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)

Claiming that its properties are derived from salicin, a mineral that was once the active ingredient of aspirin, the company will now have to await the investigation outcome from the Food Standards Agency.

For the full story…The Independent

Alkaline water is produced by water ionizers which use electrolysis to separate or filter the water into alkaline and acid. Many claim that this alkaline water is an antioxidant that can make us more healthy, cure all manner of disease and ailment and even make us live longer. There is quite obviously no scientific evidence to support these claims or any comprehensive test done, but they continue to be made.

Most of the claims revolve around the benefits of drinking alkaline water to neutralize the acidic wastes in our blood stream which will promote revitalized energy and healthy bodies. As our bodies are made up of mostly water, this mineral and antioxidant rich water can help to remove unwanted toxins from our systems.

The theory is that everything we eat creates acid, as does stress, drink and other contaminants that we invariably take in, and so drinking alkaline water not only neutralizes this acid, but creates a healthy pH balance in the body. This pH level, according to supporters of alkaline water affects every cell in our system and can have an adverse effect on our major organs, our brain and generally how we feel.

So by drinking ionized alkaline water which is rich in minerals and antioxidants, we keep our bodies properly hydrated. Added to this it keeps toxin levels down and an optimum pH balance, creating a healthy lifestyle and a general well-being which is lacking with poor hydration supplied by other waters (?).

The theory is great but what about the function of the kidney in our bodies, which itself neutralizes acid and keeps our pH balance in check. The kidneys remove high levels of toxins from the blood and regulate its pH, They also remove other contaminants and return substances such as sodium, potassium and chloride ions plus glucose, amino acids and of course water.

Although there are many views and much debate, as well as huge numbers of product on the market to ionize your water, it seems that pH alone cannot guarantee water quality which we feel is of much more importance, along with good nutrition and exercise.

Bottled water is predominantly available in plastic bottles, usually PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) while the water cooler companies tend to use high density polyethelene containers. This tends to be the biggest public criticism of bottled water – that it creates so much waste plastic and that chemical contaminant leaching from the plastics can do us harm in the form of cancer and other undesirable complaints.

However, recent studies have shown that the level of recycling of used, plastic water bottles has risen by over 20% since 2006 in the United States to a rate of over 23%. When you consider that globally, our consumption of bottled water is forecast to rise by over 50% from 2006 until the end of the decade, where we will be drinking nearly 175,000 million liters, you can see that that is a huge amount of recycled plastic.

Bottling companies led by the big beverage brands are also doing their bit for the environment by reducing the amount of plastic they put into each bottle, creating a more eco-friendly product. With an estimated 200 million bottles of water consumed throughout the world every year 50 billion of those within the United States), whatever we can do to conserve energy and reduce waste is going to help the environment substantially.

OK, so what processes are used to produce our bottled water and what effect does the water really have on our health?

Apart from natural mineral and spring waters which are bottled at source, the vast majority of our bottled water is processed and created using reverse osmosis and distillation processes. (A lot of the big brand water products are taken from our own municipal supplies). These create an extremely pure water, probably the purest with the least risk of contaminants, but most of the natural minerals which our bodies need are also filtered out. Fluoride is also filtered out which some blame for an increase in tooth decay.

Much research has been done and many test reports have been commissioned and written on the subject of the bottled water market, the standards and the quality of our bottled water with the general concensus of opinion being that they are generally free of bacteria and that levels of harmful chemicals are well below the standards set making them safe for consumer consumption.

Bottled mineral waters, while containing the minerals and dissolved solids which help our bodies, can also contain high levels of calcium which if consumed excessively could increase the risk of conditions such as gallstones and kidney stones.

So, tap (faucet) water or bottled water drinks?

Much of the argument comes down to the environmental effects of producing the plastic bottles and the other associates packaging. Globally, we drink more bottled water than tap but we also pay a huge amount more for it. Arguments for and against one or the other will rage for eternity. Mostly it is down to personal preference, price and taste. Tap water in certain areas can be of just as good a standard as the purest distilled or filtered water.

Water pollution occurs when toxic substances are washed into our oceans, rivers, streams and lakes from pipework or groundwater deposits. These toxins are dissolved and are either suspended in the water or lying on the bottom. The deterioration in our water quality effects these fragile aquatic eco systems, killing off nutrients and creating un-needed environmental issues.

Discharge into our rivers from sewage works or industrial waste is the largest pollutant sources. In India for instance, only about ten percent of waste water is treated properly with the rest flowing directly into rivers and other waterways causing pollution which is highly contaminated and full of microbes which can cause serious disease.

Run-off from fields used for agriculture is another huge contributing factor to water pollution as fertilizers, pesticides, iron and other chemicals are washed into our waterways. Domestic sewage is also difficult to treat and contains bacteria, organisms and microbes that can also cause serious illness. Although the amounts are very small in proportion to other contaminants, by volume, this ’sanitary sewage’ is huge and creates large amounts of rotting impurities, vegetable and food waste, washing powders, soaps and the like, which create a significant problem in the treatment of this waste water.

The chemicals contained in all the rubbish we dump into our waterways – plastic bottles, tin cans, and household products including those of household cleaners and detergents contain a large amount of harmful synthetic chemicals including phosphates for water softening which have a detrimental effect on all aquatic life. Nitrates are also common in our ‘groundwater’ where chemical fertilizers used in agriculture ‘leech’ into our water systems.

Types of water pollution…

There are two groups of water pollutants – ‘point source’ and ‘non-point source’. The former is attributed to storm drains, pipes and ditches etc which allow contaminants to enter our water in a ‘discrete’ way. Sewage plants and factory discharge are included in this category. You can find a more comprehensive definition of ‘Point Source Water Pollution’ within the US CWA (Clean Water Act) which regulates and enforces a strict code of conduct.

NPS or ‘Non-Point Source’ water pollution covers mainly run-off situations from agricultural fields, highways and roads, construction sites, parking lots and any other ‘non-discrete’ contamination although water flowing from these sources into storm drains would still be classed as Point Source pollution.

Water pollution and the effects on our communities…

Devastation to our environment is a good place to start. Human health and aquatic life are both seriously effected and polluted water cannot be used for drinking, for industry, agriculture or any recreational use. By simply managing and looking after our water and the way that we create waste, we can minimize the amount of water polluting material released into our systems and add some valuable protection to our delicate gift of life.

Removing any dangerous substance before there is a chance of re-introduction into our waterways is paramount. Water treatment facilities in the United States for instance are governed by strict legislation governing the amounts of contaminants that can be discharged. You only have to switch on the news to see the effects of water pollution on our environment!

By simply thinking about what we do and abiding by the regulations in place, we can prevent problems and can protect and save our water from pollution. Most of us would drink to that!

The study published in the January, was paid for by the makers of Physiomer, the seawater nasal spray used in the investigation and was published days after the US Food and Drug Administration reported that children under 2 should not be given Non-prescription cough and cold medicines. This because they are too dangerous for that age group, with deaths, convulsions and rapid heart rates reported in rare cases.

For more information…News24.com