Water and Your Health
How long can we last with out any water? That will depend on what kind of physical shape that you are in, and what kind of environment that you are in. But one thing is for sure; you can go a lot longer with out food than water.
With out water dehydration will set in. Mild dehydration, you will have less saliva and will not urinate as much and as often as normal. Your urine will also have a deep color and strong order to it. Moderate dehydration will give you a rapid heart rate, sunken, dry eyes and mouth with little urination. Severe dehydration you will become irritable and be lethargic, you can also have diarrhea and be vomiting too. Final stage is shock with blue grayish skin color with a drop in blood pressure making the skin feel cool.
Our bodies start out at about eighty percent water when we are born, and as we age the amount of water goes down to about sixty percent or so. Keeping ourselves hydrated will also help with how healthy we stay. As a general rule start out with eight ounces eight times a day.
As a weight reducer water works very good here too. Getting enough water will help the body metabolize fat, it will flush out toxins and keeps the kidney’s working to let the liver do the fat metabolizing. Your body will not need to store water either when it is getting what it needs on a regular bases. This means no water retention.
Water is also a lubricant for the joints and discs in the spinal column. If you suffer from arthritis or joint pain and lower back pain, this can be a sign that you are not drinking enough water. Your joints may not have the fluid in them; your joint cartilage will be too dry to slide between the bones, causing premature wearing out of the joint.
A good starting point is to drink eight eight-ounce glasses of water a day as mentioned above. This is one half gallon of water. Now if you work out or just plane work and sweat a lot, you will need to drink more. It is also possible to drink too much water, though this is uncommon. Mostly marathon runners or high endurance athletes can get this by drinking too much water and thinning out the bloods supply of electrolytes. This is known as hyponatremia. It is best to drink water with supplement electrolytes in it if you are a high endurance athlete.
What to count as your water intake? Plan good old water, do not count any pop or caffeinated drinks of any kind. Caffeine is a diuretic and will increase the body’s loss of water. And sodas are loaded with sugars which are not good for you in the amounts that they have in them.
The quality of the water that you drink will affect your health also. You should always try to get the best water that you can through filtering. Make sure that it has all of the pollutants out of it. Also you should carry your water in only plastic containers with a recycling symbol of #2 or #4 polyethylene, also #5 polypropylene. The plastic bottles that you get your store bought water in are #1 and are only good for 1 time use only. The safest material to carry water in is stainless steel. It can be pricey, but you use it over and over again.





