The benefits of water

Essential to life, a person's survival depends on drinking it.

Water is used in so many activities. We need to drink it to survive and to stay healthy. We cannot work without it and need it for bathing, cleaning, washing and cooking. All the cells and organ activities that make up our anatomy and physiology depend on water for their functioning. Therefore, each cell depends on water to function properly. Inside our body, water helps regulate human's body temperature. It is nature's air-conditioner inside our body; when it's hot, it keeps the body cool through perspiration, and when it's cold, it keeps the body warm through insulation. Through balancing the electrolytes (the body's own electricity conductors), water controls and regulates the blood pressure.

Water makes up over two thirds of a healthy human body and is essential for lubricating the joints and eyes, aiding digestion, flushing out waste and toxins as well as keeping skin healthy. It also forms a big and important portion of human saliva, sweat and tears as it keeps the moisture intact around mouth and eyes. Saliva helps facilitates chewing and swallowing, ensuring that food slides easily down the oesophagus. Our joints move painlessly only because the water, also mixed with other components, works as a lubricant on them. Water through its presence in and around the organs, cushions them from any outside shock. 

Blood is about 92% water and it carries nutrients and oxygen throughout the body.

Nutrients from the food we eat are broken down in the digestive system where they become water-soluble, which means they are dissolved in water. Water allows these nutrients to pass through the capillaries, within the intestinal walls to the blood and circulatory system, where the valuable nutrients and oxygen can be distributed throughout the body, to all the cells and organs. It also works as an excreting agent in our body by flushing human's kidneys. Mechanisms such as urination and perspiration, help the removal of toxins from our body. Water helps reduce constipation and aids in bowel movements, which ensure that waste is removed quickly and regularly before it can become poisonous to our body.


 

We would die within three to seven days without it

We need our daily supply of water, since we cannot maintain reserves of it in our body as we can with food. 75% of all people are chronically dehydrated. For many people, the first mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. Did you know that water is not only a natural suppressant, but it actually helps the  body to metabolise stored fat. When the body does not have a good supply of water to draw from, to perform required physiological tasks, it will draw water from inside the body cells, including fat cells, in order to perfom the desired tasks.

Water is the essence of life

It is the most important nutrient in our bodies, making up roughly 70 percent of our muscle and brain tissue. Unfortunately, many people do not consume sufficient water everyday to meet their bodies most basic requirements, leaving them dehydrated. Dehydration itself is responsible for a wide range of common ailments experienced by just about everyone in today's busy, fast-paced world, including headaches and fatigue.

When we breathe, we lose moisture to the air everytime we exhale, as much as two cups a day! Furthermore, our bodies lose water throught evaporation from the surface of our skin even without rigorous exercise, and of course, we also pass water in our urine.

During the course of an everage day, a healthy adult can lose eight to ten cups of water. Add in exercise, and this number rises considerably. If we fail to replenish the water we lose through these natural processes, we set off a physiological reaction that can have serious health effects.



Only oxygen is craved by the body more than water

According to the NHS, you should drink about 1.2 litres (six to eight glasses) of fluid every day to prevent dehydration. If you drink coffee, alcohol or tea, make sure you also drink water on the side. These drinks are what we call diuretics which means they make you pass urine more often which could lead you to dehydration.

Dehydration occurs when the normal water content of your body is reduced, upsetting the delicate balance of minerals (salts and sugars) in your body fluids (remember the electrolytes). Many of your body's cells depend on these minerals being maintained at the correct levels to function properly. Some of the early warning signs to dehydration are the feelings of thirst and light-headed and having concentrated, strong foul urine. The body works less efficiently, even with a relatively low level of fluid loss.

Moderate dehydration causes you to lose strength and stamina and is the primary cause of heat exhaustion. If dehydration is chronic (ongoing) it can affect kidneys function and may lead to the development of kidney stones.
It can also cause harm to the liver, joints and muscles, cholesterol problems and constipation.

Some of water's major properties could be seeing as hydrating, relaxing, moistening, soothing and cooling. Water is one of nature's most important gift to mankind. It is one of the most essential elements to good health, and necessary for the digestion and absorption of food. It helps maintaining proper muscle tone, supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells, rids the body of wastes and serves as a natural air-conditioning system.

  • Mild dehydration could slow down one's metabolism
  • One glass of water could shut down midnight hunger pangs for most people
  • Lack of water could be one trigger of daytime fatigue
  • 8-10 glasses of water per day could significantly ease people from back and joint pain


Water is life's master and matrix, mother and medium.
There is no life without water.

Albert Szent-Gyoryi

The main reasons for dehydration today

Not drinking enough water, nutritional habits, faster pace of life lead people to rely on pasta, bread, take-away food, pizza, potatoes... shorter meal times. Busier life makes people eat lots of concentrated calories, in a very short space of time without adequate hydration. Not enough whole foods are also being consumed such as soaked grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts. All these fibre foods help bulk up the wastes, and consequently retain the water in the stools and stay hydrated.

Chemicals in food enhance the water's taste, making the consumer eat less hard foods. These hard foods require chewing to "unlock" their taste to the brain. Chewing contributes to the food hydration. If less or faster chewing is performed, then more dehydrated the individual becomes, not been able to get the food moist.

Stress, adrenal fatigue, air-conditioning and dry air in offices, sedentary jobs and lifestyle, inhaling petrol fumes and generally breathing bad air, excessive exercise, sweet and fizzy drinks consumption, vast amounts of alcohol being consumed and eating substancial amounts of animal proteins on a regular basis, should all be taking into account as to get de-hydrated

So, please, if there is one thing that you could change in your lifestyle, make sure that "drinking more water" is one of them. 


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If you need anymore information, please, email or call me on 0207 247 7742 within the hours of 9.30am to 8pm Monday to Saturday,
I will be happy to answer any enquiries you might have.

Your therapist at 4 Balance and Health, Edwige Cabanetos



Therapies offered at 4 Balance and Health are not substitutes for traditional medical care by your GP, they are complementary therapies that may be used in conjunction with conventional medicine. Should you be aware of any reasons why these therapies are contra-indicated to you or you have a serious health problem, please consult your GP prior to their use.