Drinking water to maintain good health

Drinking water is hugely important to our quality of health. Our bodies are made up of 70 – 80% water and it is therefore vitally important that we replenish the water we use through breathing, sweating and through going to the bathroom. Research shows that we should drink at least 2 to 2.5 litres of water a day – this is for the average adult and are the safe recommended guidelines, for children it is less. If it is hot or you are working out or being physical then more is required. If our bodies are taking in the correct amount of water then our kidneys are working correctly which means our livers are not having to bale them out! With the correct level of fluids in our bodies we can operate more efficiently and with less risk of illness, infection or diseases.

How to Drink More Water Every Day?

Keep track of your daily intake of water for the first few days, so you can establish whether you are drinking the correct recommended amount. It is important to see if you are drinking less or more and whether your hydration levels are correct. If more then it is an easy fix, if less then you have to condition yourself to drink more. Carry a water bottle with you during the day and make sure you always have a glass of water next to you, at home or at work. Try setting the alarm on your watch, computer or mobile phone to make sure you remember to drink. Try using a water filter at home or adding lemons or lime to your water – both taste better than tap water. If you prefer the taste of water when it is colder, try keeping it in the fridge.

Why You Need to Drink Water?

Our bodies are made up of a lot of water. Our blood, lungs, brain and most of our organs and muscles contain mainly water. So to regulate body temperature at the same time as transporting nutrients around the body, oxygen to our cells and removal of waste, we need water. Water also adds protection for our joints and organs – the more our bodies use, the more our bodies need to replace to remain healthy and protect against illness and disease.

How much water should a person drink per day?

Different experts, tell different stories, but in taking a safe average, our daily water intake should be around 2.5 litres of water per day for an adult increasing during hotter weather and periods of physical activity and for kids, 1.5 to 2 litres per day. Energy levels and powers of concentration will increase and improve significantly with increase water intake.

Differences in drinking water?

Safe drinking water comes in many forms – tap water (faucet) is just that, water from your tap. It will contain various man-made chemicals to preserve and cleanse including fluoride and chlorine. Of our bottled water, spring water is normally bottled at source, chemical free and contains many minerals which not only make the water taste better but are also good for our bodies. Distilled water is not normally known as drinking water but more for appliances. It has been stripped of all mineral goodness and is effectively pure hydrogen and oxygen (H2O). Again with purified water, it is not normally known as drinking water as all minerals and even smaller contaminants have been filtered out prior to bottling.

What is the best way to clean polluted water?

Our drinking water quality is of utmost importance to our bodies, filtration with man made or natural methods will clean polluted water from the environment and increase our drinking water quality. Reed beds are the environmental method – allowing solids to settle and microbes in the roots to deal with toxic water contamination in the same way that conventional treatment systems provide us with water treatment.

Signs of Dehydration?

The first signs of dehydration are our body’s urge to drink more along with decreased amount of urine which becomes very concentrated, dark and quite strong in smell. As our dehydration increases we experience a dry mouth, our eyes stop making tears, we may stoip sweating, our muscles start to cramp, we feel nauseous and may vomit and a prime sign is lightheadedness.

How do you prevent dehydration?

Simply – drink water! The body needs water to function and dehydration only occurs when our water intake is less than our body’s water loss. The symptoms of dehydration range from mild to life-threatening and so invariably, prevention is the important first step in treating dehydration. The young and elderly are especially susceptible to dehydration and so we need to recognise the signs when they occur – preferably heading it off by treating our bodies correctly.

Why is drinking water good for you?

For all of the reasons above (and more), drinking water is a must for maintain our body in top contition. It adds to your body’s nutrition, helps you lose weight, makes it easier to exercise and keeps your skin in good condition. Drinking water also helps with our digestions and helps to flush out toxins from the body at the same time reducing fluid retention. Drink water or pay the consequences.

Does drinking lots of water help you lose weight?

Yes, yes, yes!!!! Our livers have the unenviable task of breaking down fats in the body. Unfortunately, if our body is starved of water, our kidneys cannot function correctly and the liver needs to step in to help. Obviously if our liver is on a mission for the kidneys, it cannot do it’s job properly. I firmly believe that livers are male. They certainly can’t multi task! ;o)

Removal of contaminants from our water by filtering can be done in a variety of ways in our own homes but tends only to be used on cold water. It enables us to drink more water safely without having to turn to bottled water products and offers a cost effective and healthy alternative to the shop bought bottle. There are lots of top brand product out there such as Brita, Culligan and Pur – brands with good reputations for quality.

Jug, pitcher or carafe filters are great for small amounts of water and are extremely cost effective. The only drawbacks other than that they provide just small amounts of filtered water, are that they tend to be quite slow and the filters need replacement regularly because they get clogged with the contaminants that they are removing. Unless used regularly, they can also become home to bacteria growing within the filter element. Another cheap alternative to plumbed in systems is the tap (faucet) filter purifier, but again these can be very slow and won’t fit all applications.

Under sink filter units and reverse osmosis systems are great in that they are kept out of the way, but both can take valuable cupboard space. Both need special modifications to the plumbing system and while the reverse osmosis systems produce some of the purest water available, they are also very slow and create huge amounts of waste water – roughly 4 or 5 gallons for every gallon of purified and filtered water that they produce.

Whole house systems use long life cartridges and will require installation by a qualified plumber but offer a cost effective solution on a large scale. These systems can filter out a lot of contaminant and even chlorine, but struggle with some of the nastier bugs and chemicals.

Types of effective filtration

Carbon – charcoal medium carbon is a well used and cost effective solution to our water filtration needs. The filters absorb contaminants and impurities as water flows through the cartridge. The micron rating of these filters is important as anything at 1 micron or below will remove some of the worst contaminants such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Most of the carbon cartridge systems have a simple timer system to keep track on the age and viability of the filter. The do need changing quite often.

Ceramic filters utilize Diatomaceous earth which is a chalky rock made from years of compacted sediment which crumbles easily. It’s use in water filtration is widespread, not only in drinking water treatment but for filtering swimming pools, fish tanks and even wine and beer. The only drawback really is that they have a very slow flow rate.

Mixed media water filtration can provide great tasting water and is an extremely popular filter system removing not only toxins and contaminants such as chlorine from your water, but also treating hard water.

Water distillation is a highly effective method of producing exceptionally pure water. However, this water is stripped of all mineral content and is therefore considered inappropriate and harmful to our bodies in and significant amount or period of time. Reverse osmosis is similar to distillation in that it strips the filtered water of valuable minerals which can then cause an imbalance within our bodies.

UV and Infra Red systems are quite different to each other although sounding quite similar. UV sterilizes water by subjecting it to an ultra violet light which kills the bacteria, while Infra Red utilizes natural silicate minerals such as Tourmaline which can soften the water and negatively charge it which some claim enhances the body’s hydration.

Magnetic filtration basically rearranges the water’s ions, ionizing the minerals and creating softer, smaller molecules which again can help with the hydration of the body but the effects are normally short-lived. A water ionizer creates alkaline water which is great for our bodies.

Water softeners are used in hard water areas to rid our water of calcium and magnesium ions which causes blocked pipework and appliances and which stops our detergents from forming suds. These ions are replaced with sodium (salt) which reverses the hard water problem. This is why our dishwashers as extreme users of water, rely so heavily on salt.

Filters are popular not only in the home but by many companies who want to give their employees the best quality water to aid better health. It can be a confusing process to research and select the best and most effective filtration system for your needs but having done so, you will have a valuable asset for you and your family, and even you and your employees.