Drinking too much water

Drinking too much water, healthy or not?

Drinking too much waterIt is often said that drinking a lot of water is healthy, but is there such a thing as drinking too much water? What does water do to your body? In this article we will answer these questions.

Drinking water

It started years ago with an advise given to sportsmen, drinking a lot of water makes sure that you do not become dehydrated. But drinking too much water now seems to not be healthy either. There is namely a danger when you start drinking too much water. When you are sweating a lot, then you also drink more, because you have also lost a lot of moisture. But when you drink too much water, the urine production stops when your body is moving intensively and that can also be dangerous. Sportsmen that have drank a lot of water, can suffer from a water poisoning after a match and weigh more after than before the competition. Water poisoning gives a bloated feeling, nausea and a headache. The dangers were underestimated, and still are, even after several cases where water poisoning was proven to be the cause of death and not the heat during the sports. Probably the braincells are filled up with moisture and swell up. What follows is confusion, convulsions, coma and finally death.

Water and your body

Your body consists for the majority out of water, 75% of our body is water. You need water for absorbing nutrients, but also for processing waste materials and it is necessary to stay alive. The drinking of water is essential to the human life form, so that it can prevent diseases and by drinking water you will take better care of yourself and feel better.

Shortage of water

Some people do not drink enough water. When the body does not get enough water, then that will ensure that the body can not dispose of all the toxins. When the body starts to dehydrate, it will go into survival mode. The results of a shortage of water:

  • Your body needs water and when experiencing a shortage of water, your body will start getting stressed. When these stress substances stay active over a longer period of time, then it is possible that these will have negative effects on the body. Diseases can also arise, because of having a shortage of water. 
  • When you are not thirsty, it does not mean that your body does not need water. 
  • When having a shortage of water you can experience a dry mouth, but you can also see it from the colour of your urine. If you have a yellow to orange colour of urine, then it means that you do not have enough water in your body. 
  • Other symptoms that you can experience with a shortage of water are fear, fast heartbeat, nausea, having depressive feelings, muscle aches, dizziness and being very tired. But also being hungry is one of them. If you are suffering from these things, then you can better get a glass of water, sit and wait for 10 minutes. You will notice that after these 10 minutes you will start feeling a lot better. 

How much water do you need?

People do not always drink enough water, they are scared that they need to go to the toilet too often. But you cannot miss water, your body needs it. In the beginning you might go to the toilet more often, because you start drinking more water, but when your body becomes used to drinking more water, then the desire to go to the toilet does not arise that quickly anymore. Your body namely adapts and then you start to notice that drinking more water only gets better (watch out, not too much).
How much do you need a day?

  • The advice is to at a minimum take your body weight and multiply it by 0,044, the outcome is the amount of litres of water you should drink in a day. 
  • If you weigh 75 kilos, it means that you should drink 75 x 0,044 = 3,3 litres of water a day.


Tips for drinking water

If you want to drink more water, but you do not have a clue how to do this, then make use of these tips:

  • Before you start the day, you can prepare your daily water needs. You can do this in glass bottles, but also in a jug. You can then keep track of how much you need to drink for the rest of the day.
  • You can best start the day with one to three glasses of water. Your body has not had any water over the whole night and you can build up the amount of water you drink in the morning until your body is used to the desired amount. 
  • Set an alarm on your phone for instance, so that at that moment the alarm goes you start drinking water (otherwise chances are you might forget).
  • Add a little flavour to your water when you get tired of drinking plain water. You can choose for watermelon or lemon to add to water, or for instance a cucumber or lime.

Losing fluids

You lose a lot of fluids in a day, because of urine you lose about 1400 ml a day, because of excretion 100 ml, because of breathing out you lose about 500 ml and because of sweating you lose another 500 ml on average.

Taking in fluids

During the day we take in fluids in different ways, but we also lose a lot of them, for instance because of sweating. Taking in fluids happens through drinking and eating. The best is to take in around 1,5 to 2 litres of fluids through drinking. Through eating you can take in around 900 ml a day. There are moments when you need more fluids than others:

  • When you are pregnant you need more fluids
  • When you are breastfeeding
  • If you drank (too) much alcohol the night before, because it also has a dehydrating effect and then you need more fluids
  • If you have been doing intense workout. You can namely lose 1-2 litres of fluids an hour.
  • With warm weather, this goes for everyone.
  • Salty foods or foods with a lot of protein, they mean you need more fluids.
  • When you are ill, you also need more fluids (especially when you have diarrhea or when you need to throw up).

Water

It is important that you take in the right amount of water every day, your body can not go without water. But too much is also not good. You often notice yourself how much water you need. Make sure that you spread your water intake over the day, so that your body will not dehydrate. When you do a little more than usual on a day, workout more intensively, you are ill or it is warm, make sure you drink a bit more water, because you are also losing more fluids. Water has a big number of qualities:

  • Drinking water is good for your heart
  • Drinking water is good for your bowel movements
  • Water flushes toxins out of your body
  • Water helps if you want to lose weight
  • By drinking water your skin will become more beautiful




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Article written by: roybor
Times read: 2029x
Added: 26-12-2016 09:22
Last modified: 07-02-2017 23:34

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