Water

Every living thing in this colorful world needs a colorless liquid called water. In fact, life originated in water. About 70% of Earth is covered with water and 70% of our body is nothing but water.

How important is drinking water for us? Look at the water content in some of our organs:

Human brain – 85-90% water
Blood- 82%
Lungs- 90%
Liver – 90%
Even bones has got 35% water

Function

So, that says how important it is to drink water. How does water help us in day-today activities? Following are some of its functions:

* Maintains body temperature – body’s air conditioning- and evenly distributes temperature/heat

* Works as lubricant

* It can energize every cell

* Main ingredient of fluids that surround the joints

* Helps digestion and alleviates constipation

* The best natural detoxifier

* Plays a significant role in maintaining immunity and thus helps prevent many diseases

* Helps prevent some kind of back and joint pain (where elasticity of discs etc plays a role)

* Can reduce the possibility of certain types of cancers, by some degree (eg. Colon, breast, bladder.., if we drink enough water, daily

* In fact, our every organ heavily depends on water

I need Water Symptoms

What are the indications that tell us that we need water? Many a times people depend on thirst or dry mouth. Dry mouth is actually an indication of mild dehydration (talking about a normal, healthy person), which is kind of body's cry for it. The best way is to check the color of our urine. If it is yellow, that clearly shows dehydration (talking abt otherwise healthy person who is not under any medication). In that case, rehydrate the body by drinking enough water till urine becomes clear or pale yellow.

Sometimes ‘I feel like eating something’ is body asking water and not snacks. And when we are thirsty, some people take coffee/tea or some sweetened drinks, which are actually diuretic. Diuretics accelerate the rate of urination and also will draw water from the body.

So, when we are thirsty, it is better we quench it with pure water. And we better fill the water requirement with water itself. It is said that at least 50% of the world population are under mild dehydration, most of the day.

How does our body react to this dehydration? What are the symptoms?

* Short term memory

* Trouble in carrying out basic math operations

* Difficulty in reading smaller fonts

* Daytime Fatigue

* Feeling tired or sleepy

* Headache

* Dizziness or lightheadedness

* Muscle weakness

* Chronic dehydration can result in dandruff

* Low metabolism rate etc ……

Daily Requirement

We lose water even while breathing. How much water should we drink? Ideally it’s said that we (an adult) need to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. But it depends on our built too. It might vary between 2-3 liters per day. There is another ratio which says we need to drink half the weight of our body but in terms of ounce. That is, if our body weight is 100 pounds, we need to drink 50 ounce of water.

So, it is better we make drinking water as our habit than waiting for our body to ask for it, every time.