Longevity logo

Water is essential and vital to human life, drink water

Learn why overhydration is bad for your health and how to prevent it.

By Dany GoldraijPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
Like

Water is essential and vital to human life and is involved in practically all functions of the human body.

Between about 55% to about 78% of your body is made of water. Newborn babies are about 78% water, a year-old baby is 65%, adult men are about 60% and adult women are about 55%. Your brain is made up of 73% water, and so is your heart. Your bones are 31% water, muscles and kidneys are 79% and your skin is 64%.

Drinking enough water each day is crucial for many reasons: to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent infections, deliver nutrients to cells, and keep organs functioning properly. Being well-hydrated also improves sleep quality, cognition, and mood.

Every day we lose body water and this must be replenished constantly, Water inputs should match water outputs. In this way we ensure that all physiological systems are working properly, we strengthen our immune system and avoid disease.

With water, we remove the waste from our body, regulate our body heat, and transport vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients through the body.

Plain water should be THE choice for daily hydration as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Most people don’t realize how valuable water is. Most people walk around dehydrated throughout the day and this is a big cause of fatigue and brain fog.

This brings up the next way to increase your energy levels and that’s by staying hydrated and drinking a lot more water. In fact, I get up every 60-90 minutes and move around and typically go drink a couple of cups of water as well.

What is hydration? hydration vs dehydration?

Dehydration is the absence of a sufficient amount of water in your body. The best way to beat dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty. If you’re thirsty, you’re already mildly dehydrated, and that can cause symptoms like headache, fatigue, dizziness, and more. Dehydration can contribute to life-threatening illnesses like heat stroke.

Dehydration is the condition in which the body loses more fluid than it gains. Without enough water the body couldn’t function properly. Dehydration is more common in infants, children and elderly people. The body keeps on losing water due to sweating, peeing, through tears and saliva.

Symptoms of mild and moderate dehydration are dry mouth, muscle cramps, headache, thirst, dark yellow urine, and more. On the other hand, symptoms of severe dehydration include lack of energy, sleeplessness, sunken eyes and cheeks, and irritability.

Overhydration is the presence of an excessive amount of water in the body.

Can drinking too much water be dangerous for you? Yes, excess of everything is bad even if it is water. If you drink extra water for weight loss or to get glowing skin, you will only see the difference if you are consistent with it and not by gulping down liters of water in a single day.

Drinking excess water can lead to water intoxication, which happens when the amount of salt and other electrolytes in your body become too diluted. This leads to a drop in sodium levels in the body.

Drinking water excessively can have a number of side effects, including muscle cramping from electrolyte imbalance and an increase in urine frequency

Symptoms of overhydration:

  • Keep track of your water intake by looking at the color of your urine. Your pee is clear.
  • A healthy person will pee every two to four hours. Going pee a lot more frequently than normal.
  • People with overhydration usually suffer from symptoms like disorientation, nausea, and headache.

Tips to avoid overhydration and dehydration

Some other tips to avoid both overhydration and dehydration are to drink a small amount of water frequently, eat more foods items that are water-based such as cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli, and watermelon, limit salt intake, and increase intake of fresh fruits and vegetables that are rich in electrolytes such as sodium, magnesium, potassium, chlorine and more.

How many water bottles a day?

Health experts commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon a day. This is called the 8×8 rule and is very easy to remember. However, some experts believe that you need to sip on water constantly throughout the day, even when you’re not thirsty.

How much water should I drink based on weight and age?

Thus, you need to drink even MORE water if you don’t want to eliminate caffeine or alcohol.

How many bottles of water should you drink a day?. So, drink more water, especially when you’re thirsty. Unfortunately, most people don’t pay attention to thirst. And if they do, they’ll have a couple of sips of water and think that’s all they need.

Foods and beverages both contribute to total water intake. Nevertheless, the water that we get from food is not sufficient to maintain the water balance.

The ambient temperature plays a role, making it difficult to correct the moisture an individual needs to determine. 1 to 1.5 liters of water daily, and even more when we are sick, is recommended to the balance in the body and the equilibrium of the mind

Why do you Need to Drink More Water As You Get Older?

Depending on your age and muscle mass, your body is made up of 55-75% water.

The younger you are, the more water your body holds due to better hormones. And the more muscle you have, the more water your body holds.

Hydration and heart rate – how many bottles of water should you drink a day?

Dehydration can affect your brain function, mood, and energy levels.

If you exercise, dehydration also decreases strength, stamina, and endurance.

During the day, you lose water through urine, sweat, and even breathing. So in order to stay hydrated, you need to drink enough water to compensate for this loss.

You also have to decrease or eliminate things that cause dehydration such as anything with caffeine that causes a diuretic effect – this means you need to reduce or eliminate coffee, energy drinks, soda, etc. This includes alcohol too.

Sources & Credits

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/overhydration

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/9013-dehydration

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/as-you-get-older-you-need-to-drink-more-water-heres-why#Being-aware-of-aging

https://praktikotips.me/drink-water-the-choice-for-daily-hydration/

health
Like

About the Creator

Dany Goldraij

I love marketing , promoting new ideas and new products. I care about healthy life , fitness and dogs.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.