by Spectrum Health
Water is one of the fundamental building blocks of life. Literally, all forms of life that have ever been known to exist have needed water to survive, without exception. It goes without saying that we need water to survive, but water doesn’t just give you life, it can also help you improve it. Below are the five main reasons why you should drink more water.
You Need To!
You’ve probably heard all sorts of statistics about how much of our body is made of water. When we are born, it is about 75-80%, but this drops to 60% in men, and 55% in women. All of your organs, muscles and different systems need water to function, so you need to consume water regularly throughout the day.
A study conducted in 2015 found that 25% of children do not drink enough water on a daily basis, with boys 75% more likely to be dehydrated compared to girls. One of the biggest reasons for this is switching to soft drinks, which can hydrate the body, but not in as effective or healthy a manner as water.
More Energy
If you’re feeling tired, you may be tempted to get a coffee or a Red Bull, but a glass of water could be just as energising. As your brain is (literally) swimming in water, increasing your water intake will help keep it hydrated, clean and fresh. This will help your mind to focus more and you to feel more energetic.
Weight Loss
It may come as a surprise that water can help you lose weight, but the real surprise is that it helps in several ways. Firstly, it helps clean out the unhealthy fat we eat. But not only does it clean up for us after we eat, it encou rages us to eat less. Our minds often confuse thirst and hunger, meaning that a lot of the time we eat when we don’t need to. By staying hydrated, our minds won’t confuse a signal for water as a signal for food, and we will eat less as a result. This is helped by the fact that the water we drink takes up room in our bodies, meaning we actually feel less hungry too.
Detox
Before celebrities started inventing their own smoothies with the most expensive fruits on the planet, there was a much cheaper alternative to clearing toxins from your body. Water runs through our entire body, cleaning it from top to bottom, head to toe. Our kidneys alone clean 400 pints of blood a day, so if you think about how much water you need for that, your skin, your muscles, your eyes, and so on, you can begin to see why drinking plain, clean water is a necessity.
Health problems
Failure to drink a sufficient amount of water can lead to numerous health problems. The following are some of the clearest indications that you need to increase your water intake: dry mouth, dry skin, dry eyes, joint pain, fatigue, hunger, constipation and dark/brown urine. These are not exclusively symptoms of poor water intake, but they could mean you should be drinking more, especially if you are experiencing multiple symptoms.
Water may not be the most exciting drink out there, but sometimes we have to remember that it’s better to go for a glass of water than another coffee. You can still continue to enjoy all the drinks you do right now, but if you have experienced any of the above symptoms, or wish to experience the benefits, you may want to drink up.
