Something interesting about water

[AfterBurn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4346042/

Water, water everywhere! Should I drink it all? There’s a prevailing opinion that there’s no such thing as too much water. Does the advice “drink eight glasses a day” really hold water? Many women believe that the more they drink, especially when it comes in designer bottles, the less they’ll eat, the more they’ll “flush” toxins from their bodies, and the moister and dewier their skin will be. Countless magazine articles have recommended eight glasses a day (two quarts) as the gold standard of liquid health. None of these suppositions bear medical scrutiny. A diligent review, published in the American Journal of Physiology, could neither locate the origins of this edict, nor any evidence to support it. The moisture in your skin will suffer only if you meet the medical standards for dehydration. There’s no need to monitor the color of your urine or count your empty water bottles. We have a marvelous built-in hydration control. It’s called thirst, which works through multiple hormones and sensors in our vascular system. Also, much of what we consume contains liquid, even though it’s not water, and despite what you’ve heard, coffee, caffeinated soft drinks and other fluids do count. Finally, there are good reasons not to overdo fluids. Many women complain of incontinence problems simply because their overfilled bladder contracts before they reach the toilet. Just like most vitamins, a deficiency of water is bad, but excess is unhelpful and can even be dangerous. If you take in fluid faster than your kidneys can process it, you could even end up with “water intoxication,” causing confusion, coma and even death.

[thed00t]

Blah why must people obsess over water intake.

You need it.

Its going to be very very very very very very very^1000 hard to drink more water than is good for you without you realizing it. IE pissing around 40 times a day and interupting your normal life.

Drink as much water as you can stand.

[Evil Milkman]

I agree. It's common sense. Don't go around chugging water all day, but do drink water when thirsty (or even when you're really not). I always keep water around my desk at home, it's something to do...

[skier]

Clear pee = low body toxins = healthier body.

[hannukah harry]

Originally posted by skier
Clear pee = low body toxins = healthier body.

no it doesn't. clear pee means diluted urea. it has nothing to do with toxins.

[sadatx]

Originally posted by hannukah harry
no it doesn't. clear pee means diluted urea. it has nothing to do with toxins.

That's true. Though I find if you have more water in your bladder it feels better when you pee, then if your pee is concentrated.

[Poloboy]

If you over-consume B and C vitamins, your urine will be very very dark, because urination is your body's means of dispelling excess water-soluble vitamins. This is just one of many examples of how the colour of your urine does not necessarily reflect the amount of "toxins" in your body.

[Plan9Senior]

I drink a gallon a day and I encourage you all to drink more water then you currently do. Too much of ANYTHING can be harmful. I am not sure why you posted this because it is just silly to even put that idea into the heads of everybody since they most likely don't drink enough water as it is.

[EleqTrizi'T]

This article contradicts my own personal experience with liquids that dehydrate me.

Coffee and alcohol (Not just beer) make me pee like a big dog. Not only that, but I'm DYING of thirst after just a few cups.

Makes me question the whole conclusion.

[Lunchbox7]

Thirst is only one of the bodies measures of dehydration. It is possible to be dehidrated without being thirsty. Besides if you drink more water than your body needs you just urinate it out. I dont think the idea of over drinking water is even feasable.

[Anibal5]

Thirst is a poor indicator of dehydration
When you get thirsty you are already dehydrated and you only need to lose 0.5% of bodyweight to get a significant drop in intense exercise ....
Alcohol and caffeinated products interfere with a renal hormone called ADH which when blocked by these chemicals causes you to lose excessive water from the blood i.e. pee a lot. Though this loss decreases as you habituate to regular intake.

[Billy Ocean]

I drink about 120 oz a day, I just don't like carbonation.

[raeanna74]

Personal experience - When I was pregnant I had a lot of edema. So much so that my ankle bones were not visible and normally I'm a reasonably slender person as my photos here show. It was just the water that my body was retaining because of the pregnancy. Dr told me to drink as much water as I could handle. I ended up drinking just over a gallon a day. When I got to that point where I was drinking a gallon a day was when I noticed a little relief in the edema around my ankles and I managed to get some feeling back in my hands. A gallon certainly did not harm, but rather helped me.

I'm an average size woman of a healthy weight. Unless you have other problems a gallon shouldn't be a concern. Often the thirst mechanism is misread my even myself as a hunger mechanism. I've found that at times when I just feel in a munchy mood I can eat and eat and not be satisfied but the minute I have a good drink of water the "hunger" goes away. It doesn't hurt to have a drink of water when you get the snackies.

[mastboyx]

water is good for you just drink it right?

[sadatx]

The main point is that water is extremely EASY for your body to process (unless you're retaining water for some physiological reason or are taking medicine that makes you reatain water).

If you drink too much water you're body can easily get rid of it.

Yes you can overload your kidnies and get water intoxication. Yes you can die from drinking too much water. But you would have to drink such a LARGE AMOUNT OF WATER in such a SHORT PERIOD OF TIME and fight the urge to either throw it up or pee it out that it would be extremely hard to do either of those things to your self by just drinking water.

[phlox]

raeanna, I've found the same thing about thirst masquerading as hunger. and I like the word 'snackles' !