Drinking water and your immune system

Drinking water is critical for a strong immune system and many health benefits.  Adequate hydration has a huge impact on your immune system. Water helps all of your body's systems function at optimum levels.
Research at Tufts University found that dehydration is associated with negative mood and impaired attention.

Link of immune system and drinking water:
Since a healthy immune system allows your body to fight off diseases, you need plenty of fresh, pure water to function properly. Water is everywhere in your body, sort of like a river flowing through your arteries, veins, and capillaries carrying vital, life sustaining nutrients to your cells and transporting waste out of the body. Water basically fills every space in your body and helps build a healthy immune system.

In the book 'Your Bodies Many Cries For Water', Dr F Batmanghelidj postulates that almost all diseases are caused by the simple fact that we don't drink enough water.
Dr Theodore Baroody, author of "Alkalize or Die"  says that we are dehydrated because we are acidic, and we are acidic because of the food we eat and the liquids we drink. He believes, like Dr Batmanghelidj, that we could protect ourselves from almost all major diseases by adequate intake or not just water but alkaline water.

Drinking plenty of water helps keep you healthy in the long term. A surprising number of illnesses can be treated or prevented simply by drinking eight to ten glasses of water a day.

Related studies:
* The Amazing Health Benefit of Drinking Water * 5 Immune System Benefits of Drinking Water

Importance of water for human beings

More or less we all know that water is an essential part of our life. We can live for weeks without food but without water we can live only few days. Water is essential for our whole body. When our cells lose water they lose their shape.

Water plays an important role in digestion and absorption as well as circulation and is essential in the regulation of your body temperature, lubrication of joints and the texture of our skin. Water is the carrier of nutrients through the body and essential in the removal of metabolized waste material.

If you're active and exercise regularly, you should be drinking at least the minimum of 8 glasses of water a day. (2 liters) If you plan to engage in prolonged and strenuous exercise you should drink 500mls of water two hours before exercise to allow time for adequate hydration and excretion of excess water. While exercising vigorously, you should be drinking 150 ml to 350 ml of water every 15 minutes to match sweat loss. After all, sweat is 90-99 percent water.

Let's know how much of our water we retain in our bodies?

Between 55 and 65 percent of the human body is made up of water.

* Our blood is 83% water.

* Our brain is 75% water.

* Our muscles are 76% water.

* Our liver is 70% water.

* Our kidneys are 82% water.

* Our skin is 70% water.

* Our bones are 22% water.

* Even our fat is 20% water.

Why we need to drink enough water?

Because water regulates body temperature.

* serves as a solvent for minerals, vitamins, amino acids, glucose and other small molecules, aiding their assimilation into the body
* carries oxygen to all parts of the body
* lubricates the areas around our joints (especially important for athletes, people with arthritis and those with chronic musculoskeletal problems)
* is necessary for chemical reactions in the body
* acts as a shock absorber inside the eyes and spinal cord
* removes the waste products of our metabolic processes

What happens when we are dehydrated?

Dehydration increases muscle glycogen use, which leads to premature fatigue. A slight 3 - 5% decrease of water in the body can lead to light-head ness, headaches, dizziness and nausea. In fact, when you're dehydrated by just 4.3 percent, your performance drops by 22%. A 7% decrease can lead to hallucinations or worse, major organ stress.

Dehydration also raises the body's core temperature, which can lead to delirium, heat stroke or in extreme cases, death. The solution, of course, is to keep hydrated and drink plenty of water.

With two thirds of the earth's surface covered by water and the human body consisting of 75 percent of it, it is evidently clear that water is one of the prime elements responsible for life on earth. Water circulates through the land just as it does through the human body, transporting, dissolving, replenishing nutrients and organic matter, while carrying away waste material. Further in the body, it regulates the activities of fluids, tissues, cells, lymph, blood and glandular secretions.

An average adult body contains 42 litres of water and with just a small loss of 2.7 litres he or she can suffer from dehydration, displaying symptoms of irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, headaches and consequently reach a state of pathology. Dr F. Batmanghelidj, in his book 'your body's many cries for water', gives a wonderful essay on water and its vital role in the health of a water 'starved' society. He writes: "Since the 'water' we drink provides for cell function and its volume requirements, the decrease in our daily water intake affects the efficiency of cell activity........as a result chronic dehydration causes symptoms that equal disease..."

Drink enough water to keep you safe from back pain

Water is the most important nutrient which we need to live healthy. We all know the bad effects of dyhydration for health but dehydration can worsen your back pain as well. It is strange to hear that water can help you overcome your back pain easily and naturally but it is true.

Low back pain and ankylosing arthritis of the spine are signs of water shortage in the spinal column and discs - the water cushions that support the weight of the body. These conditions should be treated with increased water intake - not a commercial treatment, but a very effective one.

Effects of disc dehydration on back pains:
Like most other body systems, the discs in the back require lots of water to work properly. The body must be well hydrated for water to leave other vital areas, like circulation or the brain & enter the discs. Our body weight is supported by 23 discs & 24 vertebrae along the spinal column.

The discs, in addition to other parts of the spinal column, hold water which stabilizes them & allow them to support body weight. When the weight press squeezes out water from the disc and the water is not replaced disc dehydration occurs. Dehydrated discs are then less able to support body weight.

Dehydration & sciatica:
Dehydrated discs become less stable. So they start to shift in the spine. Eventually they press on the sciatic nerve causing intense, radiating pain, pain that is often felt down one or the other leg.
Sciatic pain is the more serious phase of disc dehydration. It is also a sign of impending chronic pain.

As disc dehydration continues, problem is increasingly exacerbated. Here too, the typical back pain guide fails to include dehydration as involved in the development of sciatica.

In addition to dehydration’s involvement in back problems, muscles that aren’t properly conditioned can result in serious back problems.

Well-developed, flexible back muscles help the spinal column absorb shock and help keep the discs stable during stressful movements.

Our bodies are more than half water. We must replace, on the average 80 to 96ounces of water per day that is used or lost by respiration, urination, and perspiration. We can get some water by eating foods that are high in water. but most of our water will come from drinking eight to ten cups of water per day.

Source: Back pain guide

Related post: