Medical Q&As

Drinking water - how much per day?

I was wondering could you tell me how much water should one drink each day? Also, what are the benefits of drinking it?

The human body loses several pints of water every day. The water is lost during urination, bowel movements, sweating and when we exhale our breath. The amount of water we lose increases even further when we exercise. It is necessary to consume a sufficient amount of fluid each day in order to compensate for these losses. However, some of our daily intake of water comes from food. Fruits and vegetables contain water especially oranges, grapes, melon, cucumber and celery. We also get water from milk, juices, soups and soft drinks. Irish people are inveterate tea and coffee drinkers but it is worth noting that both of these popular drinks have a diuretic effect, which means that they increase the amount of water being lost in urine. The same consideration applies to alcohol. Therefore the person that drinks lots of tea, coffee or pints of beer may be losing an equal volume of water in the urine. It would be reasonable to suggest that each adult should drink at least one pint of water a day in addition to the water derived from all other sources. That amount would need to be significantly increased when exercising and when visiting countries with a warm climate. Remember also that water does not have any calories therefore you can drink many pints of it without increasing your calorie intake whereas a few glasses of your favourite fizzy soft drink could increase your calorie consumption by several hundreds. Drinking a lot of water is good for your kidneys and can be an important factor in preventing urinary tract infections and kidney stones. A good flow of water through the kidneys literally flushes out bacteria and helps to prevent a build up of stone forming sediment in the kidneys and bladder.