Benefits of drinking water: Find out how water improves your health

The other day I finished reading a captivating book named “Your Body’s Many Cries For Water”. What impressed me the most from reading this book, is that the author establishes a clear association between the benefits of drinking water and our overall health.

As the author of the book says, the importance of drinking water is very crucial for our health. To prove his point, he mentions examples of some common ailments and proves, using medical terms, that the underlying cause for these ailments is the fact that we don’t drink enough water. I show you some of the examples right below:

Headaches and migraines

Don’t you just hate it when, after you had a stressful day, you think that your head will explode? Well, according to scientific evidence, the reason for your headache might be that you didn’t drink enough water during the day.

You see, three quarters of our brain consists of water and when it senses that there is shortage of it, it releases histamines which cause pain and fatigue. The intention is to make us slow down our activities, so as to maintain the minimum water quantity that will allow our brain to function properly.

So, the next time you think that your head will explode from a splitting headache, resist the temptation of taking an aspirin and do this: Drink a full glass of fresh, pure water and then sit back and unwind for half an hour. More often than not, you will be amazed. Your headache will just go away!

Sore Back

According to statistics, one out of four adults experiences at least once in his lifetime the pain and anguish associated with a sore back. As the author claims in his book, another one of the benefits of drinking water is that it helps mitigate our suffering.

Let me explain.

As you might probably know, our backbone consists of a number of discs. While externally these discs are made up of a hard shell, internally they are filled with water. When the level of water inside is adequate, then they provide ample support to the disc, helping it cope with the pressure exerted on them when we move our upper body.

Now, when we move our body around, we put pressure on our discs. In response, the discs, being flexible enough, are able to expand and contract, depending on the movement. What happens next is that this action creates a suction which forces water from our body, surrounding the area of our backbone, to enter inside the discs. In this way, the hydration level inside is kept fairly constant.

As you realize, when the fluid levels (especially water) in our body are low, then there is not enough to keep the discs properly hydrated. So, most of the weight load of our body is shifted on the outer disc shells. Most of you have experienced the results on your back or neck: Pain, swelling and soreness occurs.

Hypertension

Water also plays a vital role in the biological process associated with high blood pressure.

As experts on internal medicine claim, one of the leading causes of high blood pressure is low blood volume. As the basic constituent of the blood is water (83% of our blood to be precise is just plain water), then you can understand that when we deprive ourselves of this valuable fluid, then the blood volume goes down.

In reaction to the reduced volume of blood, our body guides most of the blood flow to the most active organs, shutting off supply to less important ones. This self-adjustment produces high blood pressure throughout the blood circulatory system.

In summary, the examples I gave you above are just a few of the many health benefits of drinking water, for you and your family as well.

Having said the above, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of making sure that the quality of water that you and your family consume at your house, is of the best possible quality. You see, it is not at all guaranteed that the water you get now is what your body should be getting. There are numerous statistics saying that both tap and bottled water maybe of questionable quality. Make sure that you thoroughly investigate your options on what actions to take to have purified, healthy water at your home. [Nicos Stylianou]