As a chiropractor, if there is one thing that you will hear me saying over and over… it is “don’t forget to drink water!”. But why is it so important and why will this help you in your recovery process?
Drinking water is one of the most important keys to improving your health. Our body is made of around 66% water, so we need to keep ourselves hydrated if we want our body to function well.
Water helps many chemical processes in your body, like the transportation of nutrients, digestion and absorption, creation of saliva, circulation and maintenance of body temperature.
Dehydration has many effects on our:
- physical performance – especially when we exercise
- cognitive performance – it can affect our mood and our brain function, like a lack of concentration, focus, short term memory…
- digestive system – constipation
- kidneys & heart function – kidneys are regulating our water balance and blood pressure as well as removing the waste from our bodies.
- skin – it contains 30% of water, and helps with the elasticity and resilience of our skin.
It is difficult to set an estimated average requirement as it depends on the body size, activity, metabolism, environmental conditions… The Adequate Intake (“AI” on the 4th column of the table) is what we should have regarding our water/fluid intake. This does not include water derived from food and we should add roughly 20% of water intake from food (in a passive way).
Food contains water, and you can see from the table below that fruits and veges contains a lot of water.
In practice, I see a lot of patients dehydrated, so don’t forget your water, as it does affect your body. Lot of my patients are reporting to me that increasing their water intake has made a good difference to their pain, their energy and overall wellness.
Tips to stay hydrated:
- Infuse a piece of lemon, blueberries, mint into your water.
- Herbal teas
- Have a bottle of water with you
- Avoid regular sugary drinks
Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/
