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It is truly amazing that plain old H2O is involved in over 200 biochemical tasks in the human body each day.  Consider also that your body is almost 70% percent water.

Major physiologic processes that require proper hydration include:

• blood circulation
• metabolism
• waste removal or detoxification
• regulation of body temperature

At the point that your body loses from 1-2% of its fluid content it begins to signal you to drink by activating the thirst mechanism. Trouble is,by the time this occurs you have already become dehydrated.

Important signs that you may not be drinking enough water are:

#1 Bad Breath or Body Odor: patients often ask me about these problems and often these issues can be resolved by encouraging them to drink more.

#2 Muscle Cramps: I recall as a hospital intern many sleepless nights where foot and leg cramps would keep me awake or wake me from a sound sleep. I eventually figured out that the intervals I would go were causing dehydration and even drinking a lot after my shift would not avert this.  

#3 Chills or Overheating. There are other reasons for this of course, but dehydration is a culprit for many folks.  Your body simply cannot response to climate issues if it is dehydrated to any extent.

#4 Chronic Headaches. If the fluid sac your brain resides in loses fluid your head loses its cushioning against the skull.  This can result in chronic head pain.

#5 Constipation.  When you are not drinking enough fluid, your large intestine will extract the water from the food you eat in order to meet its needs.  This will cause stool to become compacted, hard and dry.

#6 Dry Skin and Deep Wrinkles. Your skin in 64% water and your body will remove fluid from the skin in order to provide it to other organs as needed.  There are stories all over the net about people who completely changed their appearance due to drinking more water.

#7 Fatigue.  Fatigue, sleepiness and poor performance are all related to dehydration. The central nervous system cannot operate correctly without water so it shuts down. Symptoms of this involve sleepiness.

SOOOOOOO How much do you need?

There's no hard and fast rule so you need to figure it out for yourself.  If you exercise you will need more definitely due to sweating but also due to increased respiration.  Clues to help you are urine color. Urine should be light yellow or paler but this may not be attainable if you take vitamins.  

The second is that you should urinate with a good volume several times throughout the day.

 It WILL take some work and trial and error to figure this out for yourself.  But very much worth the effort.  Your body and health will thank you.  Next week I will discuss nutrients to save your vision.  Don't MISS it!  Sign up!

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Taryn DeCicco, ND, LAc, LDN

Naturopath

Acupuncturist

Clinical Nutritionist

Dietitian

Professional Vitamins and Supplements

Chinese Herbs

Natural Skin Products

Arlington Heights, IL

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