Tips for Proper Hydration

Hydrate Your Life

Living a better life through better water starts with proper hydration. There are countless physical and mental health benefits to maintaining great drinking water as a key component of your life, all of which are compounded by the convenience and great taste of Culligan Water. Here is an overview of the key benefits of proper hydration and some symptoms of dehydration to help make sure you’re drinking enough water in your daily life.

Proper hydration has a positive impact on:

  • Dieting – Drinking a full glass of water before you eat can play a supporting role in your dieting efforts. Water acts as an appetite suppressant, helping you eat less while losing more weight.
  • Athletic performance – Water is a crucial pillar of aerobic output and endurance. A mere 2% loss of your body’s total water volume can result in a 20% decrease in physical performance.
  • Fluid replenishment – The best way to replace lost water is with more water. Coffee, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages can have a diuretic effect that often impedes your body from absorbing water. Drinking five cups of coffee per day is enough to increase urinary flow by 40 percent, frequently producing a negative water balance.
  • Mental concentration – Water is a vital element when it comes to mental awareness. Decreasing your water intake by only one quart seriously reduces your ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand.
  • Cholesterol control – According to doctors, an increase in water intake can positively affect cholesterol formation.
  • Pre-natal health – During pregnancy, the body requires up to two extra glasses of water per day. Water makes up around 97% of an early embryo’s weight and about 80% of a newborn baby’s weight.

Proper hydration can also help ease numerous ailments, including:

Heartburn – Dehydration causes about 30% of all forms of indigestion. Your body requires copious amounts of water in order to digest the average meal.

Headaches – Studies have shown that dehydration heavily influences headaches and migraines, both of which can be prevented or reduced by increasing water intake.

Dry skin – Doctors often indicate the fix for dry skin could be as simple as drinking eight glasses of water per day.

Irregularity – Dehydration is a leading factor in constipation, making water the world’s safest and most natural laxative.

Joint pain – Water is the main lubricant for the contact surfaces of joints, and friction caused by a lack of water can produce symptoms extremely similar to the inflammation associated with arthritis.

Sore muscles – Drinking eight ounces of water for every 15 minutes of exercise is essential to preventing sore muscles.

Symptoms of dehydration include:

  • Dry mouth and/or skin
  • Dizziness, nausea, and/or headache
  • Fatigue
  • Mild to excessive thirst
  • Muscle weakness
  • Darkened, little, or no urination
  • Labored breathing
  • Increased body temperature