Drinking Water
Each day you must consume a certain amount of water to
survive. This varies with age, gender, and where someone lives. An adult male
needs about 3 litres per day while an adult female needs about 2.2 litres per
day approximately. Some of this water is obtained in food.
This threshold of
drinking water enables to balance water losses and keep one’s body properly
hydrated. Water is a major constituent of our bodies and vital organs. It
provides five vital functions in our body:
- Water distributes essential nutrients; minerals, vitamins and
glucose to the cells.
·
Water is significant in chemical and metabolic
reactions.
- Regulates body temperature
Water has a large heat capacity, which helps to
limit changes in body temperature in a warm or a cold environment.
·
Water removes waist products, toxins from the cells
to urine and faeces.
·
Water acts as lubricant and shock absorber in the
body.
Water is at the centre of your life. This is why nobody can live
more than 3 to 5 days without any water intake.
About 63% of the human body is water. (The
amount depends on the age of the person.)
When
you're low on waters, your brain generates the body's thirst mechanism
that makes you thirsty. In this case you should listen to this
message and get yourself a drink of water, juice, milk, coffee but alcohol.
The
brain communicates with the kidney and tells it how much water to excrete as
urine or hold onto as reserve. Your kidneys do essential and important job of
purification eliminating toxins as long as your water intake is adequate.
Muscle
cells need adequate water, if they don’t maintain their balance of fluids and
electrolytes weaken, which can result in muscle fatigue. So drinking enough
fluids is important when exercising to replace water lost by sweating.
Your
skin contains plenty of water and it functions as a barrier to prevent excess
fluid loss. So if you drink sufficient amount of water your skin will
look healthy.
Water
substituting higher calorie beverages can help control calorie intake. Foods
with high water content: fruits,
vegetables, broth-based soups, oatmeal and legumes require more chewing, and they
are absorbed more slowly by the body, which helps you feel full.
You
need to drink 8 glasses of water/ day however, if you drink extreme amount of water in a
short period of time it can cause low level of sodium in your blood.
This condition is called hyponatremia, water-intoxication.
Water is essential for life. It is also very important in
food preparation and cooking, sanitation and hygiene, and a wide range of other
uses. The drinking water supply has a primary objective of protecting human
health, including ensuring access to adequate quantities and qualities. 17% of
the world's population uses water from the unprotected sources, 32% from some
form of protected sources and 51% from some sort of centralised system.
Generally,
soft water is more desirable. Soft water is hard water that has had its minerals removed
through the process of ionisation So many people feel it essential to invest in a water
softener. Hard water contains high concentration of calcium and
magnesium ions and other dissolved ions like aluminium, strontium, iron, zinc
and magnesium. Some studies have shown a correlation between hard water and
lower cardiovascular disease mortality. Calcium and magnesium are essential for
a healthy body. In additional hard water contains less sodium.
Keep
drinking water.
