Excessive Drinking Water
Each and every health magazine keeps emphasizing on drinking water. Life originated in water, so even after moving to land, water continues to play an important part in our daily meals. We are after all 70% water. But don’t let this delude you into thinking that drinking more water than your body demands makes more sense!
Excessive Drinking of Water May not be for You
The researchers has found that people living in hot and dry climate have an increased need for water and that people with certain diseases like kidney stones can also benefit from slight increase in water intake. But this is not true for the average person.
For everything in life, moderation is the key. However there is no need to constantly down glasses of water throughout the day and visiting the toilet every hour.
In case of an average person the intake of water depends on his work profile. If he is involved in a physically challenging job like filed work, labour, walking in the factory, moving objects etc. then his body definitely needs more water and fluids. But if the working is sedentary like of a cashier or a computer professional then the body does not lose much water and thus it does not need the galloping down the glasses of water.
In today’s world, life has become very comfortable. Specially in the metro cities, throughout the day if we check our lifestyle then we notice that our houses are air conditioned -- the car we use to reach our office is air-conditioned -- then the office is also air-conditioned -- and then -- the car and home again.
This shows that through out the day we are in a colder environment and there is almost no sweating taking place. This reduces the water loss from our body. Thus the body has only one way to pass that extra water and that is through the urine. So those who drink excessive water they keep shuttling to the loo, the whole day.
So how much water should you take?
In normal cases the best way to determine intake of the water is through the ‘color of urine.’ The ideal color should be pale yellow or golden yellow.
If the colour of the urine is dark yellow that means the concentration of the urea is high and you need to increase the intake of water during the day.
If the colour of urine is waterish that means you are taking more than the required amount of water and the kidneys are simply expelling that water from the body. This puts extra load on the kidneys. They keep filtering those extra liters which were never required by body.
A number of health magazines have recommended to drink 3 then 5 then 7 glasses of water daily morning. I noticed that in neither of these magazines was a logic behind this given. So, let us look at this scientifically. A person with bowel problem will definitely benefit from this as it will ease out the movement. But for an average person, their bowel movement is fine. The body then notices that in spite of that, more help is being externally sent in the form of excess water intake. The body then slowly gets used to the external help and adjusts accordingly so that you now need the excess water.
Let me give an example: You walk easily and comfortably on your own two legs. You read in a magazine that people should walk with crutches. So, you buy the crutches and walk even though you don’t need it. Slowly, your legs will stop functioning and you will be dependent on the crutches. It is the same case with the water that you take to ‘aid’ the bowel movement that is fine in itself.
Deal is, our body is smart. It knows its needs and tells you about them. If you have a stomach ache, that is your body’s way of telling you to pay attention to your food habits. If you have leg ache, then your body is telling you to build up your leg muscles to gear up for future standing needs!
Not each and every human should standard 8 glasses of water everyday. That’s ridiculous! Drink whenever you feel thirsty as your body is telling you it is low on fluids.
Besides, if you do have bowel issues, doing asanas like vipreet dand asan, will aid the body to naturally recover from bowel issues such that you don’t need the excess water intake.
And at the end of the day, water is a precious resource; wasting it: is a crime; be it when drinking extra, or washing the house or car with a hosepipe. We worship varun devta or God Of Water. We shouldn’t be wasting it.
