Pools are open, teachers and students are counting down until the school year is over, wedding season is in full swing, and the sound of lawnmowers fill the air in my otherwise quiet neighborhood. This can only mean one thing – summer time, baby! Yea! Even though the summer solstice (Here’s a quick refresher – that’s the longest day of the year because the Sun reaches its most northern point in the sky. After summer solstice, the days start getting shorter.) isn’t until June 21, the heat is already up, the sun is already out, and we are, hopefully, already spending more time outdoors and moving around. This is the perfect opportunity for me to talk with you about something super important to our health and well-being that often goes unnoticed but can make a huge difference in how you feel. Drinking water!
Let’s start with a little background information. Our bodies are about 75 percent water and water is needed for many essential functions in our body like transporting nutrients, neurotransmitters and hormones. Water helps our body’s cells maintain their structure and proteins and enzymes (the catalyst for many body reactions) function efficiently. These vital functions may be decreased or even lost if our bodies are chronically dehydrated.
When our body is not receiving enough water, it relies on a water-rationing system to make sure that our vital organs have enough water to function properly. The neurotransmitter, histamine, redistributes water throughout the body. The order of circulatory importance is the brain, lungs, liver, kidneys and glands. The muscles, bones and skin are at the bottom of the list. When histamine becomes active to jump-start our water-rationing system, we experience symptoms that are misunderstood for other disorders like allergies, asthma, constipation, joint pain and migraines. Dry mouth or thirst is actually not the first sign of dehydration!
There is no substitute for water. Soda, caffeinated drinks including coffee and tea, and alcohol are diuretics, resulting in more water lost than the amount consumed. Heartburn, back pain, migraines, arthritis, dyspepsia, fibromyalgia and angina may all be related to chronic dehydration. Dehydration is the biggest trigger of daytime fatigue, nausea, headaches, lethargy and constipation.
The easiest way to know if you’re drinking enough water or if you’re dehydrated is to look at the color of your urine. Urine that is “very pale yellow”, “pale yellow” or “straw colored” indicates that you’re well hydrated.
So get outside, enjoy the warm weather, move your bodies, but don’t forget to drink water!