Is It Possible to Improve Your Health by Simply Drinking More Water?

To many people, this may seem a simplistic answer to a complex question: How can doing something so simple produce such noticable & quick results? Surely there must be some deep scientific & comlex way to improving health. The body, after all, is a very complex organism and scientists and health professionals have, over the centuries, espoused numerous ways of improving health, from specially fomulated foods & diets to drugs designed to fight obesity and reduce fat etc. What seems to have been largely ignored, until recent times, is that by merely increasing our water intake, a noticeable improvement can be made to people's mental & physical well-being.

A simple experiment at a school in the north of England has shown improved behaviour of its pupils by encouraging them to drink water instead of carbonated drinks full of sugar. They installed water fountains dispensing free chilled drinking water in the canteens and staffroom of the 700 pupil school. Below is an extract from the findings:

"Remarkable Results from drinking Water Trial"

In less than 2 weeks from installation the atmosphere changed Pupils were calmer in the corridors, and there was less "up the wall behaviour" at the end of the day.

Concentration and the ability to learn improved.

Drinking water regularly keeps the brain active.

Drinking water re-hydrates the brain rather than dehydrating it like carbonated soft drinks & caffeine (tea/coffee)

There was resistance at first, but now they happily drink water everyday and derive huge benefits.

Dehydration.

This word often conjours up an image of someone crawling in the desert, hovering vultures, with a shimmering mirage of an oasis on the distant horizon; but in reality, most of us are "dehydrated" to some degree. What are the symptoms of dehydration? You don't have to live in desert conditions to feel the effects of dehydration. Medical opinion differs on what percentage of water loss constitutes dehydration but research has shown that the body loses water from different parts at different rates e.g. the body cells (the basic building block of the body and its powerhouse, the Mytochondrion) lose around 66% water, 26% from extracellular fluid and only 8% from blood tissue (see 1) below). As the internal cell structure loses the most water, this consequently has the most drastic effect on our health, the signs of dehydration can cause reduced imunity to disease, lethargy, constipation, muscle weakness/cramps, dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, increased blood pressure as the body's drought management programs try to force more water into the cells. Other symptoms are increased likelyhood of kidney & urinary tract infections. The brain too, being 85% water, cannot tolerate even a 5% level of dehydration without impaired function. It is better to let the body get rid of a slight excess of water than to suffer the effects of a shortfall and have it ration and allocate water to vital organs of the body to the detriment of non-vital functions.

Childrens' Health.

Children are more suceptible to dehydration, having a lower body mass than adults and as they generally tend to exercise more in the school playgrounds etc. than adults, consequently, they lose more water. Enlightened teachers are increasingly concerned about the proliferation of soft drink vending machines in schools and are starting to have them replaced by water dispensers. Dr. Trevor Brocklebank of Leeds University medical school states that children who drank little or no water at school are likely to have kidney or urinary tract infections. He said, "I found that 50% of school children drank no water at school. It's desperately important that they start drinking more water."

Schools that are aware of this problem now tend to encourage pupils to take a bottle of water into classes and to drink as often as they like. The BBC has information concerning the positive effects of encouraging children to drink more water, around 1.75 lt per day for a 10 year old. One study reported by the Mail (May 10th 2005) sites a week-long study involving 45 children, aged 11-14, who were split into two groups. Half drank only filtered water, while the other half drank their usual soft or caffeinated drinks. After a week, the water drinkers reported better than normal concentration levels, from 9% before the experiment to 82% at the end, a ninefold increase. They also reported feeling more energetic, alert and exhibited calmer behaviour. Of the other half, who drank their usual fizzy drinks or nothing, half said they felt less alert than at the start of the study and only 5% said they felt alert at the end of the day. How much teaching time is wasted in our schools due to unresponsive or unattentive pupils?

General Health.

Not so long ago it was thought, and taught at medical schools, that water was merely a carrier of nutrients, and had no metabolic role in bodily functions. This has now been proved not to be the case. For those interested in further research I can recommend the excellent work done by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj (Batmanghelidj F. M.D. Your Body's Many Cries for Water; Global Health Solutions, Inc) See 1) at the bottom of the page. Bad breath is a classic sign that you need to boost your water intake. Saliva helps cleanse the teeth of bacteria and keeps the tongue hydrated. Lack of water dries the mouth, leads to furry tongue and prevents bacteria from being washed away, all of which can cause halitosis. When you have had a little too much alcohol the night before, you will have noticed a furry tongue the next day - a classic sign of dehydration. Alas, Hair-of-the-Dog will only delay the final reckoning! Alcohol depletes or prevents efficient absorbtion of just about every vitamin & mineral so, if you must drink, it is highly recommended that you take a good quality organic vitamin & mineral supplement afterwards along with plenty of filtered water.

Be a Filter - or Buy a Filter!

Our tap water is safe to drink....well, up to a point. The Daily Telegraph reported in Aug. 2004 that the Environment Agency had found Prozac in drinking water. At least it would have a soothing effect on us while we read our water bills!

Who likes the taste of chlorine with their tea or coffee? Have you also ever noticed a TCP taste with your cup of tea/coffee? This is probably due to the close proximity of a washing machine connected close to the kitchen sink and Chloro-phenols from the rubber hose being "sucked" back while the cold water tap is filling your kettle! In East Anglia, where I live, my cat would not drink tap water until I fitted an activated compressed carbon block filter unit, with UV light, to the cold tap. Animals seem to be more discerning than us humans! Chlorine depletes a very important anti-oxidant vitamin E from the body, increasing the risk of cell damage by free radicals. Chlorine also reacts with organic matter in water to produce Trihalomethanes, such a chloroform, which is a cancer causing chemical (see 5) below). The Environment Agency provide a water quality testing service that can check for organic/non-organic contaminents, minerals & metals and anything else that might find its way into our water; maybe the fact that they have these testing procedures shows just what can be found in our tap water!

The Canadian Government has some interesting findings about the toxic effects of chlorine - see ref 6)

Fluoride

Then there is the long running controversy concerning the benefits, or otherwise, of adding fluoride to our water. Some researchers say it does more harm than good. Further information concerning reports by Bassin, and Cohn and their findings of increased bone cancer in young boys (see references 2 & 3 below) can be found at the link below.

CONCLUSIONS

Most of the evidence on the body's requirements for water and how damaging just slight dehydration can be are pretty conclusive. If you are still not convinced that you need to drink about 2 lts of filtered water daily, then please examine all the evidence available on the Web; I have yet to see anyone extoling the virtues of drinking LESS water! You can replace a depleted filter but you can't replace yourself!

1) Batmanghelidj F. M.D. Pain: A Need For Paradigm Change; Anticancer Research, Vol. 7, No. 5 B, PP. 971-990, Sept.- Oct. 1987; full article posted on www.watercure.com

2). Bassin EB. (2001). Association Between Fluoride in Drinking Water During Growth and Development and the Incidence of Ostosarcoma for Children and Adolescents. Doctoral Thesis, Harvard School of Dental Medicine

3). Cohn PD. (1992). A Brief Report On The Association Of Drinking Water Fluoridation And The Incidence of Osteosarcoma Among Young Males. New Jersey Department of Health Environ. Health Service: 1- 17.

5) Drinking Water and Health, Vol. 2. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. 1980.

Mike Jozefiak has only one body and aims to keep it purring along as long as possible!

4) http://www.health-report.co.uk/fluoriide_bone_cancer.htm

6) http://www.health-report.co.uk /fluoriide_bone_cancer.htm
http://www.health-report.co.uk/fluoriide_bone_cancer.htm

tidy up service Winnetka ..
In The News:

New Instagram parental controls allow families to manage teen screen time and content limits through the Family Center with stricter safety settings.
Third-party security breach at Discord exposes sensitive user information including government IDs, highlighting cybersecurity risks from external service providers.
Survey of 1,000 students shows teens using AI for personal relationships while two-thirds of parents remain unaware of their children's AI usage.
Cybersecurity experts warn about a ShadowLeak vulnerability that weaponized ChatGPT's Deep Research agent to steal personal data from Gmail accounts through hidden commands.
Tesla's Full Self-Driving system faces federal investigation following 58 reports of crashes, with six vehicles running red lights before colliding with other cars.
The Fox News AI Newsletter brings you the latest developments on artificial intelligence, with news on OpenAI moving to soon allow erotica for adult users.
Eric Schmidt alerts that hackers can reverse-engineer AI models to bypass safety measures, citing examples like the jailbroken ChatGPT variant called DAN.
Cybercriminals exploit Microsoft Teams through impersonation, malicious links and fake profiles to gather intel and deliver ransomware to personal and work devices.
Google, Dior, Allianz and dozens of other companies lost sensitive customer data in Salesforce-related breaches affecting millions of records across multiple sectors.
Apple launches iOS 26 with new Preview app that combines document editing, PDF annotation and scanning features into one streamlined iPhone experience.
New AI road monitoring system uses sensor-embedded fabric to predict infrastructure problems, potentially reducing maintenance costs and traffic disruptions for cities.
Holiday charity scams target retirees through lookalike organization names, untraceable payment requests, and data broker information to steal donations.
The Federal Trade Commission says criminals are posing as IRS agents, law enforcement officers or other officials, often over the phone or online, to steal thousands of dollars at a time.
AI phishing scams now use voice cloning and deepfake technology to trick victims, but Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson reveals warning signs to watch for.
Inversion Space unveils Arc, a reusable reentry vehicle that can deliver up to 500 pounds of cargo from orbit to anywhere on Earth in under an hour.
Red flags like processing fees, urgent countdowns and requests for full Social Security numbers expose fraudulent settlement sites targeting consumers.
Comprehensive analysis of Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps examines usability, routing accuracy, data handling and features across the top navigation platforms.
Expert analysis reveals whether wired Ethernet or wireless Wi-Fi connections are safer for home internet use, plus practical steps to secure your network from attackers.
Australian construction robot Charlotte uses sand, crushed brick and recycled glass to 3D print fireproof, floodproof homes with reduced carbon footprint.
Cybercriminals are using fake invitation emails to trick recipients into downloading malware and stealing personal information and data.
Flying drones could help retailers fight a 93% increase in theft rates as Flock Safety promotes airborne security systems to track suspects and deter crime.
The Fox News Artificial Intelligence Newsletter brings you the latest news on the emerging technology every Saturday, highlighting top stories.
Hacker group Radiant stole data from 8,000 children at Kido nursery chain, demanding ransom and directly contacting parents with intimidation tactics.
As 18 states implement bell-to-bell cell phone bans, creative students use Google Docs, iMessage on MacBooks and Post-It notes to stay connected in class.
A sheriff's captain says deputies often spend hours writing reports between calls, but Axon's AI program, Draft One, helps them save crucial time in the field.

The Five Keys to Healthy Eating

1. Enjoy what you eatWhether someone is following the Atkins... Read More

Its Not That Bad - The Biggest Lie We Tell Ourselves

Some people say to themselves, junk food is not that... Read More

Fish Oil

The research in support of dietary omega-3 fatty acids (such... Read More

Focus On Fiber: How Much Is Enough?

Looking for an easy and natural way increase your vitality... Read More

An Apple a Day, Does Keep the Doctor Away

Increasing the fiber in your diet has been shown to:... Read More

Autism and Nutritional Supplements

Unfortunately, it has been proved beyond doubt that a large... Read More

Healthy Food Tastes Better!

How is it that we can't seem to think that... Read More

Good Meal Sizes and Frequency

Meal sizes and frequency are very important. Over the years... Read More

What is Organic Farming?

Organic farming is the production of food using all natural... Read More

Cherries - A Natural Joint Pain Killer

Fruit Advantage Tart Cherry capsules are a nutritious, all-natural alternative... Read More

Homeostasis and Complementary Therapies

The word 'homeostasis' is made up of two Greek words:... Read More

How to Grow Sprouts

Sprouts not only taste good, but they are also a... Read More

Green Tea and Your Health

Green tea has been used as for medical remedies in... Read More

Green Tea, or not to Green Tea?

Wow! Is it just me or? Wait! Let me start... Read More

Turn to Diet for Everyday Ailments

The old clich? that you are what you eat is... Read More

Physical Health is Attainable Through Proper Nutrition and Exercise

Obesity is epidemic in this country for both children and... Read More

Improve Your Eating Habits.

1. Water. If you're thirsty you're already dehydrated. The majority... Read More

What?s Causing Your Energy Drain?

This is such a busy time of year, isn't it?... Read More

Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease

Cholesterol is an essential building block of every cell in... Read More

Food Additives Affect Behavior

On average 30% of foods in our daily diet are... Read More

Fish Oil Data-some new facts about Fish Oil

According to the renowned research scientist and inventor of the... Read More

Five Reasons You Should Drink More Water

I know you've heard this many times - "Drink more... Read More

3 Important Differences Between White Bread and Whole Wheat

For any kid who grew up eating doughy, thick Wonder... Read More

Where Does Your Drinking Water Come From?

Have you ever thought about where your drinking water comes... Read More

Seasonings: Add More Than Just Flavor

Besides providing taste, color, and aroma, certain seasonings can also... Read More

kitchen deep cleaning Lake Forest ..