70% of our body composition is water. It is an essential element to keep it healthy because, in addition to cleansing the body and eliminating toxins, it is an effective vehicle to transport the vitamins and mineral salts that our cells need. At Fundación Aquae we collect the main benefits of drinking water.
Index
- 10 benefits of drinking water regularly
- – Relieves fatigue
- – Prevents headaches and migraines
- – Helps in digestion and prevents constipation
- – Helps maintain the beauty of the skin
- – Thermoregulation is another benefit of drinking water
- – Reduces the risk of cancer
- – Improves the immune system
- – Reduces the risk of heart problems
- – Resolves bad breath
- What happens to our body when we don’t drink water?
- Foods rich in water
An iron health is one of the main benefits of drinking water . In fact, the hydration of our body is essential for many processes that have to do with health to develop correctly.
Water allows our body to carry out most of its vital functions. Drinking water is essential for our organs. Three quarters of the brain and heart are made up of water, more than 80% of the lungs and more than 92% of the blood are water. Water transports nutrients and oxygen to all the cells in our body and acts as a shock absorber for our organs since they are surrounded by water.
Although there is no unequivocal answer about how many liters of water you should drink per day , the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends consuming between one and a half and two liters daily. But do you think that the benefits of water have only to do with health? We will discover it for you below.
10 benefits of drinking water regularly
– Relieves fatigue
Water is used by the body to eliminate toxins and waste products that it does not need. When there is less water in the body , the heart has to work harder to pump oxygenated blood to all the cells and other major organs, and that can cause fatigue. Furthermore, when approaching a state of dehydration, the body will decrease muscle performance, which causes that feeling of tiredness. Drinking water is essential for our body to function properly.
– Prevents headaches and migraines
In most cases, the main reason for headaches and migraines is dehydration. Eliminating these discomforts, which can also occur in other parts of the body such as the back, is one of the benefits of drinking two liters of water a day. Test it!
– Helps in digestion and prevents constipation
When we drink enough water, the rate of metabolism increases , meaning the food we consume is broken down properly. In this way, one of the benefits of drinking water on an empty stomach is to help the digestive system function correctly, preventing constipation and improving digestion, which in turn has an impact on the prevention of diseases and a better quality of life.
– Helps maintain the beauty of the skin
Among the benefits of drinking a lot of water is the replenishment of skin tissues, as well as its hydration and increased elasticity. Drinking water also helps the skin with scars, acne, wrinkles and other symptoms of aging. In this case, worrying about how many liters of water to drink per day is not as important as being consistent with the habit. Your skin will thank you.
– Thermoregulation is another benefit of drinking water
The thermal properties of water and its ability to release body heat as sweat evaporates from the surface of the skin are of great help in maintaining body temperature throughout the day. Keeping our body temperature well regulated will make us feel more energetic.
Additionally, another benefit of drinking water is that it helps us keep our muscles hydrated, reducing the risk of cramps and sprains. It is a simple solution that can benefit not only athletes and sportsmen, but the entire population.
Water is mainly responsible for the body’s thermoregulatory system and thanks to this system, the body temperature is maintained constantly, regardless of the environment or the metabolic activity you are carrying out.
– Reduces the risk of cancer
There is evidence to suggest that drinking plenty of fluids, primarily water, may reduce an individual’s risk of bladder cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Another benefit of water is that adequate hydration affects the proper functioning of the kidneys and the immune and digestive systems.
– Improves the immune system
When the body receives adequate water, it improves the immune system. At a more specific level, the benefits of drinking water allow the body to fight diseases such as the flu and heart attacks, according to the WHO. It also contributes significantly to other health problems such as rheumatism, arthritis, kidney stones, etc.
– Reduces the risk of heart problems
If there is an area of medicine that can serve as a reference to understand how many liters of water to drink per day, it is cardiology. At Loma Linda University in California, a study was carried out in which 20,000 healthy people participated. Those who drank 5 glasses of water a day had a lower rate of cardiovascular problems compared to those who only drank 2 glasses of water a day. The general recommendation is to drink around 8 glasses of water a day .
– Resolves bad breath
Bad breath is a clear sign that the body needs more water. Saliva helps your mouth rid itself of bacteria and keeps your tongue hydrated. For this reason, every time we have bad breath, the first thing we should do is drink plenty of water. In addition, saliva secretion is a natural protector of teeth, so drinking water also helps reduce dental diseases.
– The most controversial of the benefits of drinking water: does it help you lose weight?
Another characteristic of water is that it helps eliminate fat byproducts. When drinking water, the stomach fills, which makes us lose our appetite a little. Water contains no calories , fat, carbohydrates or sugar, and is a great replacement for high-calorie drinks.
In addition, drinking water accelerates metabolism and that helps energy expenditure through thermogenesis (heat production through metabolic reactions) and drinking water also helps metabolize fat better. When you drink little water and start to become dehydrated, your metabolic rate begins to drop and you waste energy.
Drinking plenty of water also helps with fluid retention. Although it is paradoxical, the more water you drink and the more hydrated you are, the more you help your body not to retain fluids and, therefore, to purify toxins and fats. If you stop drinking water, the body becomes alert and stops expelling liquids through urine.
What happens to our body when we don’t drink water?
The main effect of not drinking water is that our body becomes dehydrated. But at an organic level, the hypothalamus of the brain releases an antidiuretic hormone that causes aquaporins in our kidneys. It is a protein that regulates the water that reaches the blood. When we don’t drink water, what happens is that this protein is retained in our kidneys.
One of the first symptoms that alert us that our body is becoming dehydrated is the dark color of our urine. But he’s not the only one.
When we start to become dehydrated, we also start to have headaches, muscle cramps, tiredness and a lot of thirst . We also suffer mood swings and our cognitive functions decrease, such as loss of attention or lack of memory.
Foods rich in water
Another way to drink water is through food. There is a wide variety of foods rich in water . These, in addition to helping you hydrate, also serve to detoxify the body and nourish it.
Foods rich in water are those that contain more than 70 grams of water per 100g of food. Some of the foods that contain the most water are: radish, watermelon, raw tomato, cooked turnip, raw carrot, cooked cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, cucumber, asparagus, melon or strawberries. All of them contain more than 90g of water .
These foods, which are mainly fruits and vegetables, in addition to helping to maintain a healthy diet, eliminate toxins and fats, serve to keep the body well hydrated.