you want to keep diseases at bay and live a healthy life drink lots of water. But I guess very few health conscious people among us actually take this advice seriously. I think the reason behind our negligence and consuming insufficient amounts if water is our lack of complete knowledge on the role of water in maintaining our health.
This why I am posting this article on the health benefits of drinking water. I hope after reading this article you will be motivated enough to drink at least 3 liters of water every day.
Water not only quenches our thirst, but also maintains a number of vital body functions. Thus, before getting into the details of the health benefits of drinking water, let us get into the detail of its role in our body.
About 60 percent of our body is water. In other words, you can say about two third of our body is made up of water. Let us know how much water is present in our tissues and organs:
- Muscles- 75 percent
- Brain – 90 percent
- Bones- 22 percent
- Blood- 83 percent
- Liver- 96 percent
The vital roles that water plays in our body are as follows:
- Water transports the oxygen and nutrients into cells
- Maintains the level of body fluids
- It moisturizes the air that is present in the lungs
- Helps in metabolism
- Protects the vital organ of our body
- Helps in the absorption of nutrients
- Regulates the body temperature
- Detoxification
- Creation of saliva
- Moisturizing and protecting our joints
To work efficiently each and every cell of our body needs to remain hydrated. But our body loses water through sweating, digestion and breathing, thus we need to drink water and rehydrate ourselves.
When the water or body fluid is low in our body the brain triggers the thirst mechanism of our body. This is what make us thirsty. It is better to listen to the cues and hydrate yourself by drinking water, milk or juice. Better avoid coffee as it is diuretic.
Health benefits of drinking water and staying hydrated
1. Drink water to maximize your physical performance
While performing any physical activity, especially doing intense exercise or working in hot and humid climate, if you are not properly hydrated your performance suffers. The hydrated cell can very well maintain the balance of the fluids and electrolytes. If dehydrated, this balance is disturbed and results in fatigue. Even if you lose just 2 percent of your body’s water the symptoms of dehydration starts making their noticeable appearance. This, in turn, alters the body temperature, cause fatigue, reduces motivation and makes exercising both physically and mentally tough. If you are hydrated optimally not only the above symptoms disappear but also the oxidative stress caused due to intense exercise is reduced. So while performing an intense physical activity that makes you sweat drink water and keep yourself hydrated.
2. Drinking water enhances your mood
Studies show that even mild dehydration where there is 1-2 percent fall in the body’s hydration level affects your ability to think, your concentration and your mood. When you are hydrated your brain releases a number of stress hormones such as cortisol. And stress in turn elevates dehydration. Thus, a cycle is formed. To break this cycle drink water and restore your mood.
3. Drink water to cure constipation and aid digestion
Water helps the food to move through the guts and soften the stool. This way it cures constipation. Even for the digestion of soluble fibers, that adds bulk to the stool, water is required.
Water aids the digestion. It helps the body to break the food. As we know, the digestion starts from the mouth (saliva). The basis of saliva is water. The water dissolves the nutrient and promotes their absorption. Drinking sufficient amount of water stimulates the metabolism.
4. Drink water to prevent kidney stones
Urinary tract stones are the mineral crystal clumps. They are most commonly formed in the kidney. Drinking insufficient amount of water is a very big reason for the stone formation. The reasons behind this is that when we drink less water, less amount of urine is formed as the body saves extra fluid for other body function. Thus, the concentration of minerals increases and results in crystallization and formation of mineral crystal clumps. Adequate intake of water increases the urine volume and promotes the free flow of urine. This dilutes the minerals and prevents their crystallization and clump formation.
5. Drink water to prevent hangovers
Alcohol makes you lose water from the body as it is diuretic. It interferes with the communication between the brain and the kidney. This causes excessive secretion of fluids and causes dehydration. Dehydration results in hangovers. The symptoms of hangovers are fatigue, headache, dry mouth and excessive thirst. To get rid of all these symptoms drink lots of water. And to prevent hangovers make a habit of drinking a glass of water between the drinks or before going to bed.
*Drinking alcohol is bad for health and we recommend you to minimize its alcohol.
Five more benefits of drinking water
6. Drink water to maintain an ideal body weight
Drinking water can help you to control calories. It is one of the most popular weight loss strategy. Well, certainly there is no magic behind. All you have to do is substitute the high-calorie beverages with water. This will fill your stomach, suppress appetite and will make you eat less. Water is also known to boost the metabolism It enhances the rate of fat burned by the body and enhances the breakdown as well as the elimination of the fat cells.
But yes, one important point to keep in the mind is the timing. Drink a glass of water half an hour before the meal is most effective in giving you the desired result. Make sure the water you drink is not warm, so that your body will use the energy to heat the water and burn calories.
Also, makes sure to eat foods that are high in water content. These foods are more filling and healthy and they help you to trim your calorie intake. The foods that have more water content requires chewing, have more volume and are absorbed slowly. Some of the examples of high water content foods are fruits, soups, oatmeal, buttermilk, beans, and vegetables.
7. Drink water to prevent and treat headaches
Even mild dehydration may cause a migraine and headaches. So next time when you suffer from a headache or a migraine, drink water and hydrate yourself. If dehydration is the cause the duration and the intensity of a headache will reduces.
8. Drink water to get rid of bad breath
Bad breadth maybe a sign that you are not drinking sufficient amount of water. When you rinse your mouth with water or drink water, especially after eating the bad breadth causing bacteria and the food debris that are struck between the gums and the teeths are removed.
* Drink filtered water half an hour after eating.
9. Water flushes out toxins and keep disease at bay
To keep gout, kidney stone, and other kidney, liver and gastrointestinal diseases at bay drinking water. Water helps the body to get rid of toxins. Blood urea nitrogen is one of the main toxin that is water soluble. So as long as you are taking adequate amount of fluids, blood urea nitrogen and other toxins can be efficiently flushed out of the body by our kidney’s along with urine. Through sweat and defecation also body removes the waste from the body and again water plays an important role in this.
10. Drink water to get a flawless glowing skin
Water is known to detoxify the body by flushing out the toxins or waste materials and keeping the skin hydrated. This de-clogs the pores, removes the dead cells and prevents pimples and wrinkles.
11. Drink water to keep your scalp healthy and hairs beautiful
Frizzy and dry hairs are a sign of dehydration. The flushing out of the toxins promotes the growth of hair. Also, hydrated hairs and strong and do not break easily.
The amount of water we need to drink every day is a topic of debate. The water requirement of the body differs from person to person. It depends on the age, climate, physical activity and health condition. One of the signs that you are drinking adequate amount of water is your urine is free from color and odor. Drinking at least 8-10 glasses of water daily.
We hope you find this article on the health benefits of drinking water useful. Stay hydrated, stay healthy.
