Water - benefits ?
 

So, everybody working out seems to be drinking helluva lot of water.

What does water specifically do to the body what other low-calory-beverages don't do ?

I heard it would be good for the skin, too, is that right ?

There are soooo many benefits to drinking water that the following lists wont even touch on all of them... but at least it will give you a general idea on how important it is.


First of all, water makes our body different from a tree. The high percentage of liquid presence gives us the flexibility to move.

* Water is required for expiration.
* Water regulates body temperature.
* Water moistens oxygen for breathing.
* Water protects and cushions vital organs and joints.
* Water helps to convert food into energy.
* It helps the body to absorb nutrients.
* Water eliminates waste products by metabolism
* Water also cushions the joints.
* Water carries nutrients and oxygen to all the cells in the body.
* Water helps in blood circulation

Water and Composition of Human Body

* 2/3 of the body weight is water.
* Brain is 75% water and even moderate dehydration or lack of water can cause headaches and dizziness.
* Heart is 75% water
* Muscles are almost 75% water
* Bones are 22% water.
* Lungs are 86% water.
* Liver is 96% water.
* Kidneys are 83% water.
* Blood is 83% composed of water.



More facts:

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

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

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

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

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

8. 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.

so how many cups do you do plan9 :$? im doing about 12, is that good?

I drink at least 2 liters of water a day. I have been told the more yellow your pee is the more dehydrated you are, which is why I try to have it clear as possible !

I drink AT LEAST a gallon of water a day.

As our body is about 2/3 of water (by weight) it makes sense to have A LOT.
That said, there is a condition for drinking too much water called hyponatremia. Although that's incredibly unlikelt to happen, unless you do any long and usstained strenuous sport.
Also, just on my own experience, too much water can cause some bloating, although that's only cause theres a shitload of water in your stomach and it's taking up a lot of space :p

Here's a Letterman style top ten :)

We need drinking water because….
1. Water is the substance of life. Life cannot exist without water. We must constantly be adding fresh water to our body in order to keep it properly hydrated.

2. The body is comprised of 80% water. There is not a more important thing we put in our body than drinking water. This ratio must be maintained for good health.

3. It is difficult for the body to get water from any other source than water itself. Soft drinks and alcohol steal tremendous amounts of water from the body. However, even other beverages such as coffee, milk and juice require water from the body to be properly digested.

4. Drinking water plays a vital role in nearly every bodily function.

5. Drinking water is essential for proper digestion, nutrient absorption and chemical reactions.

6. Drinking water is essential for proper circulation in the body.

7. Drinking water helps remove toxins from the body, in particular from the digestive tract.

8. Drinking water regulates the body's cooling system.

9. Consistent failure to consume enough drinking water can lead
to Chronic Cellular Dehydration. This is a condition where the body's cell are never quite hydrated enough, leaving them in a weakened state and vulnerable to attack from disease. It weakens the body's overall immune system and leads to chemical, nutritional and pH imbalances that can cause a host of diseases.

10. Dehydration - or not consuming enough drinking water - can occur at any time of the year, not only during the summer months when it is hot. The dryness that occurs during winter can dehydrate the body even quicker that when it is hot. Many victims of diseases such as cholera die primarily through dehydration, not from the disease itself.


General Rule: We need to drink half our body weight in ounces of drinking water every day to provide the body with its minimum water replacement requirements. Triple the intake of drinking water for better results.

Although you should primarily be drinking water, i find that herbal tea is also a good alternative as well, if you like to try something a little different. Temperature of water you intake is another factor to consider. Theres a thread looking at that here

This is really an eye opener!


We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written down like this before.

Finally, contiuing off of Plan9's water summary, heres a comparison for you to consider, next time you want to have a coke, instead of water. I guess coke = closely to other carbonated/soft drinks as well? And yes scaremongering is a good tactic to get people to change :p :D

Water Or Coke?

WATER
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population.)

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

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

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

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

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

8. 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. Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

COKE

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would YOU like a glass of water or coke
Interesting Fact: Coke outsells bottled water by 20 times in the USA

edit:
As for the skin quesiton, if it hasn't been answer already :)
->
Many people buy expensive products to eliminate or decrease wrinkles or unsightly blemishes from their face, necks and bodies. The best product, however, for a clear, beautiful complexion is plenty of drinking water Link

I myself, drink about 3-4 litres of water and 1-2 liters of herbal (namely peppermint tea) a day. More if i have a competetive game of basketball or other sport, or strenuous workout.

Drink more water then you think necessary. You will never reach the point in which you are drinking too much (trust me I drink more then all of you and I am not near the point of drinking too much). The funny thing is, I am so used to drinking a lot of water that on the days that I don't get enough I can honesty feel the difference.

There was a female American scientist who came to Australia to study some stuff in the desert. She was really worried about getting dehydrated, as she wasn't used to the Australian climate, so she kept drinking water all day. She was so paranoid, though, that she drank way too much water and ended up over-hydrating herself to the point that she nearly died. This happened in my state a few months ago, it was in the papers.

Just thought I'd share :rolleyes:

did she forget to pee?

Why is it that there is always somebody on each thread that will try and make the original point be moot by telling of some totally rare thing without even siting a source?

On that note, I heard once... this guy..... at band camp.... he died because he drank a glass of water TOO FAST! So... forget what I said about water. I just now realized it is the devil!

but it happened to a friend of a roommate of his ex-girlfriend's cousin's sister's step-brother's mother-in-law!!!!

It must be true!!!

It is certainly possible to drink too much water, the condition is called hyponatremia.

It mainly occurs in long distance runners who sweat out a lot of their electrolytes and don't replace them because they drink water.

I don't think that many people are going to get it by drinking too much water while living a typical lifestyle. You'd probably lose the desire to drink water before hyponatremia sets in. But you probably don't get much benefit from drinking water all day long just for the sake of drinking it.

You shouldn't blast people for not citing sources if you're not citing them either.

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/water.htm

The only thing that snopes found to be not true was "75% of Americans are "chronically dehydrated" because they fail to drink eight glasses of water per day." I should be more careful when copy pasting shit from different websites because I made such a huge mistake just now. I guess you really showed me huh? That means my post is completely negated.

This is the second time today that I noticed you post and put down what I had to say (in two seperate forums). Do I have a new worshipper?

plan9 is my idol

Haha, Plan9 I think you need to relax a little :icare:

I'm not interested in making you look bad or completely negating what you have to say.

I am interested in seeing where you got this information because some of it seems fishy (eg. how would you determine that 37% of people have weak thirst mechanisms confused with hunger). I would also like to learn more about the stuff that would be useful to know, if I knew about the evidence behind it (eg. back/joint pain and water).

How do you know? :p

Yesterday i drank 13 cups worth out of my standardised cup. now, i thought it was 500ml, but found out it was 610ml to be precise :p
Anyway 13*610 = 7930ml = 7.9L
I also had 2 cups of peppermint tea, which equals another 1220ml. So yesterday i had about 9L. Which was a little bit out of the ordinary. 'cause i played basketball for 2.5 hours in about 25-30 degree heat.

As for drinking too much. Yesterday, after playing basketball, i skulled about 3 cups worth of water in 5-10 minutes, which is incredibly dodgy. But that was just a feeling of being bloated really, nothing close to hyponatremia. I only documented it relatively thouroughly, cause of this thread :)

Anyway, i can know say, with a 95% confidence interval, that I drink the most water :lol: I am the man! :p :lol:

Actually, the Washington Post did have an article after the Marine Corps Marathon about several runners who were hospitalized because they drank too much water and lost too many electrolytes. Not a concern for the majority of people, but it can happen.
Also, all this talk about people's thirst mechanisms messed up? What did people do for the thousands of years before studies about how much water to drink came out? I guess people dropped dead from not drinking enough water all of the time. My dog might not be drinking enough water. How do I let him know?

just out of curiosity, how often do you pee? if you don't mind me asking.

wow I had no idea that water was sooo important for ur body... i knew that it was good for you.... i just decided im gonna be drinking a lot more water!!

I have noticed improvement in my quality of life by drinking more water. I am not as tired as I used to be. My chiropractor also said that it is requirement for your joints. I have a knee problem and it helped that joint out, so I am hooked.

Not only is water good for you...but more important is high water content food. i.e cucumbers, celery, and fruit, because high water content food provides our bodies with nourishment and cleansing of the organism. (In Fit For Life by Harvery and Marilyn Diamond.)

As a person who is intaking way more high water content foods, I can say that there is a remarkable improvement in my health and my body.

I am not saying to stop drinking water and that pure water is not important, but you have to also supply you body with water, from fruits and veggies.

i drink water like a madman.

while i'm at work i'm almost constantly sipping on some water. at the gym i take sips between exercises. at home i'm always carrying around a glass of water.

i too am a firm beliver in drinking a lot of water. it really helps clean out the system. it is also great for not getting stones. too much calcium + not enough water can lead to getting stones. i want to avoid that at all costs since it is supposed to be ultra painful. thats not a region where i want to experience that kind of pain...

there are many good reasons for drinking water. they have been listed in great detail. wether or not you want to drink so much you get sick from it is one thing. i think the point that was trying to be made was that its great for the body, so make sure you are always well hydrated. i happen to agree 100%...

heh, i got that book :D I like the detox stuff in there. I do that, pretty much every morning and then take things from there. Damn good for cleaning out the system :)

about every 45 minutes to an hour, about 10+ times a day :(
Thats the only problems. Like today was Australia Day, here in Australia :D And aside from drinking some alcohol, bourbon and coke and some beer (shame :p), i knocked back 5 litres of water during the day as well and was pissing like a madman. Luckily i am a guy, so i can urinate in discrete positions, standing up, without needing to go to an actual toilet :p
*random side topic* i think, once females make this next evolutionary step; they'll take over the world :lol: :p

btw... do you drink mineral water or just plain water from the tap/supermarket ?

Tap for me.

The amount of water I go through, I dont want to pay for some fancy pants mineral water.

As long as I dont get sick and it doesnt taste like crap I'm happy...

Tap water! :D

If you're uptight about it, you could always get some kind of filter anyway? :)

I drink bottled water here at school because the pipes are old and the water tastes like crap. I dont care about brands, just as long as it tastes better than the school water. At home though, tap.

Ever since I got to school, I dont drink anything except for water and about a glass of milk a day (except for alcohol, of course :D).

Not to crap on the thread, but most deaths from ecstasy use is from too much water.

Of course, that is like 2 gallons in a few hours to compensate for the overheating of the body.

Caffeine and alcohol will dehydrate the body, really noticeable since (especially alcohol) you will eventually start peeing every hour or less. Hangovers are the result of dehydration caused by alcohol, lessen this by drinking a glass or two (only) of water before going out to a bar.

who takes ecstasy anyways ? ;)

funny i woulda thought the holes in your brain from ecstasy would be more deadly than water....

Hyponatremia means lack of sodium, not to much water. While it is possible to over-hydrate yourself, it isn't easy, and so long as you're not chugging it excessivly your kidneys can kick into high gear when your blood volume rises and start dumping excess water.

Regardless, water is good for you, sugary and acidic beverages generally are not.

If too much water is forced into the body within a short period of time, the brain can swell to a lethal size and kill you.

My dad told me that he was watching the news and saw a story in which some students a Christian college had a binge drinking contest with water, and one or more of the students died from the swelling of their brains... Terrible story.

My hand is also raised as one of those crazy water drinking people. I drink a lot of water. Always have.

I've been drinking more water lately and I have to get up to pee maybe 1-3 times a night. I think it's really disrupting my sleep. Even though I "slept" 8.5 hours yesterday I didn't feel rested at all and couldn't resist a nap in the afternoon. Any suggestions here?

Well, water doesnt add more calories that you have to burn later firstly. Makes life a little easier.

Your body sweats water, need to replace it. You know when you first weight yourself BEFORE working out and then after? well the difference is HOW MUCH WATER YOU LOSE and therefore how much you need to drink.

Yes, water is very good for the skin. It's good for all parts of your body! Stay hydrated and stay healthy!