by Dr Arun Nagpaul
Dear Doc:
I have heard that I should drink 8 glasses of water a day to stay hydrated and healthy. Trying to stay healthy I have tried drinking 8 glasses and it has led me to spend a significant time running to the bathroom! Can I cut back on the water and still stay healthy?
Dear Reader:
Water is a key component for our bodies. About sixty percent of our body weight is made up of water. Water provides the necessary moist environment for our ear, nose, and throat tissues to function. Water helps keep us hydrated to maintain an adequate blood pressure. Water helps flush toxins out of vital organs. A lack of water will lead to dehydration. When dehydrated, the body feels weak and does not function optimally. Each day we lose water through sweat, breath, urine and our bowels. If we do not replace the water loss we will become dehydrated.
Your body, kidneys, hormones and brain all work together to help control your water balance. When you are dehydrated your kidneys hold on to more water making your urine concentrated or dark. When you are over hydrated your kidneys let go of more water and your urine will be lighter. When you are dehydrated our hormones and brain create the sensation of thirst, signaling the need to drink fluids.
Eight ounces of water is equal to a cup. The idea of needing 8 cups of water a day, or the 8 x 8 rule to stay healthy has been around a long time. There is no real good scientific evidence to suggest 64 ounces of water per day is a magic number for staying hydrated but 8 x 8 rule sounds good and is kind of catchy! Nutritionists recommend taking in 2 to 3 liters of fluid per day. That may seem like a lot of fluid but all fluid counts! There is a significant fluid in the food you consume. For example, many of the fluids and vegetables we consume such as watermelon and tomatoes can be 90% water. In fact, about 20% of our total water intake is provided by “solid” foods. The other 80% can be provided by water or other liquids such as juices, milks, or soda. Be careful not to consume too many caffeinated or alcohol containing beverages as both caffeine and alcohol produce a diuretic (urine producing) affect and may lead to increase urination and dehydration. Water is of course a healthy calorie free way to meet your fluid intake.
As soda sales have fallen in years, the big beverage companies have captured on this healthy “water” campaign. They are selling us healthy water in plastic bottles that most of us growing up would simply get from the kitchen faucet! In 1976 Americans drank an average of 1.6 gallons of bottles water every year. Today that number is up to 30 gallons of bottles water per person per year. That translates into a lot of plastic water bottles, 50 billion or so. Last year the average American used 167 disposable water bottles but only recycled 38 (22%) resulting in 38 billon bottles ending up in landfills.
It takes 17 million barrels of oil each year to make all those plastic bottles. That is enough fuel for 1.3 million cars for an entire year or enough energy to power 190,000 homes for a year. If you were going to get your 8 glasses of water going old school from the tap it would cost you under a dollar a year. The bottles water way would cost well over a thousand dollars.
Some argue that the bottled water is safer and healthier for you. Did you know that greater than 40% of bottled water brands are not actually spring water but just tap water run through a filter and sold to us in plastic bottle. A few years ago Pepsi’s Aquafina brand (13% of the bottled water market) was forced to change their labels to accurately describe there their water came from, public water sources!
If you have a certain medical conditions, congestive heart failure, low sodium levels, or chronic kidney disease, drinking too much water may cause health problems. If you have a specific medical concern about your fluid intake, talk to your health care provider. For the rest of us, paying attention to our thirst signals should guide the body to the right amount of fluid intake and prevent too many bathroom trips! Water is a healthy way to ensure the proper fluid intake, and if tap water is not for your consider a filter for your tap water instead of bottled water. Stay healthy and keep mother Earth healthy by only using reusable bottles!
Remember the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, “A woman is like a tea bag- you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
Dr. Nagpaul is a medical doctor and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He currently is the Medical Director at Newark-Wayne Community Hospital, DeMay Living Center and Wayne County Public Health. This column is meant to be educational and not intended to be used to make individual treatment decisions. Prior to starting or stopping any treatment, please confer with your own health care provider. To send questions to our medical providers, please email Dr. Nagpaul at Arun.Nagpaul@rochesterregional.org and put “Ask a Doc” in the subject line.
