“You began as a single cell bathed in a nourishing fluid.  As you became a beautifully organized, air-breathing body of trillions of cells, each of your cells had to remain next to water to stay alive.  Water brings to each cell the exact ingredients the cell requires and carries away the end products of its life-sustaining reactions.” ¹

Would you sit with those words for a moment?  Within those words is an amazing miracle - YOU!  Within those words is also found the weighty role of water to support that miracle.  

“Support” seems an insufficient word when you consider your body is approximately 60% water, and your brain is approximately 73% water.  Truly, water is the most indispensable nutrient in the human body.  Water does the following in your body:

• It first acts as a building block for every cell in your body and remains a vital nutrient throughout the cell’s life.

• It regulates your internal body temperature via sweating and respiration.

• It assists in the conversion of food into components needed for survival.  Water then also carries those components in the bloodstream throughout your body.  

• It assists in flushing waste, primarily through urination.

• It acts as a shock absorber for your brain and spinal cord.  

• It forms saliva, ultimately assisting in digestion.

• It lubricates your body’s joints. ²

When your body does not receive proper hydration, these processes deteriorate, and your body physically begins to suffer.  The physical deterioration collides with mental function and fatigue, tension, anxiety and difficulty concentrating emerge.  

How can you avoid that collision, and what does hydration self-care look like?  In other words, let’s look at the how, what, when, where and why. 

How?  Sip water throughout the day instead of chugging it.  Sipping allows your body the space and time it needs to properly absorb water.  How much should you be drinking?  The researchers are a bit conflicted on the matter; however, a good place to start is to drink half your body weight in ounces.  For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, target 75 ounces of water per day. 

What?  Water.  Treat yourself to fruit infused water.  Simply add a slice of fresh orange to your water, or tap into your creativity and begin mixing fruit slices with herb leaves.  

When?  Sip water throughout the day.  Even as little as a 1.5% loss of body water can cause the aforementioned collision of physical and mental dehydration symptoms.  (Tip:  Monitor your urine color.  Dark yellow urine indicates dehydration, and very pale yellow urine indicates hydration.)  

Where?  Drink water wherever you are able.  If you know you are going to be away from a source of water, do try to take a full water bottle with you.  

Why?  Because the miracle of YOU is worth it!

Until next time,

Bethany and Jordan

1. Sizer, F.S. and Whitney, E.N.  (2000).  Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (8th edition).  Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.  
2.  USGS