The Big Deal about Water

So what's the big deal about water? We're always being told that we should drink more, but why? Well, put simply - without water, we'd die. Although death from dehydration is rare in the Western developed world, plenty of the symptoms you're experiencing right now could be down to not drinking enough.

About seventy percent of our bodies is made up of water. That's an incredible amount and provides you with just a hint of how vital water is for us. Our bodies use water to keep running efficiently and the human body very cleverly rations water out to where it is needed and keeps some in reserve in case of drought - more efficiently than a hosepipe ban in August! The regular supply of water helps to regulate several bodily functions - many of which you will probably never before have associated with drinking enough water.

Water is in every cell and every tissue on your body. It maintains your healthy muscles and helps you keep your young-looking skin; it lubricates joints and organs and regulates body temperature. You can't function without it. Water is the main ingredient in all your bodily fluids-blood, lymph, digestive juices, urine, tears, and sweat. Water is involved in almost every bodily function: circulation, digestion, absorption, and elimination of wastes, to name a few.

Drinking water is a great habit to get into. It can not only help to keep you healthy, when healthy problems arise, water can also help cure you - far more cheaply than using expensive pharmaceutical drugs. You can even counter the effects of these over the counter and prescribed drugs with water. Just think about it - what does it make more sense to put into your body - a man-made drug that bears no real chemical resemblance to the human body - or the very thing that already makes up seventy percent of our bodies?

Hard water that is alkaline is better for drinking. No, I don't mean that really hard water that actually tastes metallic - I mean water that are on the hard side rather than soft. Why? Because those ions that make the water hard are also essential minerals, i.e. they are good for you. Also, water is often softened by replacing the magnesium and calcium ions with sodium ions. This extra sodium may not be good for people with heart disease or who are on sodium restricted diets.

Alkaline water carries the electrolytes, mineral salts that help convey electrical currents in the body; the major minerals that make up these salts are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride. In short, water is quite important for self-regulation within the body, ensuring that everything stays in balance.

Water helps to transport your waste products through your guts and helps you expel them. That helps prevent you getting constipated. Water also helps feed your body. You can bet most people will never have thought of this, but it's water that carries most of the vitamins and minerals that are left when food is broken down, so that it can be absorbed into the parts of the body that need it. Without water, you can't absorb nutrients and minerals into your bloodstream - or anywhere else for that matter - and so a lack of water means you are not properly nourished either.

So, from head to toe, you need water to properly regulate your body's functions.