How Not Drinking Enough Water Seriously Damages Your Health

getting enough waterWhat the warmer weather does is it absorbs fluid out of your body. The best cure for this is drinking adequate amounts of clean pure water. The issue however, is that most will avoid doing so, or will drink alternate fluids.

The reason being that most think fluid is fluid. But what most beverages contain are detrimental ingredients which doesn’t do your health any favors. The young and the elderly are especially susceptible to this. Children will drink too many sweet drinks, while the elderly will not drink enough water.

So as a result, these age groups will usually become dehydrated, which has repercussions on their health such as poor academic performance for the young, and weakened muscles and willpower for the old.

The Body Needs Water To Function
We know that the body is comprised primarily of water, which is required to accomplish a number of functional physiological processes, along with biochemical reactions on a daily basis.

What these includes are: proper blood circulation, regulation of metabolism, balances body temperature, administers muscle strength, and manages waste removal and detoxification.

Just a 2% percent loss of water because of the hot weather or excessive exercise, will make you thirsty. Using this thirst as a guideline to drink more water is the best and most obvious way to replenish yourself.

But once this thirst mechanism kicks in, you’re usually already in the early stages of dehydration. So what becomes vital is not ignoring the initial pangs of feeling thirst.

This thirst mechanism in some children can also be underdeveloped, while feeling thirsty is usually ignored by the elderly, making both vulnerable. The elderly are especially at a heightened risk because of their weakened immune systems.

To Drink More Water
Getting hunger pangs or sugar cravings are also strong indicators that your body is thirsting for more water. So once you begin to feel hungry, always drink a glass of water first, but never soda.

In addition to feeling thirsty, other signals of dehydration includes: fatigue and dizziness, mood swings, weak muscles, muscle cramps, foggy thinking, poor concentration, chills, back or joint pain, constipation, infrequent urination, headaches, or bad breath.

Know If You’re Dehydrated
Being severely dehydrated at times can become life threatening, while milder forms of it can cause issues such as impaired cognition, irritability, and confusion.

Even just slight dehydration can affect your ability to place full effort into your workouts or daily activities, as just a small percentile can cause up to a 10% percent decrease in performance.

The key symptom that’s known is, the more dehydrated that you become, the worse that your performance will deteriorate.

So How Much Water To Drink
The oft-advised clinical guideline is to drink 8 – 8-ounce glasses of water per day. It’s found however, that the amount to drink depends more on the individual, which can vary significantly.

It can depend on a variety of factors, such as the weather conditions, activity level, body composition, the individuals age, and the time of day.

So in reality, it becomes impossible to determine how much water a particular person needs, as it depends on one’s living habits, what the external conditions are, and what other types of fluids they drank that day.

Take The Pee Test
What’s found more accurate is the color level of the urine, as it’s found to be the most effective way of tracking an individuals hydration level, this on a day to day, hourly basis.

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If it’s dark, that means the kidneys are retaining fluid, this to maintain proper bodily function, and the strongest indicator that more water is needed. The ideal color is a pale yellow.

Also, if you take vitamin B12, (riboflavin) which is commonly found in supplements or in multivitamins, the urine can turn a bright yellow, making it more difficult to judge one’s water intake needs.

The frequency of going to the bathroom also becomes a factor, provided that one is healthy. Most on average will go around eight times a day. So if you haven’t gone in several hours or it’s hot outside, then go drink some water.

Don’t Dehydrate And Drive
When it comes to dehydration, what most become susceptible to is fatigue and irritability. Cognitive function along with loss of rationality will often become blunted.

There can also be more serious ramifications. If you’re driving and are severely dehydrated, what’s known is that you can make up to 2 times more driving errors, this if you’re seriously parched. The symptoms can be similar to driving drunk.

What compounds this is that most will purposely avoid drinking water before going on a long drive, this to avoid frequent bathroom stops. So as a result, severe dehydration is now considered a traffic accident risk.

Replacing Water With Other Beverages
Even if you don’t realize it, your body is losing water, like right now. So even if you’re not visibly sweating or moving around, you need to constantly be replenishing this fluid loss.

Although energy drinks, sport drinks, fruit juices, soda, and alcohol does contain liquid, they’re far from substitutes for pure fresh water, and some even have a negative effect.

Soda, energy drinks, coffee, and some teas contain caffeine, which is a diuretic, and will actually dehydrate you, so they’re bad choices when attempting to quench your thirst, as you’ll usually get thirstier.

What most sweet drinks contain is processed fructose, which contributes to obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Drinking just one can of soda daily, can add as much as 15 pounds of weight over a single year.

So to remain hydrated, just drink pure filtered water. This when walking, exercising, and especially if it’s hot outside. Make sure you avoid sports, energy, or sweet drinks, which won’t effectively replace the lost fluid.

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