Water: A Necessary Part of Life

Why do we need to drink clean water? Our body is made up of 75 percent water and 25 percent solid. Different parts of our body have the following composition of water:

• Brain 95%
• Blood 82%
• Lungs 85%
• Muscles 75%

Nearly every function in our body is monitored and geared to the efficient flow of water through our system. Water is important to transport hormones, chemical messengers, and nutrients to vital organs of the body. Water is also necessary for our body to digest and absorb vitamins and nutrients. It helps to flush our liver and kidneys of waste. Drinking water reduces cardiovascular stress and improves performance for athletes and sports people. A study has shown that 5 glasses of water a day almost halves our chances of dying from a heart attack. Water also flushes impurities and bacteria out of our urinary tract, lessen the likelihood of a urinary tract infection. Broadly speaking water offers the following benefits:

• Reduced headaches and dizziness
• Keeps skin healthy
• Removes toxins and waste products from our body
• Increases our mental and physical performance
• Improves our energy
• Supports weight loss
• Supports proper digestion

If we are healthy, water helps us to stay that way. Dehydration has adverse health consequences. When we are dehydrated, our blood is thicker and our body has to work harder to have effective circulation. Even mild dehydration compromises our immune system and makes us more susceptible to viruses. Even mild dehydration slows our metabolism by as much as 3 percent. Lack of water triggers daytime fatigue.

Drinks containing caffeine such as coffee, tea and cola prompt our body to lose water I.e. Caffeine acts as a diuretic. But the drinks that cause our body to lose the most fluids are those containing alcohol.

So if we get dehydrated why don't we drink more. For many of us, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. You may not be as hungry as you think. This can lead to excess weight gain because we eat when we don't need to. In a normal person, the thirst mechanism is activated when our body has lost between 1 % and 2 % of our body's water. If we have a 2 % drop in body water it can result in fuzzy short term memory, and difficulty concentrating.

We need to develop a regular habit of drinking clean water. This will help our body to identify the thirst as a need for water not food. Be careful not to confuse fluids with water. Coffee, tea, softdrinks, alcohol and other drinks are not as beneficial as clean water.

Many studies have shown that in developed Western countries there is not much difference between bottled and tap water in some of the measures of clean water. This doesn't mean we should give up bottled water and rely on tap water which is many times cheaper. Tap water contains chlorine and chlorine is a dangerous carcinogen. Bottled water provides consistency in composition, without chlorine, and may be safer in areas where consistently uncontaminated water is not available. Bottles used for bottled water are nearly always made of plastic with all the attendant health risks. Domestic filtration systems can provide us with uncontaminated water free of toxins.