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Are you drinking enough water? How do you know if you are drinking enough water for optimal health? Most of us need to be reminded to grab a glass of water. It takes a lot of effort to consume an adequate amount of water daily.
We all know that we need water to survive but we often forget that when humans drink enough water we actually perform better and feel and look our very best. The human body is, after all, comprised of 60% water, so water is clearly critical to a healthy and productive lifestyle.
There are thirteen important reasons the human body needs a lot of plain water every single day. Just so you know, we are not talking about fluids in general (caffeinated drinks, soft drinks or sports drinks), just H2O.
Proper hydration and daily water intake may be more vital than you know. It can actually provide disease control! Crazy, I know!
What is the color of your urine?
My mom, a pediatrician, taught me at a young age that an excellent way to check if you are drinking enough water is to look in the toilet bowl. If your urine is clear or pale, it means you are getting enough fluids. If it’s bright yellow, it’s NO BUENO. Start drinking lots of water!
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Top 13 Most Important Reasons To Drink Enough Water Daily-#12 May Shock You
1. Glowing Skin
Just like a plant… When your skin cells aren’t getting the water they need, they’ll start to wither and shrink. But if you drink enough water, your skin will erase the fine lines that form when you’re dehydrated. Skin glow, is what we all desiire.
2. Keeping It Regular
When your body needs to have more water in a specific area, it steals H2o from other places in your body—and that means it can take away from your digestive system, causing constipation.
Constipation is a common problem that’s characterized by infrequent bowel movements and difficulty passing stool.
3. Increases Your Immune System
There’s a reason your doctor tells you to drink more fluids when you’re coming down with something. Being hydrated helps your body attack germs when you are sick. Water in your body helps to flush pathogens.
Your body has to ramp up to launch an attack against the germs when you’re sick, which means your cells need more calories and fluids to keep up with the demands. For instance, you’re losing fluids when your nose starts to run in your body’s attempt to flush out pathogens.
4. Heart Health
Like every muscle, your heart needs adequate hydration to function properly.
Your heart needs enough water to pump blood efficiently. If you are properly hydrated, your heart will be less strained as you won’t have to work as hard.
Down below read about the insane benefits of drinking lemon water.
5. You’ll Sweat More
It’s actually a good thing!! Sweating serves a purpose… to cool your body. If you are not drinking enough water, you are at risk of heatstroke, heat exhaustion, and dehydration which can be a severe medical issue.
6. Increases Physical Performance
Whether you are an athlete or not, staying hydrated during workouts is vital. If you don’t stay hydrated, your physical performance can suffer.
This particularly true during intense exercise or when you are in a hot climate.
Dehydration can have a noticeable effect if you lose as little as 2% of your body’s water content. However, it isn’t uncommon for athletes to lose as much as 6–10% of their water weight via sweat (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).
Dehydration can lead to altered body temperature control, reduced motivation, and increased fatigue. It can also make exercise feel much more difficult, both physically and mentally (3).
Optimal hydration has been shown to prevent this from happening, and it may even reduce the oxidative stress that occurs during high-intensity exercise. It’s not surprising when you consider that muscle is about 80% water (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
If you exercise intensely and tend to sweat, staying hydrated can help you perform at your absolute best.
7. Mental Clarity- Brain Clarity
The bottom line is that your hydration levels strongly influence your brain.
Studies show that even mild dehydration, such as the loss of 1–3% of body weight, can impair many aspects of brain function. Think about when you drink too much and get dehydrated. It’s hard to think, yes?
In a study in young women, researchers found that fluid loss of 1.4% after exercise impaired both mood and concentration. It also increased the frequency of headaches (6Trusted Source).
Many other studies, with subjects ranging from children to older adults, have shown that mild dehydration can impair mood, memory, and brain performance (8, 9Trusted Source, 10, 11Trusted Source, 12, 13).
8. Headache Prevention
I get headaches quickly when I don’t drink enough water. Dehydration can trigger headaches and migraines in some individuals (14Trusted Source, 15Trusted Source).
Research has shown that a headache is one of the most common symptoms of dehydration. For example, a study in 393 people found that 40% of the participants experienced a headache due to dehydration (14Trusted Source).
9. Clears Your Skin
Water helps to push any toxins out of your body; it helps to clear your skin from any bacteria or harmful dirt, which generally would contribute to acne.
10. Prevent Kidney Stones
There’s limited evidence that water intake can help prevent recurrence in people who have previously gotten kidney stones (22, 23). Higher fluid intake increases the volume of urine passing through the kidneys. This dilutes the concentration of minerals, so they’re less likely to crystallize and form clumps.
11. Prevent Hangovers
Most of us have learned that drinking water after drinking alcohol is always a good idea. Alcohol is a diuretic, so it makes you lose more water than you take in. This can lead to dehydration (24, 25Trusted Source, 26Trusted Source).
Good ways to reduce hangovers are to drink a glass of water between drinks and have at least one big glass of water before going to bed.
12. Help With Weight loss
Drinking plenty of water can help you lose weight. Yes, you read that right.
The reason for this is that water can increase satiety and boost your metabolic rate. This is great news for most of us!
Some evidence suggests that increasing water intake can promote weight loss by slightly boosting your metabolism, increasing the number of calories you burn daily.
A 2013 study in 50 young women with overweight demonstrated that drinking an additional 16.9 ounces (500 mL) of water three times per day before meals for eight weeks led to significant reductions in body weight and body fat compared with their pre-study measurements (27Trusted Source).
The timing is important to. It is recommended to drink water half an hour before meals. It can make you feel full so that you eat fewer calories (28Trusted Source, 29).
13. Avoid Urinary Track Infections
Drinking water helps dilute your urine and ensures that you’ll urinate more frequently — allowing bacteria to be flushed from your urinary tract before an infection can begin.
Tricks to consume more water:
a. Each time you have your meals, have a glass of water before you take your first bite (this also helps you feel fuller).
b. Add lemon on fruit to your water. Lemon water has so many health benefits it’s got me drinking lemon water daily. The vitamin C from the lemons lower blood sugar, prevents kidney stones, soothes sore throats, cleans the digestive track, helps with vision loss and so much more!
c. Before watching your favorite show, take a glass of water.
d. Add flavoring
e. Bring your water bottle with you in the car and when you are out and about
f. Put a glass of water next to your bed.
g. Eat fruit with high water content- water rich foods.
h. Drink 8 ounces of water first thing in the morning. It’s a great habit to fill your body with water on an empty stomach.
I. Drink hot water and lemon to change things up a bit.
