25 Benefits of Drinking Water

Drinking pure water every day is of great benefit to the human body. In fact, the benefits of drinking pure water cannot be overestimated.

The human body consists of up to 60% water. H.H. Mitchell of the Journal of Biological Chemistry 158 states the heart and brain are made up of 73% water, with the lungs consisting of approximately 83% water.

Our skin is made up of about 64% water, our kidneys and muscles are about 79% water, and our bones (yes, even our bones) contain about 31% water.

You may be asking yourself, “What benefits do you get from drinking water?”

Our company, High Water Standard, is your water expert with over 15 years of dedicated experience in the business of water.

As we’re prominent in the water filter industry and can help you with under sink water filter installation, we know just about everything there is to know about water.  Let’s start by looking at all the benefits of drinking water.

#1.The Benefits of Drinking Lots of Waterand Staying Hydrated

Your hydration status has a strong influence on your brain. Studies show the effect dehydration has on the brain may impair and negatively influence several aspects of the brain’s function. A 1.36% fluid loss after exercise affects mood and causes an increase in headache frequency as well as feelings of fatigue and anxiety.

For a person weighing 150 pounds (68 kg), a fluid loss of 1-3% is equal to an approximate body weight loss of 1.5-4.5 pounds (0.5-2 kg). Losing this amount of water can easily happen through ordinary daily activities but occurs even quicker when it is hot or when you exercise.

Feeling tired throughout the day does not necessarily indicate a lack of sleep. Increasingly, doctors are finding that quite often their patients who complain of fatigue are dehydrated and suffering the effects of not drinking enough water.

Plain water is all it takes to provide adequate hydration. Unfortunately, people often choose sugary drinks instead. While providing a short initial energy boost, they can cause an inevitable energy crash later.

#2. Improve Your Mood By Drinking A Glass Of Water

A 2014 study indicated water deprivation might negatively impact mood, which may even affect the overall sleep-wake cycle. In the study, 30 low- and 22 high-fluid volume intake subjects were tested.

Those who regularly drank lots of water did not experience the same amount of positive emotions as they did when drinking more water.

Whereas, subjects who were used to a low intake of fluid indicated increased positive emotions, feelings of satisfaction, and calmness when they drank lots of water.

#3. The Benefits Of Drinking Water In The Morning on An Empty Stomach

Why should you drink water in the morning?

As soon as you wake up, your body craves it. Many people confuse this craving for a need for coffee. In fact, people wake up slightly dehydrated.

Drinking two glasses of room temperature water will assist your body in rehydrating, allowing for good digestion and the jump start your body needs.

In fact, by drinking water first thing in the morning, you may be able to stave off that late morning snack.

The hunger and sugar/salt cravings people get late in the morning are often just the result of chronic dehydration.

With a well-hydrated body, you have the fuel needed to metabolize food and break it down much more efficiently. Your cells, like you, also become more productive when they’re fluid filled.

Proper hydration can also provide you with an energy boost similar to the one you get by drinking a cup of coffee.

During dehydration, biochemical reactions occurring within your body when breaking down fat and carbohydrates become much slower. When dehydrated, you’re simply not getting the energy you need as quickly anymore.

#4. One Of The Benefits Of Drinking Water Before Bed Is Natural Cleansing

By drinking water, specifically warm or hot water, you can naturally help your body detox and improve your digestion. Warm water increases blood circulation, and your body can more easily break down waste and increase sweat output.

Sweating will cause some fluid loss during the night, but it also removes excess toxins and salts while cleaning skin cells.

Warm water consumption before bed helps keep you hydrated all night and might also assist your body in ridding itself of toxins. It also may help with relieving cramping or stomach pain.

If the taste of plain water is not exciting enough, consider supplementing it with some lemon before bed. The vitamin C could be especially beneficial to those trying to prevent a cold and boost their immune system to battle infection.

#5. The Benefits of Drinking Warm Lemon Water Each Day

Drinking lemon-infused water every morning can help your body maintain its pH balance. It can also help fight infections because of the strong antibacterial properties of lemons.

Water with lemon juice contains a detoxifying agent and helps maintain good digestive health.

Lemons are also a great source of vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and other vitamins and minerals. They can even help fight the common cold and are a popular remedy for skin problems such as dark spots and rashes to acne.

Lemons increase metabolism and cleanse the liver as it flushes out toxins. They help fight infections of the respiratory tract as well as tonsil inflammation and sore throat.

Water containing lemon juice helps the body stay hydrated while it provides electrolytes, helps reduce muscle and joint pain, and promotes dental health by helping to prevent gingivitis and lessen toothache pain.

#6. Water Improves Concentration And Focus

The benefits of hydration, particularly in people who are thirsty, are undeniable. Researchers from the University of Westminster and University of East London speculate that thirst sensations may divert attention from tasks at hand and slow down response times.

Staying hydrated may be a solution to the body’s need to “free up attentional resources,” as indicated by researchers in the medical journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Previous studies involving adults suggested that dehydration may affect mood and mental performance. In one example, a 2012 study found that experiencing even slight dehydration is sufficient to cause concentration problems, moodiness, fatigue (in women), and headaches.

Studies with child participants suggested consuming water can even improve memory.

#7. Drinking Water Helps Prevent Headaches

A headache caused by dehydration is known as a secondary headache. These types of headaches are caused by not having sufficient fluid in the body.

The head pain of a dehydration headache may be very mild or as severe as a migraine.

Usually, the fluid deficit can be easily remedied by drinking water or eating foods rich in fluids. Sometimes, however, the body can lose water at a faster rate than it can replenish it.

When this happens, the body may become dehydrated, leading to unfortunate complications, such as dehydration headaches.

When you’re dehydrated, your brain may temporarily shrink or contract from the loss of fluid. This mechanism makes your brain pull away from your skull, which causes pain in the form of a dehydration headache.

With the proper fluid balance restored, the brain “re-inflates” and assumes its normal state, resolving the headache.

#8. Water Helps Balance PH Levels

To maintain optimal physiological health, adequate pH levels must also be maintained.

Even a minor acidic shift may lead to illness or improper processing of consumed vitamins and minerals.

Properly balanced pH levels reached by consuming one liter of water on a regular basis help ensure proper oxygen levels, boost energy, and promote strong immunity.

#9. Water Helps Keep Your Hormones Balanced

In research published in the journal, Biochemistry, investigators suggest that even mild changes in the hydration status of tissue may have a considerable influence on the integrity of the body’s biological systems through changes in serum osmolality, hormonal balance, uptake of nutrients, or concentration of toxins.

Long-term disturbances in the hydration of tissue may promote oxidative stress.

This can lead to DNA damage, permanent dysfunction of cells, and even end-organ damage.

The body’s higher brain centers control hormonal secretion. Unfortunately, when hormone circulations break down, feedback signals can be inhibited, and new functional hormones aren’t released to the circulation.

Water helps maintain a healthy hormone balance in your body.

#10. Digestion And Water

Drinking water isn’t necessary to digest food, but it can help. Drinking water helps flush waste out of the intestines and may even assist in relieving constipation.

Drinking water during a meal may help your body break down food, but it’s not essential.

A better approach to improving digestion would be to cut back on high-fat foods.

Increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables is an even better way to improve your digestion.

Water can be used to help manage weight and, therefore, it can aid digestion. Since water takes up stomach space, drinking a glass of water before and during your meal may help you eat less.

Adding water to meals may create a good habit and help you meet your daily requirement more easily.

#11. Water Can Clear Toxins

Coffee, tea, and sugary drinks like soda and sports drinks cause high blood sugar and even more problems. Your body needs to use more water to remove these fluids from your body, so you’re left feeling dehydrated.

Additionally, these drinks contain unnatural ingredients and toxins that need to be flushed out. Water helps remove these from your body and aids nutrients in going where they’re needed most.

A lack of water causes colon contents to dry out and become stuck, which eventually causes constipation. As a natural lubricant, water softens your stool and promotes the healthy evacuation of your bowels.

Our kidneys depend on water for them to work properly. They filter tremendous amounts of blood daily while maintaining the body’s delicate water balance and excreting excess fluids and toxins through your bladder.

Daily intake of fluid is crucial for the body to function efficiently.

#12. Water Helps Regulate Your Body’s Temperature

The human body normally operates at a temperature of 98.6 degrees, yet people can survive when the ambient temperature of the air is higher. Desert air temperatures can reach 120 degrees or higher.

In temperatures like this or when your body is under heavy exertion, it may require up to 10 liters of water to maintain a healthy level of hydration each day.

Since water absorbs and transfers heat quite well, your body uses it to keep your core temperature stable. Water’s relatively high capacity for heat means it can absorb lots of heat before the temperature rises.

Water in your cells helps buffer against sudden or extreme changes in temperature.

Blood, which is largely composed of water, helps to move heat from your extremities toward vital organs in situations when you’re cold. It also flows toward the surface of the skin to help release excessive heat and transport muscle heat away when you’re feeling too hot.

Water helps to expel this excess heat in the form of sweat (on skin) and water vapor (from the lungs).

The fluid that’s lost needs to be replaced, so you may often hear the phrase, “drink plenty of fluids” advised to people who work or play very hard.

#13. A Major Benefit—Drinking Water Is Good for Your Heart

Proper hydration is essential for beating the summer heat. It’s good not only for your brain, but for your mood, your body weight, and even your heart.

Your heart works hard constantly throughout the day, pumping roughly 2,000 gallons of blood. By consuming more water than you’re losing, you’re helping your heart, since a hydrated heart can pump blood much more easily.

This allows your muscles to work even more efficiently.

Dehydration stresses your heart, and the volume of blood in your body decreases when you’re dehydrated. To make up for this loss, your heartbeat increases, which causes you to experience palpitations.

Your blood also retains additional sodium, which makes it more difficult for blood to circulate to areas that need it.

#14. Drinking Water Helps Blood Circulation

Consuming too many saturated fats may lead to high cholesterol, which could eventually damage blood vessels. Blood needs to flow through your arteries unimpeded or else circulation problems may occur.

Foods like fish, spinach, celery, bananas, citrus fruits, and even certain types of chocolate help promote improved blood circulation.

Water also helps blood vessels by maintaining their elasticity.

#15. Drinking Water Helps Protect Your Kidneys

Over the years, research suggested that by drinking extra water, you’ll help your kidneys eliminate excess sodium and toxins from the body. Studies have indicated a decreased risk of long-term kidney problems in subjects who drink increased daily amounts of water and other fluids.

Researchers at the University of Sydney and elsewhere also performed a large study on participants over age 50 and found that those who drank about three liters of fluid daily had a significantly lower risk of chronic kidney disease than those who drank the least.

#16. Drinking Water Helps Guard Against Chapped Lips

Chapped lips can be painful, especially if not treated immediately. Chapped lips that peel and crack are also more vulnerable to infection.

Drinking more water helps prevent and heal chapped lips. It especially recommended during the winter months when cold air robs your skin and lips of their moisture.

#17. The Benefits of Drinking Lots of Water for Skin

Skin is, in fact, an organ. It’s made up of cells. These cells, like all cells in your body, have a high water content. Without water, your organs begin to lose their functionality.

When your skin doesn’t get enough water, it can become dry, flaky, and tight.

This makes it more susceptible to wrinkling as well.

Lost water needs to be replaced, even on the skin. Since your body’s other organs have priority, your skin is often the low man on the totem pole.

Therefore, it’s very important to keep your skin hydrated, and one of the best ways to do this is by making sure you drink enough water each day.

#18. The Benefits of Drinking Water for Hair

One of the big benefits to hair from drinking water is that hair becomes glossier and shinier. Cold water helps this process by constricting the hair cuticles, making each strand smoother and more reflective. Water also helps remove dirt from the scalp.

Soft water in the shower helps prevent your hair color from fading and makes your hair more manageable due to the low mineral salt and molecules it contains.

#19. The Benefits of Drinking Water for Weight Loss

Yes, drinking water can even help you lose weight, and it’s one of the simplest ways to do so. Drinking water improves the rate at which your body burns fat and raises your metabolism.

Drinking water before a meal makes you feel more satiated and helps you eat less. You’ll feel reduced urge and cravings for snacks just by drinking a 16-ounce glass of water.

It also aids in water weight loss while reducing bloating.

If your goal is to lose weight, it’s a smart move to drink lots of water.

#20. Drinking Water Increases Athletic Performance

Athletic performance can be significantly impaired through loss of hydration, particularly in hot weather when you sweat more. A loss of as little as 2% of the water in your body can be detrimental to performance.

In long-distance running, athletes can lose up to 6-10% of their water weight through their sweat.

The benefits of hydration are many. Drink plenty of water before, during, and after an athletic performance.

#21. Drinking Water Keeps Your Joints Moving

When your joints start to feel stiff or achy, decide if your daily water intake is sufficient. Joints are surrounded by cartilage that is up to 85% water, which gives it a spongy texture needed by your joints to avoid rubbing and grating together.

When you don’t take in enough water, it results in insufficiently lubricated cartilage, and your bones rub together more frequently resulting in painful joints.

#22. The Benefits of Drinking Water for Back Pain

The small discs between your vertebrae work as shock absorbers for your spine. They help shield your back from daily wear and tear as well as the long-term effects of it.

Like a tiny jelly doughnut, there’s a strong but flexible layer on the outside and a squishy, jelly-like inner part. That jelly, known as the nucleus pulposus, consists of mostly water.

Your discs are made to lose water and then rehydrate, Gravity and the movement of your spine causes these discs to dehydrate and rehydrate.

Without sufficient water, the discs can’t function properly, and they’ll shrink.

This causes the outer layer to absorb more of the shock and play a greater role in supporting your spine.

Eventually, this causes swelling and pain, and a painful bulge or rupture can occur on the outer shell of the disc.

#23. Drinking Water Helps Prevent Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, which means “porous bones,” is a condition shared by over 10 million Americans. While some risk factors, such as race and gender, can’t be avoided, others are preventable.

An act as simple as drinking more water can help prevent and mitigate the effects of this disease.

But fluoride-tinged water can increase bone fracture risk by as much as 40% and can also contribute to abnormal bone growth.

Since many municipalities legally have fluoride in their common water systems, removal requires distillation or the use of a reverse osmosis water filter.

#24. Drinking Water Is Very Important for Nursing Mothers

Breastfeeding moms need to take in sufficient fluids for both themselves and their babies. While there’s no specific goal for fluid intake when breastfeeding, nursing moms do need to make sure they do not become dehydrated.

A 2014 review of breastfeeding fluid requirement studies concluded that nursing moms should generally drink what is “biologically necessary” for their comfort.

The feeling of being thirsty is, unfortunately, one of the last indicators of dehydration. Dark urine is one indicator of dehydration.

Other symptoms include dry mouth, muscle weakness, headaches, constipation, and dizziness.

#25. The Benefits of Drinking Water for Kids

Drinking water is just as important for kids, if not more so than it is for adults. Children are constantly thirsty because of their growing, ever-changing bodies.

Water helps them by hydrating their developing brain, oxygenating their lungs and blood, assisting in metabolic and digestive functions, and regulating their body temperature.

Bonus Tips and more drinking water facts:

·         Keep clean, filtered water in reach as much as possible for when you need it;

·         Make sure clean, filtered water is available at home and work;

·         Keep water in your car for an emergency;

·         Try to drink water with every meal or snack;

·         Set a timer to remind you to drink regularly (or use a mobile app).

The benefits of drinking water are countless.

Water keeps us alive and is everywhere around us, but only clean, properly filtered water is adequate for your body.

High Water Standard is a water filtering company that builds, installs, maintains, and repairs water filtration systems throughout New York and New Jersey.

We directly improve lives by improving their water.

With our custom water treatment services, you can save on the important things – time, money, and health – so you can live better, work better, and feel better.

Contact High Water Standard water filter company today and arranging for a quality water filter to be installed in your home so you can have access to clear and tasty water anytime.