I'm Not Thirsty! Do I Still Need Water?

By Cindy Williams, RN

Director, Health Ministries

Water. It’s everywhere. Approximately 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Most of that (98 percent) is ocean water leaving only 2 percent fresh, drinkable water. Some of that is tied up in frozen glaciers and inaccessible to us. But most of us, especially in the United States, have safe, clean water available to us. People in other parts of the world are not blessed with this taken-for-granted readily available luxury.

Our bodies are 75 percent water. Brain tissue is said to consist of 85 percent water. For many years, the role of water was thought to act primarily as a solvent, space filler, and a means of transport — kind of like a test-tube filled with solids with different characteristics and water as the packing material.

Every function of the body is monitored and attached to the efficient flow of water. Water distribution is the only way of making sure that not only an adequate amount of water, but the elements that it carries (nutrients, hormones, chemical messengers), reach their targets. Every organ that produces a substance that the rest of the body needs requires information from the brain to determine how much of that substance to produce and release. The brain sets these quotas partially by the amount of “water” flowing.

Headaches, mental dullness, fatigue, high blood pressure, poor physical performance, and back pain are just a few ailments that have been associated with even mild dehydration.

But you might say, “I’m not dehydrated! I drink whenever I feel thirsty!” There is some evidence that we don’t feel thirsty until we are already dehydrated. Thirst is not a good measure of hydration levels. A much better measure is the color of our urine. Urine should be clear and very pale yellow. We need to drink about half of our body weight in ounces to achieve that. Someone who weighs 100 pounds would need 50 ounces or a little over six 8-ounce glasses of water. Illness, high temperatures, and exercise increase our fluid needs so pay attention to your urine color. Beverages other than water can count toward your daily total fluids but are not going to provide the same benefits.

Let’s not shortchange our bodies. Drink some cool fresh water today!

References

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723555/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6603652/

us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/dehydration-and-its-effects-on-performance

This article is part of a continuing series of health during these COVID times. For other articles, please see www.uccsda.org/healthministries.

Photo by Samara Doole on Unsplash. Used with permission.