Drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated is a key component of healthy living. Water has amazing healing properties and is essential for maintaining optimal health and well-being.
Water is the largest constituent of your body and the medium in which most biochemical reactions occur. It’s required for digestion and absorption of food, delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your cells, and removal of waste products. Water also cushions your joints, plumps up your skin and regulates your body temperature.
Your body contains 40 to 50 quarts of water, and you lose an average of two quarts of water per day through respiration, perspiration and urination. If you don’t replace these losses, your health will suffer.
Any degree of dehydration throws your body into rationing mode, which is why staying hydrated is so important. To ensure survival, water is doled out sparingly, leaving organs and tissues to deal with the consequences.
For starters, tap water just isn’t safe.
Water in reservoirs which supply tap water goes through a “purification” process. It is heavily chlorinated to kill germs and, in many areas, heavily fluoridated to prevent tooth decay. Sometimes calcium hydroxide or other alkaline substances are also added to change the pH (acidity) of water so it doesn’t corrode pipes.
Environmental pollutants such as fertilizers, insecticides, industrial chemicals and wastes, oil spills and even pharmaceuticals—cholesterol-lowering medications, chemotherapy agents, hormones and antibiotics—have also been discovered in drinking water supplies.
And what about bottled water? Environmental burden and excessive costs aside, the purity of bottled water may not be what you’d expect. Research reveals that several brands are no better—and sometimes worse—than regular tap water.
Your best bet is to filter your water with a home purification system. Elite Water Systems recommends reverse osmosis to give you the purest water possible. We also suggest using a refillable stainless steel water bottle, for clean water on the go,
Drinking at least 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses of filtered water daily to stay hydrated is recommend by most physicians. This may seem like a lot, but if you drink a glass when you get up in the morning and a glass before each meal, you’ll already have four glasses out of the way.
Here are some of the side effects of dehydration: