Understanding The Detoxifying Benefits of Water: How to Know if You are Hydrating Enough

Water is essential for our health and vitality. However, its benefits go way beyond merely quenching our thirst. Water has healing properties that can boost our body's ability to detoxify itself, including keeping our body's channels of elimination properly functioning. When we aren't getting enough water, it becomes very difficult for these channels to function properly and can lead to many health issues. Having adequate daily hydration affects our entire body and even our emotional well-being and energy levels. In this blog post, we will explore natural health views on hydration, including our body's natural ability to detoxify and heal itself. We will also touch on an easy way to help you tell if you are getting enough water each day.

Water for Detoxification, Health and Vitality

Water is vital for survival, making up around approximately 66 % of our body weight. All of our cells are surrounded by water and filled with water. All of the chemical reactions that take place in our body require water. Water helps regulate our temperature, aids nutrient absorption, supports the function of our organs of detoxification and elimination and so much more. We're going to focus on the detoxification aspect in this post.

Our body primarily detoxifies itself through our liver and kidneys, but also uses our lymphatic system, skin, lungs and digestive tract to help us get rid of toxins. One of the main things these organs and systems need to function optimally is enough water. Keep in mind that many of us walk around in our daily lives being, what I like to call, "functionally dehydrated". Meaning, we are functioning in the world, but our body isn't getting nearly enough hydration for it to be able to optimally cleanse itself and maintain all of its other functions properly.

For example, when someone only has one bowel movement every other day or once every 3, 4 or even 5 days or they are only urinating 2 or 3 times in a 24 hour period and their urine is dark yellow. These can be signs/symptoms that your body is not getting enough water to do its job of detoxifying itself properly. Minimally, we should be having at least 1-3 good bowel movements a day to properly eliminate waste from the digestive tract. Likewise, other than the first urination of the day, urine should be a lighter color, from pale yellow to almost clear. When we consistently under hydrate, toxins can build up in the body. When our detox organs get overloaded because they aren't getting enough water to properly cleanse themselves, they become unable to help us as much as they normally would. Over time, this build up of toxins in the body can lead to things like inflammation and dis-ease in the body. Remember, most chronic health problems and inflammation in the body are an accumulation of many days, weeks, months and years of the same patterns of not supporting our body appropriately.

Adequate Hydration: How Much Water Do You Need?

A good rule of thumb I often share with clients is to take the number of your current body weight in pounds and divide it by 2. Use this number as a general guide for how many ounces of clean water your body needs each day to properly support hydration and detoxification. (Example: Body weight of 120 pounds, drink at least 60 ounces). When clients sweat a lot like during vigorous exercise or doing outdoor activities on a hot day, water intake should be increased accordingly to meet the body's demand for the excess fluid being lost. Also, if clients drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages or alcohol, water intake should be increased by at least one glass of water for each beverage they drink. Both coffee and alcohol have diuretic effects on the body, meaning they significantly increase fluid loss through urination.

Remember that your body's ability to detoxify itself is key to its ability to be able to heal itself. So, the need and benefits of water stretch far beyond just quenching our thirst. Adequate daily hydration impacts your current and future health and wellness. Anyone else feeling thirsty for a glass of water?!