"Drinking water is like washing out your insides. The water will cleanse the system, fill you up, decrease your caloric load and improve the function of all your tissues." ~ Kevin R. Stone
Good ol’ water! You know, that transparent liquid mineral sometimes taken for granted and yet abundant and free to many. This solvent covers 71% of the Earth’s surface. Depending on body fat, age and lifestyle the human body is made up of about 60-75% water. The brain and heart are 73% and our lungs are 83 water% water. An average rule of thumb is that the body can only survive about 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water and only 3 min. without air. So you can see why water is a vital part in sustaining life. So are we really drinking enough of it to sustain these healthy percentages?
Dehydration can be considered a worldwide epidemic and a leading cause of many diseases by disturbing our microbiome of natural homeostasis. Chronic dehydration has been closely linked to kidney stones and certain types of cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states “Many health risks decrease when you drink plain water.”1 Proper water intake helps flush out toxins from the body. The average person living in a temperate climate loses more than 80oz (10 cups)(2.3L) of water a day through urination, perspiration and respiration. You can even dehydrate yourself drinking certain liquids. An average of 8oz (1 cup) of caffeine i.e. coffee or soda equals 12oz. (1.5cups) less of body water.2 An average shot of alcohol 1.5oz dehydrates the body by about 15oz. (1.8cups).3 And it’s reported that it takes about 10-12 days for the average person to circulate and replenish the body’s aquatic system and an athlete about 6 days. So how about some key lookouts for the onset of under hydration? It’s not always the dry, sticky mouth that we may think. Guessed it yet? It’s urine; if it’s dark, in small amounts and has a strong odor then you are probably dehydrated.
Other important warning signs
✓ Dry skin
✓ Headache
✓ Constipation
✓ Cramps
✓ Dizziness
✓ Lightheadedness
✓ Sleepiness
✓ Irritability and confusion
✓ Sunken eyes
✓ Rapid heartbeat
✓ Rapid breathing
✓ Fever
✓ Extreme fussiness or sleepiness in infants and children and sunken fontanels
✓ Low blood pressure
✓ And in the most serious cases, delirium or unconsciousness
Not only might you experience these unpleasant signs but it will also greatly affect your workout performance. Dehydration of a muscle by only 3% cause’s about 10% loss of contractile strength and an 8% loss of speed. A study conducted at Ball State University showed a 7% drop in speed over 10 kilometers by runners who were dehydrated by just 2%-3%.
There is no national standard yet on how much water is recommended for daily consumption. The government and leading medical organizations haven’t issued an official guideline so we are left to our own personal investigation. This may be because individual water needs vary by age, body type, gender and activity level. But we are in luck, there are health experts that have some guidelines to go by along with several research studies. The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board does not specify water requirements, but it does “recommend” 91 ounces of water a day for women and 125 ounces a day for men. That amount includes water from all beverages and foods. About 20 percent of daily water intake usually comes through food, which means the actual recommended water intake for women is 73 oz. (9 cups) and for men it’s 100oz (12.5 cups). The American Pregnancy Association recommends that expecting women to have 8-12 glasses of water or other hydrating beverages daily. The US military has a guideline for their intense training boot camps at 16-33.5oz (.5-1 liter) of water per hour while performing high impact activities between 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that healthy males should intake about 115 ounces of water per day, and healthy women should aim for about 104 ounces of water per day. 6 The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) provides the following guidelines for the maintenance of optimal hydration:
Before Exercise: 16 - 20 full ounces within the 2 hour period prior to exercise
During Exercise: 4 - 6 full ounces
Post Exercise: replace 24 full ounces for every one pound of body weight lost during exercise.
How about the benefits of staying hydrated during exercise and on a regular day?
✓ Improves muscle performance
✓ Vibrant skin
✓ Helps release toxins
✓ Joint lubrication
✓ Improve cognitive & memory function
✓ Weight loss
✓ Promotes cardiovascular health
The University of Maastricht, Netherlands, found that patients who suffered from severe headaches and migraines enjoyed an improved quality of life by drinking about 7 glasses of water a day. It can also decrease the risk of certain cancers in women by 45% and 32% in men.(7)
Good hydration can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 33 per cent for premenopausal women and 79 per cent for postmenopausal women.(8)
I’ve found the best way for me to calculate the daily minimum average water intake is to fill up a glass or BPA free plastic bottle 3 to 5+ times a day depending on activity, but its usually half of my body weight in ounces. I use a Takeya glass 22oz bottle and when traveling or hiking CamelBak’s Groove filtered BPA & BPS free plastic 25.3oz (.75L) (3.1cups) bottle.
Refill Please!
References
2 http://www.ncsf.org/enew/articles/articles-properhydration.aspx
3 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC436144/
4 Costill, D. L., and J. M. Miller. "Nutrition for Endurance Sport: Carbohydrate and Fluid Balance*." International Journal of Sports Medicine 1.01 (1980): 2-14.
5 Military http://hprc-online.org/nutrition/files/current-u-s-military-fluid-replacement United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
6 Institute of Medcine, DRI’s for Water: http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Nutrition/DRIs/DRI_Electrolytes_Water.pdf
7 Shannon J, White E, Shattuck AL, Potter JD. Relationship of food groups and water intake to colon cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 1996;5:495-502
8 Stookey JD, Belderson PE, Russell JM, Barker ME. Correspondence re: J. Shannon et al. Relationship of food groups and water intake to colon cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 1997;6:657-658