Healthy Hydration

You often hear about the importance of keeping hydrated during the summer months, or during physical activity, but most people do not realize that hydration is important for healthy body activity, every day of the year.  Proper hydration is necessary to keep your body working efficiently.  The human body is comprised of 60-70 percent water.  The human brain is roughly 80 percent water.  Lean muscle tissue is 75 percent water.  Water helps to eliminate toxins, regulate body temperature, and support healthy joints and many other necessary body functions.  So let’s look at how simple hydration can help with the more basic needs we face every day.

Joint issues are always a hot topic.  Hydration is needed for proper synovial fluid production.  Synovial fluid is a highly hydrated gel, which helps reduce the amount of friction in the joints.  When the body is dehydrated, less synovial fluid is available to allow for lubrication, which causes friction build up.  Over time, this friction can lead to unneeded wear and tear on the joints and can be a cause of osteoarthritis.  Proper hydration can help with easing any discomfort the joints may have just by allowing for synovial production.

Weight loss (more specifically loss of body fat) can be directly linked to proper hydration.  Appetite will be suppressed as water can help control the sense of being hungry. The stomach does know the difference of being full from foods or water. This can lead to a reduction of calorie intake. You can also get a metabolic boost as drinking cold water increases metabolism. Water is also needed in proper organ function which is needed for burning of fat. When you are dehydrated the kidneys cannot function properly and eliminate waste. When this happens, the liver jumps on board to help with detoxification. This is not good since one of the livers jobs is to metabolize stored fat for energy.  So when the liver cannot focus on its own job you cannot burn stored fat efficiently.

For those who are concerned with fighting the signs of aging, hydration can play an active part of fighting wrinkles.  Skin requires a continual supply of water as evaporation and perspiration continually pull moisture through the skin to eliminate wastes and cleanse the tissues.  Without adequate hydration, wastes build up; causing problems for the skin as well as for the rest of the body.  Water also fills skin cells, making the cells plumper.  These plump cells fill in the wrinkles allowing for smoother looking skin.  Ensuring proper hydration could prove to be a better solution to preventing wrinkles than many expensive products on the market today.

If you need a boost in energy, start drinking water.  Energy and hydration go hand and hand.  Water is the medium in which all energy reactions take place.  All aspects of cellular energy depend on hydration.  For every 1 percent your cells dehydrate, they lose 10 percent of their power to produce energy.  Dehydration, even at minor levels, can cause various bodily systems to slow down, making you to feel sluggish, tired and irritable.  As an example, with the brain consisting of around 80 percent water, dehydration can slow down your mental capacity.  Optimum hydration maximizes overall aspects of energy whether it is physical or mental.

Proper hydration practices can ease many everyday issues.  In addition to the aspects addressed above, hydration plays a major role in many other areas of health.  Water is one of our most essential bodily needs and a key to good health.  How much hydration and in what form appear to be an area of confusion for many people.  Advertisements provide blanket information, which is not correct for every person, as each individual has different needs and health situations.  Factor in activity levels, age, health conditions and more, and the amount of water needed by an individual changes.  If you would like to learn more about you specific hydration needs, contact Key to Wellness (www.facebook.com/key2wellness ). Key to Wellness will point you in the right direction for your specific hydration needs.