The benefits of drinking water

CEBU, Philippines – We've been told to drink eight glasses of water a day. Yet our body size, the ambient temperature and how active we are can all make a difference. So those who are exercising a lot on a hot day need to drink more.

You get about 20 percent of your water every day through food. A general rule is to drink two liters of water a day. This is easy to measure using the large bottle of soft drink.

Many people ensure adequate body water supply by always drinking when they feel thirsty. But if you're feeling thirsty you're already dehydrated. So it's not healthy to wait until you need a drink. Better to sip small amounts throughout the day to keep yourself hydrated.

Do tea, coffee and fizzy drinks count? You can get a certain amount of water from tea, coffee and soft drinks but they're also diuretics - meaning they make you pee a lot more, as well as increase the amount of water your body uses. Instead, plain water is also much healthier - it has no calories to bloat the body or sugar to damage your teeth.

And how much is everyone else drinking? In a study, out of 30,000 subjects less than one per cent drank eight glasses of pure water each day - the recommended daily intake. The study was

conducted to determine the drinking habits of people as health officials try to deter people from only drinking tea, coffee and sugary drinks. It was found out that six in ten people drank just one glass of water, two in ten drank two, while only one in ten said they drank three.

It would seem that the benefits of drinking water are not quite widely known. Let's check out at least 10 reasons why drinking water is good:

  1.Water helps with weight loss. It's great news for anyone trying to lose a few pounds. Filling up with water naturally reduces the appetite. And water has no calories.

A lot of people confuse feeling thirsty with feeling hungry, so they eat when in fact their body simply wants them to drink something. When you're dehydrated, fat cells become harder to break down and so anyone actually trying to diet will find it a lot harder if they don't drink very much.

2. Water is a natural wrinkle-buster. According to a study, almost one in five women who drank 1.5 liters of water per day saw a reduction in wrinkles after six weeks without making any other changes to their diet.

Water clears your skin, too. It's true that drinking more water can make for clear skin and can also help the symptoms of acne. If you've got dry skin, drinking water will give it more moisture. Water offers lots of health benefits, too. It flushes toxins out of your body and anything else that shouldn't be there so it clears your skin of any dirt and bacteria.

Aside from wrinkle-busting and skin-clarifying functions, water is said to give us sparkly eyes, clear our skin of spots and make us look glowing and healthy.

3.Water stops headaches and dizziness. Don't reach for the pills right away; your headache could be a symptom of dehydration, so drinking water should make it go away. Even tension headaches and dizziness, which can be brought on by fatigue, can be cured or helped by drinking water - this is because fatigue is also a sign of dehydration.

4. Water fights infections. Drinking water can help fight infections in your body, not only because it flushes out toxins but because when you're dehydrated you're more likely to catch a bug. It's especially good for getting rid of and preventing urine infections and kidney stones.

Being well hydrated is also great for allergies and colds, because it clears the airways. Even cold sores can be reduced by drinking more water because they tend to pop up in places where your skin is particularly dry.

5. Water makes for regular bowel movement. If you suffer from constipation or piles you might have been told to increase your fiber intake. This is definitely one way of getting rid of the problem but you'll need to drink more water for the fiber to work properly. Otherwise it could have the opposite effect and make you worse.

6. Water makes you exercise better. It's common sense to replace the fluids you lose when you sweat. But what might not be obvious is that your body works better and harder during your workout if you drink water.

7. Water improves concentration. Because your brain is made of around 85 percent water, if you get dehydrated it can affect your concentration and even your short-term memory. It has a particularly strong effect on your math skills and it's all because lack of water causes your brain's energy levels to decrease.

8. Water boosts your energy. In the same way that not drinking enough water makes your brain slow down so does it affects your body. For example, your muscles are around 75 percent water, your bones about 22 percent and your blood around 83 percent. If you're dehydrated, all these body parts don't work as well as they should, meaning you lack energy and feel tired or lazy.

9. Water supports your heart. The hardest working muscle of all needs a lot of water to keep it going at full speed.

When you get dehydrated your blood gets thicker so the heart has to work even harder. And if your heart is weak it can lead to more serious heart problems in later life. A study has found that drinking more than five glasses of water a day could cut your chances of having a heart attack by 41 percent, compared with people who drank less than two glasses a day.

To know if you're drinking enough, measure how much you're drinking for a few days to see if it's anywhere within the recommended amount. And check your wee. If it's pale and clear then you're drinking a healthy amount. If it's dark yellow and cloudy you might be dehydrated or not drinking enough.

If you're always getting thirsty a lot but going to the comfort room more, there might be an underlying problem, like diabetes. It's good to speak to your doctor. (www.goodtoknow.co.uk)