“HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM HYDRATED ENOUGH?”
As much attention as we pay to our phones, we also need to pay attention to how many glasses of water we are drinking. Because even if you don’t feel like drinking something, your body might show signs of dehydration. There are many symptoms; the common ones are dry lips and skin, headaches or dark urine color. Another way to know that your body is dehydrated is when you don’t sweat. If your body is well hydrated, you will probably be constantly sweating. Sweating helps the body maintain its body temperature. But if you continue to sweat without replacing fluids, your overall blood volume decreases.
Another way to find out if you are well hydrated is by applying the capillary refill test. This method consists of applying pressure or pinching your skin; it could be anywhere— legs, arms, belly. As soon as you release the pressure, your skin should take less than 3 seconds to go back to its normal color. If it takes you at least 4 seconds, then that a sign that your body needs water. Also, make sure to check your urine color. This might sound nasty, but urine color could directly relate to your body’s loss or gain of water. When you're dehydrated, your urine is usually dark yellow or gold. But this is not always true, sometimes when we eat intensely colored food or some medication, such as vitamins B or laxatives, could also darken our urine.
“WHAT ARE SOME BENEFITS?”
Drinking water provides many advantages. Aside from avoiding the symptoms mentioned before, you could prevent colon cancer. Several pieces of research have found that staying hydrated could reduce the risk of having bladder cancer by a 50% and possibly the risk of breast cancer too. Our muscles are composed of 75% of water, so by staying hydrated, our bodies to do better. Dehydration could lead us to dizziness, fatigue, electrolyte imbalance, and weakness. Water also helps our body to flush out the bacterias and waste throughout urine and sweat. If we don’t drink water, we don’t sweat or pee. Finally, by drinking water, it makes our skin glow, avoid wrinkles, and prevent us from breakouts. It could help us improve the color and texture of our skin by building new cells.
“DID YOU KNOW?”
A human body can go without food for three weeks, but it can only stand three days without water.
By the time you start feeling thirsty, your body had lost about 1% of its total amount of water. Soft drinks, coffee, and tea don't count as a glass of water of your daily goal. The United State uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
SO,
DRINK UP.
CHUNG CHEN 51