Water is life.
You need water,
and adequate amounts of it
just to survive.
Water prevents dehydration
Ok, this is an obvious one. But do you know what can happen to your body if you become dehydrated?
Your brain is almost 80% water. Your brain function and overall structure is hugely affected by dehydration. Simply put, a lack of water can lead to a lack of thinking and reasoning. A tangible symptom of lack of water to your brain is a headache.
The rest of your body relies on an adequate amount of water too. Blood is more than 90% water and a lack of water can cause blood to thicken, leading to high blood pressure.
Even your lungs are made up of nearly 80% water. When you are dehydrated, your airways constrict to try to minimise water loss, but this can then lead to asthma and allergies worsening.
60% of your body is water. It is vital for cushioning your brain, spinal cord, and all your other sensitive and important organs and tissues. Keep it topped up!
Water supports your digestion
We all know water helps with flushing waste from our body and keeping it running smoothly, but do you know the ‘ins-and-outs’ of the matter?
Water provides your body with the minerals and nutrients to needs to stay healthy. These dissolve in water so a good supply increases their effectiveness.
Water eliminates toxins from your body in the form of sweating, passing urine, and bowel movements. If you don’t drink enough water and become dehydrated, this affects your body’s ability to do this and leads to problems. These include constipation, acid in the stomach, and digestive difficulties.
Water looks after your kidneys
This is another benefit to drinking water of which we are all aware. But do you ever stop to think why water is vital to healthy kidneys?
Muscles and kidneys are almost 80% water. This means they need a constant, adequate supply to function effectively and healthily.
Your kidneys control the amount of available fluid in your body. Having insufficient levels passing through these regulators can lead to serious problems, such as kidney stones and urinary tract infections. Kidney stones are formed when wastes such as salt and minerals do not get flushed out enough and build up in the kidneys, becoming stones. Water helps with preventing kidney stones by flushing out these build-ups and not allowing stones to form.
Water helps fight urinary tract infections by flushing out germs via increased levels of urine, and also allowing antibiotics to dissolve, therefore fighting the infection quicker.
Water fights fatigue and boosts your mood
Considering the effect water has on your brain function, it’s not surprising dehydration can harm your mood. Even being mildly dehydrated can cause headaches, fatigue, moodiness and problems concentrating. Fatigue can occur when your body tissues are not receiving enough oxygen in the blood, helped along its way by water.
So always make sure to drink adequate amounts of the good stuff every day, and if you’re thirsty, or have a dry mouth, you are probably already dehydrated.
Water boosts your ability to exercise
An adequate water intake before, during, and after exercise is a necessity, for many reasons. Skeletal muscle is more than 70% water. Even mild dehydration can cause painful cramping, and as water helps carry oxygen in the blood to your muscles, when working out you will reap the rewards of keeping these topped up!
Water can also help to regulate your body temperature, which is important during an energetic workout or when exercising in a hot environment. When we train hard or in warm weather, we sweat. This is when water stored in the middle layers of the skin comes to the surface and subsequently evaporates. As it does so, it cools our body down. Having too little water in our body can cause less sweating and increased heat in our muscles, which could lead to damage and injuries.
Water also lubricates our joints, vital when you consider that cartilage, found in all our joints and around the disks of our spine, contains about 80% water. Dehydration can lead to the shock-absorbing function in our joints to be greatly reduced, which in turn leads to injuries and pain.
Water helps you lose weight
The fact that water is important for exercise doesn’t interest you? You may find this more interesting!
Drinking water can fill you up just as much as eating can, so if you’re feeling hungry, often having a big glass of water can stave off a desire to eat. And drinking pure, healthy water instead of grabbing a quick, sugary snack is always going to help shed the pounds.
Sipping cold water can also increase your metabolism, helping with weight loss. This is due to the fact your body has to use more energy to increase temperature again when cold water is introduced. Therefore, you burn more calories. More calories burned = more weight lost.
Water helps you to look younger
Drinking water aids in the fight against ageing and the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Water helps plump up skin cells, and flushes out toxins and impurities, leaving your skin healthy and glowing.
Good skin starts from inside out, so if your digestion system is healthy and clear of nasty toxins, this will shine out of your face!
Water reduces your hangover
The Rise of Raw Water
Drinking raw water has become popular in the last few years. Raw water is untreated, unfiltered, unprocessed water, that is taken directly from a natural spring.
Are there any risks?
Some fully-contained bores have the most beautiful water available. These do not need to be altered in any way, and a water test will check to see if these are pure, with no nitrates or ‘funnies’ in the water.
Raw water may contain dangerous pathogens.
Water treatment plants add chemicals to the water to kill any bacteria or parasites which may be present. As raw water is untreated, E-Coli, Giardia, and Salmonella bacteria may be found, as these naturally occur in water.
These harmful pathogens can cause diarrhoea and vomiting, and other stomach upsets. Those especially at risk include older people and young children, as their immune systems may not be strong enough to fight off the illnesses caused.
Are there any benefits to drinking raw water?
Some people suggest drinking raw water is healthier than drinking treated water, as the process used destroys the natural minerals and probiotics present in raw water.
Some may also prefer the taste of raw water over processed water; however, this is very much a personal opinion.
Please note, there is little conclusive, scientific evidence that supports the concept that raw water is healthier than treated water, but there is plenty of research available that shows the dangers of drinking untreated water.
So, what should I be drinking?
You may have concerns about how your water is treated before it reaches your taps. Many people do.
Treated tap water may contain chemicals such as chlorine, fluoride, antimony, manganese and nitrates, all used to kill the naturally-occurring bacteria present in water.
This might sound like an alarming cocktail to be consuming regularly, but it is necessary to provide you with safe, clean drinking and washing water. Council must comply with world health levels in regards to contaminant levels, but the reality is that some struggle financially to provide these levels consistently and to provide 100% assurances.
The ideal solution would be to take responsibility for your water yourself and provide additional management by filtering or purifying your water as it gets to you. Click here to find a filter to suit your needs and budget.
Do you still have concerns about your water?
- Tastes or smells funny or off-putting
- Leaves you with dry, flaky skin
- Can’t work up a lather in the shower to wash your hair
- Leaves a build-up of limescale in your jug or shower
- Makes cleaning showers and sinks difficult
Water filtration and purifier products can provide a solution to your problems. Depending on your concern, we have a product to suit you. Click here to discuss your requirements with our friendly, experienced team, and start your journey to better water today.