How Much Water Should I be Drinking
I’m sure you’ve heard that you should aim for eight glasses of water each day but this is sometimes too much or too little for your body’s hydration needs. I could do a bunch of different calculations to find out your fluid needs but it varies depending on your age, activity levels, sweat, health, digestion, diet and stage of life (pregnant, breast-feeding, elderly, etc.), how your individual metabolism works, what you eat and whether you have a medical condition. It’s especially important for children and older people to drink enough water.
We get about one fifth of the water we need from food and the rest from drinking fluids. The body gets rid of water throughout the day through breathing and sweating, as well as by going to the toilet.
The general recommendation for adequate hydration for an adult is 30 to 40 milliliters of fluid per kilogram of body weight each day. For example, a 30-year-old woman who weighs 70kg would need 2,400 milliliters of fluid per day or around 10 cups. If you think 10 cups of water sounds difficult to drink each day, don’t worry; this fluid recommendation includes the amount of liquid you are consuming from hydrating foods such as fruits and vegetables.
The easiest way to tell if you are dehydrated is to monitor your urine. Ideally, your urine should be a light yellow or lemonade color and it should not have a strong odor. If your urine is dark yellow and has a concentrated smell, you’re already dehydrated and it’s time to drink some water.
Why Do Our Bodies Need Water?
Between 50 to 70 percent of our body weight is fluid. Our bodies need water to perform a variety of functions that are critical to our survival including:
Dissolving and transporting substances throughout our body
Keeping our cells alive
Maintaining healthy blood volume
Regulating body temperature
Protecting and lubricating
What happens when you don’t drink enough water?
Not drinking enough water can make you very ill. Severe dehydration can lead to dizziness and collapse. If you are showing any signs of dehydration, drink some water straight away and seek medical advice if you still don't feel better.
Older people are at greater risk of dehydration because they naturally feel less thirsty and their kidneys may not work as well. Memory problems, taking some medicines such as diuretics and laxatives and not being able to move around to fetch a drink all make it harder to stay hydrated.
For older people, not drinking enough water in the long term can lead to serious problems such as constipation, a decline in memory, not being able to function as well, having a fall, and having a stroke.
These are the signs that you need to drink more water:
dark urine
tiredness
irritability
feeling thirsty
Is it possible to drink too much water?
In some people, drinking too much water can lead to a dangerous condition called hyponatremia, where the levels of sodium in the blood become too diluted. This can occasionally happen to people who drink too much while they’re doing intense physical activity, such as running a marathon. Babies can also have too much water if their formula is too diluted.
People with chronic kidney disease, heart failure or liver disease, who cannot get rid of water from the body as efficiently, should talk to their doctor about how much water to drink. If you have some other long-term medical condition, it is also a good idea to discuss your water consumption habits with the doctor.