Give Her a Glass of Cold Water!

“Se muere de sed la tía/ ¡dale un vaso de agua fría!” Juan Formell and the Van Van sang, and the aforementioned aunt is still playing and dying of thirst in these September heats.

I'm sure she and many others know how important it is to drink water and other liquids to avoid dehydration, that is, what happens when you lose more liquid than you consume.

The elevated temperatures that we Cubans are experiencing in these months, it becomes even more important to drink water, because precisely that consumption is related to the ambient temperature, although it also depends on the activity at hand, the health of each person, as well as sex, physical complexion, weight, and age.

The ability to feel thirsty decreases with age, especially after age 60, so older adults are more prone to dehydration.

It’s not proven that a fixed amount of water should be taken daily. All these factors indicate how much water we need to drink, and, in a healthy body, thirst triggers the need, although you don't have to wait until you feel it to bring a glass of water to your mouth.

A healthy adult should drink between two and three liters of fluids daily, including water and other fluids such as juices, infusions, as well as those contained in fruits, vegetables, and other foods.

When is it better to drink water?

There isn’t a recipe to indicate the best time of the day to drink water, although it’s recommend drinking water before, during, and after exercising, and whenever the body needs it because it’s constantly losing water through sweat, urine, breathing and other body functions.

Regularly, the body loses between 2.3 and 2.5 liters of water daily: Through urine, between 1 and 1.5 liters; in sweat, between 0.3 and 0.9 liters; by breathing approximately 0.4 liters and by feces, between 0.1 and 0.2 liters. This will always depend on the aforementioned factors such as age, weight, physical activity, ambient temperature, and others.

Some experts propose, in addition to drinking water throughout the day regularly and little by little, drinking it before going to sleep and when waking up every morning, among other reasons, because it helps eliminate toxins accumulated during the night.

They also suggest drinking it before meals to avoid overeating.

In general, staying hydrated correctly helps reduce the risk of disease, especially considering that water is the main chemical component of the body and represents approximately 50% to 70% of body weight, depending on each stage of life:

Between 80-90% of the blood is water; the skin contains between 70-75% of this liquid; the heart, liver and kidneys, between 70-80%, and the brain is made up of water between 75-85%.

Therefore, a significant loss of body water can lead to decreased physical and cognitive performance, as well as variations in the regulation of body temperature and cardiovascular function. If there is not good hydration, the brain receives less oxygenated blood and mental fatigue can occur as well as physical fatigue.

What are the benefits of drinking water?

• It has a thermoregulatory function through sweating and breathing

• Metabolizes nutrients from food and helps them enter cells

• Contributes to the production of saliva

• Lubricates the digestive system and promotes intestinal transit avoiding constipation

• Protects kidney function

• Eliminates toxins

• Helps with the caloric consumption

• Cushions and lubricates the joints

    For all these reasons, it’s convenient to walk with a bottle of water at hand in these days of such much heat therefore avoiding what happened to the aunt in the famous song by Los Van Van.