Your Health and Chronic Dehydration

People love to talk about health and the latest and greatest ways to improve it. There are pills, diets, classes, methods, and seminars, all designed to make you healthier.


One of the easiest ways to improve your overall health, however, can be as easy as turning on the faucet.

Water is an essential element in your body, comprising around 50% of your entire body mass. Yet the majority of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

We severely undervalue the importance of sufficient water intake.

Even a 2% decrease in body water can seriously impair physical and mental functions. Fatigue is a classic symptom of chronic dehydration. Enzymatic activity slows down when tissues are dehydrated which causes a decrease in energy production.

Weight gain can also be attributed to chronic dehydration. Often people who are dehydrated can mistake thirst for hunger. This leads to over eating. After months and years of this the body can even turn off the thirst signal and instead go to craving foods heavy in water simply as a way to bring in any fluids at all.

Other symptoms include constipation, ulcers, and a multitude of digestive issues. With low body fluid your systems are simply not able to secrete sufficient amounts of digestive juices or process the food due to the water imbalance in the body.

In addition, your body is not able to eliminate toxins sufficiently and dehydration has been theorized to contribute to skin issues like eczema or chronic pain diseases such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, and rheumatism.

Because your body is still able to function, albeit at a suboptimal level, with chronic dehydration most people are unaware of their condition.

So how much water do you need to take in each day? According to the Mayo Clinic, “if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate.”

If you prefer some more specific recommendations, the most common is the 8x8 rule which suggests drinking eight 8-oz glasses a day. This is the basic level of water and should be increased with exercise or strenuous activity.

Another fluid replacement level recommendation from the Institute of medicine is about 3 Liters a day for men and 2.2 Liters a day for women.

Even if you can’t take in all the recommended ounces in a day, don’t give up on it! Even just one glass more a day will be more than you are getting now. And over time, if you add just one glass a month, you will be taking great first steps to improving your overall health.

So go ahead. Grab a glass right now and get started on your way to better health!