WATER: DRINK IT
Lately, I’ve been working on increasing my water consumption. You hear all these things about how good water is for you but somehow I get to the end of the day and realize I’ve barely drank anything, let alone enough water. So I made it a goal.
Now before I do anything, I usually google it and get some info. It’s the science nerd in me. Scratch that, it’s the nerd in me. Info = happiness. So of course I looked up drinking water. How much should we drink? What happens if we drink too little? Or too much? Well, here’s what I found.
How much water should I drink?
We have all heard we should drink 8 glasses (8 oz a glass) of water a day. Well, this has been hotly debated over the years. I headed over to mayoclinic.org where they stated that the saying should be changed to 8 glasses of FLUID a day. So your coffee, tea, and whatever liquid you drink (hopefully water is somewhere in there) should count towards your intake. They also say the 8 glasses a day has no hard evidence behind it but is easy to remember, so use it. The Institute of Medicine says adequate intake is 3 liters fluid for men and 2.2 liters for women. Eight glasses of 8oz of water is about 1.9 liters, so it’s in the neighborhood. How much water you drink a day will vary on your body, your physical activity, where you live etc. But what you should remember is that the body weight is 60% water. Water drives everything that is going on inside you. So water is important!
Signs you are drinking too little water
So how do you tell if you are not drinking enough water? Well, you will be dehydrated which literally means not watered. Easiest signal? You’re thirsty. If you’re thirsty, drink some water. That’s your body talking to you. However, if you’re hungry…….also drink some water. A lot of times we mistake thirst for hunger which is why all the diet experts tell us to drink water before each meal. You may also have dry skin or a slight headache. So if you start to feel a headache coming on, grab the water before the Tylenol.
Another way to tell if you’re dehydrated is to look at your pee. The bathroom tells you a lot about your health but that’s another conversation. To make sure you are getting enough water, your urine should look like lemonade or light yellow. If your pee is dark yellow, drink some water. Lighter the pee, the more hydrated you are.
Signs you are drinking TOO much water
It seems crazy to think that we can drink too much water but you can. Actually, studies have shown that marathon runners are at risk of drinking TOO much water, which can be fatal. Abundance of water swells your cells and while your body can adapt to this swelling, your brain cannot. Drinking too much water also lowers your sodium levels dangerously and is called hyponatremia. This decrease in sodium is why sports drinks usually have salt in them so that they hydrate without dilution of sodium.
Some signs of drinking too much water are vomiting, muscle weakness and loss of appetite. These symptoms might not occur. The runners who developed hyponatremia often reported feeling fine and thought the nausea and weakness was from dehydration so they drank more water, which wasn’t good. But these were people that had drinking water as a major priority because they were running a 26.2 mile race, so in your everyday, normal life, you should not be at risk of overhydrating. However, if worried, go check your pee. If your pee looks clear, that may be a sign you’re drinking too much water. You want some yellow color in that pee.
So from my reading, I mainly realized that I just needed to keep drinking water throughout the day and drink more when I work out or sweat. My main problem was that I get distracted and suddenly the day is gone and I didn’t drink enough. But we all have smartphones now, so I was sure someone had made an app to help with staying hydrated. There were lots. I chose one called Plant Nanny because it made staying hydrated cute! You are given a cartoon plant that needs water to grow. So the app sends a reminder to me every 2 hours to drink a glass of water, otherwise my plant gets sad and wilts. It helps me stay hydrated and makes me smile. Win-win.
So go buy a re-useable water bottle and make sure you are drinking throughout the day. Your body will love you for it!
NOTE: I am not a medical doctor. Any medical info on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment. Please consult your health care provider.
References:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109195002.htm