Drinking enough water is essential to overall good health, and yet it is surprising how many people are not drinking enough and suffering the consequences. Dehydration causes a sluggish digestion, constipation, dizziness, headaches, poor eyesight, anxiety and depression, and these are just the short term effects. You may experience only one of these symptoms or all of them, but long term dehydration will actually speed up the ageing process which could actually shorten your life. If you want to feel vitality in the short term and healthy in the long term then you should look to consume more water. You may ask the question – what does water actually do? But a better question would be – what doesn’t it do? Water is responsible for enabling every process in our bodies and is essential to our life. You can last up to one week without water (although by 3 days your body would be shutting down) but approximately 3 weeks without food.
So how much water is the right amount? It is difficult to drink too much water, but it has happened to people before, those who have taken it to the extreme by going on a water detox and drank more than 7 litres a day resulting in fatality. However the consensus seems to be that the correct daily intake of fluids should be between 1.5 and 2.5 litres of water. This includes fluids like juice, but not tea, coffee or fizzy drinks, as these all contain caffeine which is dehydrating. It is perfectly safe to drink tap water although if you are concerned then using a water filter would be more cost effective than buying bottled water all the time. Try to spread your daily intake throughout the day rather than drinking it all in one go. It is better to drink the water a few hours after eating as opposed to with your meals, because water dilutes the digestive juices.