You Can Lead A Person to Water, and You Should Make Him Drink

All human beings need to drink water.  Water is important to many bodily functions, such as regulating temperature, transporting nutrients and oxygen to the blood, removing waste, and lubricating joints.  Everyday our bodies lose water through sweating, exhaling, urination and bowel movements.  This water needs to be replaced. Even mild dehydration — as little as 2 percent loss of body water — can sap energy and make a person feel tired.

If a child is told to “move your big toe” and then moves their big toe, the accomplishment of this tiny task by the body is made possible by a series of nerve impulses that travel through the brain, down the spinal cord to the toe.  The smooth functioning of the electrical transmissions of our nervous system is highly dependant on water.  Our brains are comprised of about 90% water.  Hydration is not only key for physical activity, but for thinking and learning as well.

Surprisingly, thirst is not a reliable indicator of the need for hydration .  The human thirst mechanism doesn’t kick in until a person has lost a significant amount of fluid.  By the time your are thirsty, you are already dehydrated.  At this point decreased performance has already become evident.  Drinking water according to a schedule or a routine is the best insurance against dehydration, especially for children.

Filtered water is fine. Most tap water is safe. There are also a myriad of specialty waters on the grocery shelves these days including vitamin waters, enhanced waters, energy waters, and flavored waters.  As they say, it’s your nickel.  Do read the labels regardless.  Highly refined sugars like high fructose corn syrup, crystalline fructose, or chemical sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose are best left out of everybody’s water bottle.

I forget to drink enough water.  Then I start reaching for juices or teas.  These are perfectly fine drinks, but often I don’t need them if I just take the time to consciously drink a glass of water.  One of my daughter’s primary school teachers required upset little ones to take ten sips of water to calm down before reporting their trauma to her. Hydration and stress relief in one glass.  I wish someone would make me drink ten0 sips of water before before I have to call IKEA to straighten out a wrong order.  Or when the phone rings, it’s a business call and the dog decides to have a barking tantrum and you sound ridicuous and angry scolding the dog when you want to sound intelligent and professional.  Where’s Miss Birdgestock then?   Holding out a little paper cup.  Telling me everything will be fine, just take ten sips of water.

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Cynthia Lair

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