Drinking water has all kinds of benefits, from detoxifying your body to helping your brain function better. Read this article to learn more.
Proper hydration is not only important; it is life-changing. Almost every part of the body relies on water in some way or another.
In fact, every system of the body requires water to function properly.
A dehydrated digestive system can cause constipation and indigestion. A dehydrated circulatory system will circulate slower. A dehydrated nervous system can begin to shut down.
If that’s not enough, here are five life-changing reasons to drink more water:
1. Look Better
No matter who you are, if someone told you that you could easily improve your looks, you’d want to know more.
Is drinking water easy enough? Well, drinking water can help you look better.
Good hydration improves the health of your skin. You can have a glowing, clear complexion when you regularly meet your daily recommended water intake. As a bonus, hydrated skin is less likely to develop wrinkles.
Drinking more water also improves your saliva production, which helps keep your teeth healthy. You’ll have a brighter, whiter smile.
Proper hydration also helps to prevent hair loss by strengthening the shaft and hair follicle. This will result in fuller, shinier hair.
See? Better hair, skin, and teeth just from drinking water are possible. Can your beloved soda do that? I think not.
2. It Can Help You Lose Weight
Water is a great weight loss aid. Not only does it help to flush out some of the things that make your body hold onto fat, but when you drink water before you eat, you have less room for food, so you eat less.
The less you eat, the lower your calorie intake and the more weight you lose. It can also work as an appetite suppressant if you drink water regularly.
There are times when your body is confused about whether it’s hungry or thirsty. Drinking H20 reduces the frequency of this confusion.
Not only will drinking water help you to consume fewer calories, but it gives you more energy to burn calories, too. Fewer calories in and more calories out translates to easy weight loss!
3. Naturally Detox the Body
We’ve already touched on how water flushes out toxins and waste from the body. But the power of this cleansing is so important.
A well-hydrated body has an improved function of the digestive system to prevent bloating and keep your intestines backup-free.
Hydration also helps promote healthy kidneys to prevent kidney stones and any diseases that could arise from a sluggish kidney.
4. Better Brain Function
It’s incredible the way that water heals so much of our bodies. It even helps your brain health.
Science has proven that your brain needs water for so many of its daily functions. When you drink more water, you have a better attention span and can think on your feet.
Brain cells, like all other cells, need water to metabolize and grow.
Proper hydration has even been shown to help improve your mood.
5. Take Fewer Sick Days
Increased water intake improves the immune system to fight off infections, bacteria, and viruses more efficiently.
If you are sick less often, you’ll take fewer sick days from work, earn more money, and quite possibly gain the recognition of your boss for being so reliable.
Water also helps the body absorb water-soluble vitamins and minerals, keeping your body even healthier.
Many of these vitamins are antioxidants that fight against cancer and other age-related diseases. Who doesn’t want to better their odds when it comes to that?
Water even helps to battle stress levels by reducing cortisol production. Too much cortisol in the body can cause many health problems such as anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, and even heart disease.
Tips to Increase Your Water Intake
If you struggle to get enough water during the day, there are some tricks that you can use to remind you to drink up.
Sometimes, simply attaching a new habit to one you already do can make this new habit almost effortless. You can apply this to your water intake by making sure to drink a glass of water before every meal or snack.
Alternatively, you can put on a timer every two hours and drink a glass of water each time it goes off.
If that idea sounds too annoying, you can bet there’s an app for it. Try Hydrocoach, an app that tracks your water intake and reminds you to keep drinking throughout the day.
It’s always wise to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and right before you go to bed.
The glass of water in the morning will jolt your body’s systems back into action after a good night’s sleep, and the glass of water at bedtime will help your body complete its restorative functions as you rest.
You can also purchase a special water bottle, like this motivational 64-ounce bottle with time markers to let you know how much water you should consume by each point in the day.
You can also up your fluid intake by eating food that naturally contains water. Watermelon is the usual go-to because of its name, but other choices work well.
Cucumber, oranges, celery, peaches, and tomatoes can be added to your diet to help you reach your daily water intake.
Cutting out other drinks that you have a habit of drinking can also help you get water into your body. If you stop drinking juices, sodas, and other sugary beverages, something has to replace them, right?
Water is the logical (and healthy) answer.
Conclusion
You might consider plain old H2O boring, which poses a problem when increasing your hydration. Pure water is the best, but hydration as a whole comes from a variety of different liquids.
Your morning coffee and your afternoon tea can contribute. If you miss the fizz of soda, try sparkling mineral water. You can even create your own flavored water by infusing it with fruits and herbs.
Either way, the point is this:
Drink up!
Author’s Bio
Jill Bowers is the property manager at Industry Columbus, a luxury apartment community in Columbus, OH.
Interesting Related Article: “8 Science-Based Health Benefits of drinking perfectly balanced PH Water“