Four litres of water a day keeps the doctor at bay and that is the truth.Eighty percent of our body consists of water. It is very important to maintain the water content in our bodies as it is a very important ingredient for the following:
1. For rebuilding cells – this applies to all kinds of healing processes that happen in our body. Mending is quickened by keeping the water cycle regular.
2. For keeping the blood flowing consistently.
3. Helps digestion.
A minimum amount of water a body requires is about 3-4 litres in a 24-hour day. This is true for children too after they begin to eat solid food. Try to drink more water during the day and comparatively less before you go to sleep.
If you don’t drink enough water, the body tries to find various ways to retain the water already present in our systems. The first couple of signs are that you stop sweating and want to pass less urine. This is the body’s way of defending itself. It refuses to let go of the little it already has stored in the system. This probably will lead to a headache (a tiny hammer that keeps knocking and gets no relief from tablets as you are obviously barking up the wrong tree) and swelling of hands and feet. The few times you may pass urine, it tends to be a dark yellow and you also get a burning sensation.
These are warnings that your body is giving you about the lack of water supply it is getting. And it is the beginning of dehydration. Drinking a few glasses of water will immediately ease this kind of headache. Coconut water will be a great help at this point too. But you carry on with this situation over a few days, it might result in retching when the body refuses intake of even fluids through your mouth. That’s when you need intravenous fluids.
One more problem when you don’t drink enough water is kidney stones. The situation is very simple and logical. The excess salt in the body - not necessarily the common salt we consume, this is also salt that is produced by the body to aid the various chemical processes such as building of cells, digestion of food, etc. - is flushed out from the system through the kidneys. Urine is made up mostly of water and these salts collectively called urea. The more water consumed, the better these salts are cleared from the body. When you drink very less, the salt that is unable to get out slowly solidifies to form kidney stones.
Some common reasons why people drink less water are:
1. People get overweight when they drink a lot of water. This is probably the other way round. When you consume more water, your food intake is reduced and your digestion also improves terrifically. Your skin glows with health.
2. New born babies should consume only mother’s milk and not water. This is just not true. Babies should be given water from the day they are born. Only ensure that it is purified water.
3. Drinking a lot of water means that many visits to the loo. Stop one to avoid the other.
4. Drinking a lot of water makes one bloat. It is actually the other way round. Parts of your body swell up when you drink less water.
