Although there’s no scientific basis for drinking the recommended eight glasses of water each day, staying hydrated is essential to your health.
Why?
The answer is simple: the human body is made up of 60% water. This means cells, tissues, and organs in your body need water not only to survive, but also to function properly. According to a Cosmetic Dentist in Harrisburg, drinking more water will ensure that your mouth produces saliva to protect your teeth. That is not all, your entire body heavily relies on water to perform day-to-day tasks. In fact, DripDrop’s informative post about the relationship of water and your kidneys brings this point home. Moreover, water also aids in carrying nutrients to your cells, as well as in flushing out bacteria from your bladder and gut.
But, did you know that staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water every day provide health benefits that you may not have heard yet?
If you’re not a big fan of drinking water, in this article, you’ll discover five particular benefits that will make you carry a water bottle and guzzle water to stay hydrated wherever you go. Plus, you’ll also find different tips to help you drink more water.
What Causes Dehydration
Before diving deeper into the benefits, it’s important that you understand how you get dehydrated. Since the human body requires fluids to function properly, each time you breathe, eat, move, sweat, urinate, and poo, your body uses up stored fluids to perform these activities. Warm climate also affects the expulsion of water from your system.
Dehydration occurs when you’re losing more water than you’re replenishing it. And, when you’re dehydrated, you may find yourself experiencing headaches, lack of energy, dizziness, constipation, and you may even produce darker colored urine. For this reason, medical experts recommend drinking water frequently. In cases where you’ll be physically active or in hotter weather, doubling your water intake is necessary.
Benefits Of Keeping Yourself Hydrated
- Helps Maintain Bodily Functions
As mentioned earlier, enough fluids in your body promotes better functioning of your organs. Water is an important component in digestion, nutrient transport and absorption, blood circulation, temperature optimization, and brain function.
When you’re low on water, you’ll notice how it becomes harder for you to focus. This is because dehydration lowers your brain function. Moreover, when your body doesn’t have enough fluids, your mood and concentration get compromised.
Drinking lots of water not only restores your ability to function, but it also allows your body to eliminate toxins from your body. It also provides lubrication for your joints and helps with supplying electrolytes in your body.
- Increases Energy And Physical Performance
During a physical activity, your body perspires and loses water. In this case, not only are you losing water in your body, you’re also expelling sodium and electrolytes that are essential for muscle function and maintaining normal heart rhythm. When these things occur, cells get dried up and are unable to achieve maximum performance. This results in lower energy and performance during any activity that requires physical exertion.
Drinking enough water is important when you exercise. Drink before, during, and after any physical activity to prevent dehydration and boost your energy.
- Helps Your Kidneys
In simple terms, kidneys are the filtration system of the human body. They help cleanse the body by eliminating toxins found in the blood. Fluids help with delivering these waste products out of your body. Drinking lots of water allows you to make this process more seamless for your kidneys to perform.
When you’re well-hydrated, urine has less odor, is light in color, and flows smoothly. If you’re dehydrated, however, this may not be the case. In fact, dehydration can also cause the formation of hardened mineral crystals called ‘kidney stones.’ Stone formation in your kidneys can cause painful urination as some crystals may pass through the urethra when you pee.
Drinking lots of water can help prevent kidney stones and allow for more comfortable urination.
- Maintains Normal Digestion
A common symptom of dehydration is constipation. Water is necessary to promote seamless flow within your digestive tract. When you’re properly hydrated, food is able to pass through your gut easily and helps your colon to have enough water to perform its job, which is to get rid of stool. Your gut health can suffer if you’re dehydrated as water is the main ingredient to breaking food down as well, flushing out toxins, and many other functions. You can get healthy gut powder from Terra Origin. Mixed with getting enough hydration this can help you balance your gut to optimal levels. It adds the right balance of microorganisms to the digestive tract to bring everything into balance.
As you try to increase your water consumption, also include fiber in your diet to help relive constipation.
- Aids In Weight Loss
Believe it or not, drinking lots of water can also help you shed off weight. Drinking enough fluids promotes better metabolism, which allows you to burn those annoying calories you’ve been trying to get rid of. Moreover, water is also an excellent alternative to high-calorie drinks, like soda and concentrated juices.
Tips To Help You Drink More Water
Yes, staying hydrated has a lot of benefits. But, the most important thing you should remember is how you’ll stay hydrated.
Here are tips to elevate your water-drinking experience:
- Bring a water bottle wherever you go.
- Download water apps on your phone to remind you to drink.
- Try different ways to turn dull water into an exciting drink (such as fruit infusion, water boosters, etc.)
- At work, take a sip each time you look at your water bottle.
- Eat your water. Eat fruits and vegetables that are rich in water, like watermelon, lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes, etc.