Tips for proper hydration

Proper hydration has a positive impact on:

• Dieting - Drinking a full glass of water before you eat can play a supporting role in your dieting efforts. Water acts as an appetite suppressant, helping you eat less while losing more weight.
• Athletic performance - Water is a crucial pillar of aerobic output and endurance. A mere 2% loss of your body's total water volume can result in a 20% decrease in physical performance.
• Fluid replenishment - The best way to replace lost water is with more water. Coffee, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages can have a diuretic effect that often impedes your body from absorbing water. Drinking five cups of coffee per day is enough to increase urinary flow by 40 percent, frequently producing a negative water balance.
• Mental concentration - Water is a vital element when it comes to mental awareness. Decreasing your water intake by only one quart seriously reduces your ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand.
• Cholesterol control - According to doctors, an increase in water intake can positively affect cholesterol formation.
• Pre-natal health - During pregnancy, the body requires up to two extra glasses of water per day. Water makes up around 97% of an early embryo's weight and about 80% of a newborn baby's weight.

Proper hydration can also help ease numerous ailments, including:

Heartburn - Dehydration causes about 30% of all forms of indigestion. Your body requires copious amounts of water in order to digest the average meal.

Headaches - Studies have shown that dehydration heavily influences headaches and migraines, both of which can be prevented or reduced by increasing water intake.

Dry skin - Doctors often indicate the fix for dry skin could be as simple as drinking eight glasses of water per day.

Irregularity - Dehydration is a leading factor in constipation, making water the world's safest and most natural laxative.

Joint pain - Water is the main lubricant for the contact surfaces of joints, and friction caused by a lack of water can produce symptoms extremely similar to the inflammation associated with arthritis.

Sore muscles - Drinking eight ounces of water for every 15 minutes of exercise is essential to preventing sore muscles.

Symptoms of dehydration include:

• Dry mouth and/or skin
• Dizziness, nausea, and/or headache
• Fatigue
• Mild to excessive thirst
• Muscle weakness
• Darkened, little, or no urination
• Labored breathing
• Increased body temperature