10 Health Reasons Why You Should Drink More Water

How much water do you drink a day? If you are not drinking enough it could be having a negative effect on your health.

1. Water Is An Essential Component Of The Human Body

The human body is made up of about 43% to 75% of water – depending on age, body fat, and a few other details.

You could probably survive for 4 to 8 weeks without food, but it is estimated that lack of water could cause death in about 10 days, at room temperature.

    SEE ALSO – Health benefits Of Taking Cold Showers

2. Acts As A Nourishing Agent

Water circulates through the blood and helps transport nutrients and oxygen towards organs and cells. It acts as a solvent for many nutrients and essential salts and makes them available for absorption by the body.

3. Cleanses The Body

Water serves as a medium to carry metabolic wastes away from the body – this is accomplished in the form of urine and sweat. Think of it as a detoxifying agent. This is one of the most important functions of water in our body.

4. Reduces The Risk Of Kidney Stones.

The kidneys filter out waste products from the blood and channel them out of the body through the process of urine formation. Increasing concentration of certain salts in the urine increases the risk of kidney stone formation – and in most cases this risk can be reduced by drinking a lot of water and diluting the urine.

It is usually recommended that adults prone to kidney stones should try to drink about 12 eight-ounce glasses of water everyday (normal adult recommendation is about 8 glasses).

5. Reduces The Risk Of Sunstroke.

Water is the single most important factor in the highly critical function of regulating your body temperature. On sunny days, we sweat more and the evaporation of the sweat has a cooling effect on the body.

In the absence of sufficient water in your body, this temperature regulation breaks down and body temperature increases – and this leads to sunstroke. Severe sunstroke has the potential to damage your vital organs.

6. Lowers Blood Pressure.

When you lose more than optimal levels of fluid due to various conditions, the body tries to adjust for the loss of water by constricting blood vessels so that the rate of loss of water (due to sweating and respiration) is reduced – which in turn leads to higher blood pressure.

Drink ample water to prevent this from happening. Of course, this is applicable when the higher blood pressure has been attributed to the lack of enough fluids in the body.

7. Minimizes The Risk Of Heart Disease.

This follows from the the above point – increased dehydration causes your cells and tissues to absorb water from the blood stream and thus decreases the volume of the blood flow. Increased blood pressure is a sign of a heart that’s working harder than it should – it tries to pump more blood to excretory organs to compensate for the reduced volume.

This could probably worsen a heart related ailment. Sufficient water intake will ensure that this does not happen.

8. Keeps Your Skin In Good Condition.

In the process of sweating, it also removes impurities in the skin and cleanses it – leaving you with healthy and younger looking skin. Dehydrated skin cells can cause your skin to appear wrinkled or sagging.

9. Water Does Not Contain Calories.

Unlike those sugary soft drinks, water does not contain any calories – so it’s not going to increase your weight. Some studies have pointed towards how increased water consumption can in fact cause weight loss.

Americans consume about 13 billion gallons of calorific drinks every year. You can imagine the net effect that can be achieved by replacing all that with water. Make it a habit – whenever you go to a fast food joint or a restaurant, ask for water instead of a soda.

10. Suppresses Appetite

This follows from the above point. Since water does not have any calories, it acts as an ideal *filler* material in your stomach and gives you a sense of “I am full” – which in turn decreases your appetite. This works best for people who are already over-weight and are controlling their appetite in order to lose weight.