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Take Control of Your Health
Water: Do You Really Need 8 Glasses a Day?
with Joseph Mercola, D.O.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
of Mercola.com
A review of studies dealing with the healthy benefits of drinking lots of water concluded that, while athletes and people in hot, dry climates do better with increased fluid intake, for average healthy people, more water does not mean better health. There is little evidence for or against any of the supposed benefits of extra water, such as increased toxin excretion, improved skin tone, lessened hunger, and reduced headache frequency.
Every day your body loses water through urine and sweat, and this fluid needs to be replenished. Fortunately, your body is already equipped with a virtually foolproof mechanism that tells you when you need to replenish your water supply—it’s called thirst!
Why Do You Need Water?
You can actually survive without food for months, but without water you’d die after a few days, so needless to say, water is absolutely essential to life. But do you need to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day? That’s the recommendation we’ve all been traditionally told.
The recent review of research is actually not offering proof that this recommendation is wrong, per se. It’s simply a review of the available research on water’s ability to improve your health when ingested in larger amounts, such as 8 glasses a day or more. Its conclusion that increased water intake has no discernible health benefits might be a bit misleading, however.
For example, the research on water intake and reduction in migraine headaches showed that 15 patients with migraines, who were assigned to increase their water intake for two weeks, had 21 hours less migraines compared to the control group. However, the difference was not considered to be statistically significant. If you suffer from migraines, you might disagree.
Your Body Tells You How Much Water It Needs—Here’s How:
A few years ago I too began to question the general recommendation of 8 glasses of water per day, which led to my refined recommendations on water intake:
Since your body is capable of telling you its needs, using thirst and the color of your urine as guides to how much water you should be drinking are good ways of ensuring your individual needs are met, day-by-day.
As long as you are not taking riboflavin (vitamin B2), which fluoresces and turns your urine bright yellow (it is also in most multi-vitamins), then your urine should be a very light-colored yellow. If it is a deep, dark yellow then you are likely not drinking enough water.
When your body begins to lose from 1 percent to 2 percent of its total water, your thirst mechanism lets you know that it’s time to drink some water. If you are healthy, then drinking whenever you feel thirsty should be an adequate guide of how much water you need. You can confirm whether you are drinking enough water by looking at the color of your urine, as mentioned above.
Of course, if it’s hot, exceptionally dry outside, or you are engaged in exercise or other vigorous activity, you will require more water than normal, so be sure to stay well hydrated in these cases.
Additionally, as you get older your thirst mechanism works less efficiently, so older adults will want to be sure to drink water regularly, and again make sure your urine is a light, pale color.
Keep in mind that quenching your thirst with substitutes such as sodas, coffee or sugary fruit juices is NOT the same as drinking pure water! Both coffee and soda are high in caffeine, which acts as a diuretic that will dehydrate you even further. And then of course you have the issue of sugar and high fructose corn syrup—but I will not rant about that here.
Source: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology April 2, 2008
