How much water should you drink a day – by Dr Harold Gunatillake
You lose about 10 cups of water every day just living, urinating, sweating, in your breath and you need to compensate that amount. One can assess whether one is dehydrated from the volume of urine pass per day and from the colour. Darker the urine, like the colour of concentrated apple juice, you are less hydrated. Drink sufficient water to keep the urine a lighter and pale in colour, then you have drunk adequate amount.
You can assess whether you are dehydrated from your body weight. You lose weight as you lose water.
When dehydrated you could pinch your skin, and loses its shine. Using moisture rises in addition to drinking adequate amount keep your skin healthy. To keep your skin healthy you need adequate amount of sleep, too
An early sign of dehydration is thirst. Breathing and pulse can get faster. You could feel fatigue, feel dizzy and so on.
It is also true that you could lose weight by drinking water. You tend to eat less when you drink a glass or two of water before a meal.
Especially after exercise you need to add extra salt in your drinks. Sports drinks are rich in sodium, which helps you to retain the water in your body.
Drinking too much of water within a short period could be dangerous. The normally functioning kidneys can excrete from 20 to 1,000 millilitres of fluid per hour and it is not easy to overload them. Drinking large amounts of water within short periods increase your weight, bloating, nausea, vomiting can occur. This water intoxication can cause low sodium levels, which can lower your blood pressure too much, and give you headaches, confusion, fits and coma. Athletes should limit water consumption to 31 ounces of water per hour during extended exercise.
Water can move nutrients, remove waste, cushion joints and improves metabolic processes in the body.
Water is usually enough to rehydrate under resting and after light exercise. Athletes may need sports drinks as water replaces only about half of the fluid loss.
Remember 75% of your body is composed of water, water makes up about 83% of blood. 73% of muscles and 25% of body fat and 22% of bones have water in them.
Most people believe that you should drink 8 glasses of water per day. The institute of Medicine in US recommends that men got about 125 ounces of water (each average glass is about 10 ounces) and that women should drink 91 pounces. This includes water from foods, and beverages. Scientists say there are no clear health benefits to chugging or sipping water all day. Nobody knows who has set the example that one should drink eight glasses of water.
Some believe that drinking lots of water flushers the toxins out of the body. The kidneys normally filter toxins from your blood stream whether you are adequately hydrated or not. It is believed that drinking large amounts of water surprisingly tends to reduce the kidney’s ability to function as a filter
There is an osmo-regulatory mechanism to hydrate your body by through thirst- a desire to drink fluids.
A lack of thirst lasting for some time could be a symptom of a number of conditions. Excessive thirst could be due to bleeding, diabetes, physical exhaustion, dehydration, medications and mental disorders. If the symptom of thirst persists for long periods you should contact a physician to determine the cause and take adequate treatment.
Drinking more water helps to boost your metabolism. Drinking icy cold water increases your metabolism by burning a few calories. Drinking warm water has the opposite effect.
Your brain has over 70% of water. Dehydration can cause stress. To keep stress levels down keep a glass of water at your desk or carry a sports bottle and sip regularly.
One of the main reasons why people get muscles cramps after exercise is lack of water. Water prevents cramping and lubricates joints in the body.
Drinking adequate water helps you to prevent stone formation in your kidneys. Water dilutes the salts and minerals in your urine that form the solid crystals to form kidney stones.
In conclusion, how much water should you drink per day? There is no hard and fast rule. You will feel and be healthy if you are drinking adequate amount per day. Excess will be removed if your kidneys are functioning normally.
My advice is just drink water when you feel like. Of course cold water is refreshing and stimulates you for a brighter day. I feel bad about those who drink warm water with and after meals.
Good advice by Dr harold
