Health Matters – An A to Z Guide to Good Health – W is for Water

Health Matters – An A to Z Guide to Good Health – W is for Water 💧

Water is essential for life. We can live without food for more than two weeks but without water, we die within a few days. There is a lot of debate about whether we should be buying bottled water. Thinking of the environment, I try to never buy water in plastic bottles. At home, I filter tap water to remove some of the chlorine and chemicals that may still be present but I do drink tap water. Having experienced the problems with drinking water in India I feel we are very lucky in this country to be able to have fresh water so easily available.

How much water we need to drink is another dilemma but the truth is most of us are not drinking enough and this can cause many health problems. I recommend around six to eight glasses a day but we all vary in the amount of water we need. The following may surprise you:

💧 75% of the Western world is chronically dehydrated.

💧 In most people we know, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

💧 Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism by as much as 3%.

💧 One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

💧 Lack of water is the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

💧 Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

💧 A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic mathematics and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or a printed page.

💧 According to research drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Lots of good reasons to keep your body hydrated. Always have water on your desk at work and in your car. 🥛

Live with joy and health. 💚

Elizabeth Beetham