How much water should you drink per day? Is drinking water good for your health? It’s really a simple question with no easy answer.
Studies have produced varying recommendations over years. But individual water needs depend on many factors, including how active you are, your health and where you live??
Clean water is one of the most essential elements for good health. No single formula fits for everyone. But knowing more about your body’s need for the fluids will help you to estimate how much water to drink per day.
Drinking water is needed to carry nutrients to the cells, cushion joints, moisten tissue, regulate the body temperature and flush out the toxins. Staying hydrated protects against colorectal and the bladder cancers, urinary tract infections, high blood pressure, heart disease and the kidney stones.
A normal healthy person needs about eight glasses (approx two liters) of water a day, which should go up in hot, the sweaty weather and during the vigorous activities, according to Indian Council of Medical Research’s Dietary Guidelines for the Indians.
The milk, coffee, tea, yogurt and whole foods you have will also help to meet your hydration target, but water should be the fluid of choice.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE WATER NEEDS:
You might need to modify your total fluid intake (drinking water) based on several factors —
1. Exercise:
If you do any activity or exercise that makes you sweat, you need to drink extra water to cover fluid loss. It’s most important to drink water before, during and after a workout.
If exercise is intense and lasts more than an hour, a sports drink can replace the minerals in your blood (electrolytes) lost through the sweat.
2. Environment:
Hot or the humid weather can make you sweat and requires the additional fluid intakes. Dehydration also can occur at the high altitudes.
3. Overall Health:
Your body loses fluids when you have a fever, diarrhea or vomiting. Drink more water or follow a doctor’s recommendation to drink the oral re-hydration solutions.
Other conditions that might require the increased fluid intake include bladder infections and the urinary tract stones.
4. Pregnancy or Breast-Feeding:
Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding need additional fluids to stay fresh and hydrated. The Office on Women’s Health recommends that the pregnant women should drink about 10 cups (2.4 liters) of fluids daily and women who breast-feed consume about 13 cups (3.1 liters) of fluids a day.
In this article, we’ll discuss about 11 health benefits of drinking water in detail.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRINKING WATER:
There are many health benefits of drinking water, including —
1. Water for Skin:
Your skin is made up of 70 percent of water, meaning your skin’s health and the appearance may very well be a reflection of quality and the quantity of water you drink and bathe-in.
Anatomically, our body is primarily made of bones, organs and the blood, with blood being the main connective fluid which contributes about 8 percent of our total body weight.
Furthermore, blood is composed of two core components, proteinous blood corpuscles (45 percent) and straw-coloured plasma (55 percent). This alkaline fluid plasma is made up of 90 to 92 percent of water.
When your blood circulation is optimal, results can be seen on your skin as well. With just the right amount of intake of water, you won’t be needing a blush to make your cheeks glow pink or a lip-gloss to make your lips look rosy.
Not only does water keep your skin hydrated, it eventually affects every organ system of your body, right from the muscular to digestive.
You know you are on the path to becoming healthy and beautiful when your sinuses, your digestive tract and even your arteries are clean.
Drinking Water also moisturizes your skin, keeps it fresh, smooth soft and glowing. Gets rid of the wrinkles. It is the best anti-aging treatment around!
2. Increases Energy & Relieves Fatigue:
Since your brain is mostly water, drinking it helps you focus, think and concentrate better and be more alert. As an added bonus, the energy levels are also boosted.
One study on women stated that a fluid loss of 1.36% after the workout or exercise impaired the mood and concentration and increased the frequency of headaches.
Other studies reveal that mild dehydration (1–3% of body weight) caused by the exercise or heat can harm many other aspects of the brain function. Keep in mind that just 1% of the body weight is a fairly significant amount. This happens primarily when you are sweating a lot.
3. Water for Immune System:
One of the great benefit of drinking water is that it keeps your immunity system healthy.
A water guzzler is less likely to get you sick. And who would not rather feel healthy the majority of time? Drinking plenty of water helps you to fight against flu, cancer and other ailments like the heart attacks.
4. Natural Headache Remedy:
Drinking water also helps you to relieve and prevent headaches (also migraines and the back pains) which are commonly caused by the dehydration.
5. Water for Weight Loss:
Removes by-products of the fat, reduces eating intake (by filling up your tummy if consumed prior to the meals), raises your metabolism, reduces the hunger (hello natural appetite suppressant!) and has zero calories.
You have to drink a cup of warm water in the morning and another cup of warm water before meal, it helps you to fasten your weight loss journey.
Hot water breaks down fat molecules in the body leading to the weight loss. In addition to the aiding weight loss, it also helps to treat the dry skin and cures constipation too.
6. Water Flushes Out Toxins:
An another benefit of drinking water is to gets rid of waste through the sweat and urination which reduces the risk of kidney stones and the urinary tract infections.
Water flushes out the toxins from our vital organs while also carrying the nutrients to the body cells, which helps our organs to function at optimum levels.
With regards to skin, it helps to reduce the pimples, marks and acne, even delaying the ageing process to an extent.
7. Water Puts You in A Good Mood:
When your body is functioning at its best, you will feel good and happy.
8. Water for Hair:
Hair is made up of 5 percent of water and has 95 percent of protein, and chemicals like chlorine can damage and breakdown proteins — think split ends.
When there is a shortage of water in our body, it has to be borrowed from the different organ systems in our body, which weakens them and may lead to the hair loss, thinning of hair and also hair-breakage.
The supply of water to the roots of your hair makes your hair look rich and helps to maintain keratin levels.
It helps in increasing hair volume and also darkens the hair color. Water also limits the dirt from banking on the scalp, giving you clean, strong and the shiny hair.
Thus, in order to maintain a healthy body with the beautiful skin and hair, it is vital to have access to the contaminant-free water.
9. Water Prevents Cramps & Sprains:
Proper hydration helps to keep your joints lubricated and muscles more elastic so the joint pain is less likely.
10. Water for Beautiful Nails:
Water is the most vital substance for persistence of human life on the earth. But not only does water give you life, its consumption brings certain other benefits as well, such as the healthy nails.
When your nails are properly nourished by water, they produce a shiny layer of alpha keratin which enhances their appeal. It also enhances the growth of nails, especially their thickness.
11. Water Maintains Regularity:
Aids in the digestion as water is essential to digest your food and prevents the constipation.
FINAL WORDS
It will not be wrong to say that water is life. Drinking water has a wide range of health benefits such as it keeps your body hydrated, good for your hair, skin and nails, flushes out toxins from the body, helps in weight loss and good for immune system functioning.