[“Stay hydrated” has become a new version of the old
salutation, “Stay well.” Here’s how to know when you truly need
to hydrate. ] [[link removed]]

HOW MUCH WATER DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED?  
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Christie Aschwanden
September 17, 2021
New York Times
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_ “Stay hydrated” has become a new version of the old salutation,
“Stay well.” Here’s how to know when you truly need to hydrate.
_

Bottled Water Collection by TheCX, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

If you’ve spent any time on social media or visited an athletic
event lately, you’ve surely been bombarded with encouragements to
drink more water. Celebrity influencers
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around gallon-sized water bottles as _the_ hot new
accessory. Twitter bots
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time to hydrate. Some reusable water bottles
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come emblazoned with motivational phrases — “Remember your
goal,” “Keep drinking,” “Almost finished” — to encourage
more drinking throughout the day.

The purported benefits of excess water consumption are seemingly
endless, from improved memory and mental health
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increased energy to better complexion
[[link removed]]. “Stay
hydrated” has become a new version of the old salutation, “Stay
well.”

this is to remind you all to drink water!! some of you may forget but
it’s important to stay hydrated, so that’s why i’m here :]

— water reminder !! (@MCYTWATERBOT) January 8, 2021
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But what, exactly, does “stay hydrated” mean? “When lay people
discuss dehydration, they mean loss of any fluids,” said Dr. Joel
Topf, a nephrologist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at
Oakland University in Michigan.

But that interpretation “has been completely blown out of
proportion,” said Kelly Anne Hyndman, a kidney function researcher
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Staying hydrated is
definitely important, she said, but the idea that the simple act of
drinking more water will make people healthier isn’t true. Nor is it
correct that most people are walking around chronically dehydrated or
that we should be drinking water all day long.

From a medical standpoint, Dr. Topf added, the most important measure
of hydration is the balance between electrolytes like sodium and water
in the body. And you don’t need to chug glass after glass of water
throughout the day to maintain it.

How much water do I really need to drink?

We’ve all been taught that eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day is
the magic number for everyone, but that notion is a myth
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said Tamara Hew-Butler, an exercise and sports scientist at Wayne
State University.

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Unique factors like body size, outdoor temperature and how hard
you’re breathing and sweating will determine how much you need, she
said. A 200-pound person who just hiked 10 miles in the heat will
obviously need to drink more water than a 120-pound office manager who
spent the day in a temperature-controlled building.

The amount of water you need in a day will also depend on your health.
Someone with a medical condition like heart failure or kidney stones
may require a different amount than someone taking diuretic drugs, for
example. Or you may need to alter your intake if you’ve been ill,
with vomiting or diarrhea.

For most young, healthy people, the best way to stay hydrated is
simply to drink when you’re thirsty, Dr. Topf said. (Those who are
older, in their 70s and 80s, may need to pay more attention to getting
sufficient fluids because the thirst sensation can decrease with age.)

And despite popular belief, don’t rely on urine color to accurately
indicate your hydration status, Dr. Hew-Butler said. Yes, it’s
possible that dark yellow or amber urine could mean that you’re
dehydrated, but there’s no solid science to suggest that the color,
alone, should prompt a drink.

Do I have to drink water to stay hydrated?

Not necessarily. From a purely nutritional standpoint, water is a
better choice than less healthy options like sugary sodas or fruit
juices. But when it comes to hydration, any beverage can add water to
your system, Dr. Hew-Butler said.

One popular notion is that drinking beverages with caffeine or alcohol
will dehydrate you, but if that’s true, the effect is negligible,
Dr. Topf said. A 2016 randomized controlled trial
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for instance, concluded that the hydrating effects of water, lager,
coffee and tea were nearly identical.

You can also get water from what you eat. Fluid-rich foods and meals
like fruits, vegetables, soups and sauces all contribute to water
intake. Additionally, the chemical process of metabolizing food
produces water as a byproduct, which adds to your intake too, Dr. Topf
said.

Is ... Celery Juice
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Charcoal
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Oil
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Fasting
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Keto Diet
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[[link removed]] Coffee
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Milk
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Deodorant
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Water
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Will these trends change your life — or take your money?

Do I need to worry about electrolytes?

Some sports drink ads might have you think you need to constantly be
replenishing electrolytes to keep their levels in check, but there’s
no scientific reason for most healthy people to drink beverages with
electrolytes added, Dr. Hew-Butler said.

Electrolytes like sodium, potassium, chloride and magnesium are
electrically charged minerals that are present in the body’s fluids
(like the blood and urine) and are important for balancing the water
in your body. They’re also essential for proper functioning of the
nerves, muscles, brain and heart.

When you become dehydrated, the concentration of electrolytes in your
blood rises, and the body signals the release of the hormone
vasopressin, which ultimately reduces the amount of water that’s
released into the urine so that you can reabsorb it back into your
body and get that balance back in check, Dr. Hyndman said.

Unless you’re in an unusual circumstance — doing very intense
exercise in the heat or losing lots of fluids from vomiting or
diarrhea — you don’t need to replenish electrolytes with sports
drinks or other products loaded with them. Most people get enough
electrolytes from food, Dr. Hew-Butler said.

But drinking more water, even when I’m not thirsty, will improve my
health, right?

No. Of course, people with certain conditions, like kidney stones or
the more rare autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, may
benefit from making an effort to drink a little more water than their
thirst would tell them to, Dr. Topf said.

But in reality, most healthy people who blame feeling ill on being
dehydrated may actually be feeling off because they’re
drinking _too much_ water, Dr. Hyndman speculated. “Maybe
they’ll get a headache or they’ll feel bad, they’re thinking,
‘Oh, I’m dehydrated I need to drink more,’ and they keep
drinking more and more and more water, and they keep feeling worse and
worse and worse.”

If you drink at a rate beyond what your kidneys can excrete, the
electrolytes in your blood can become too diluted and, in the mildest
case, it could make you feel “off.” In the most extreme case,
drinking an excessive amount of water in a short period of time could
lead to a condition called hyponatremia, or “water intoxication.”
“This is very scary and bad,” Dr. Hyndman said. If the sodium
levels in your blood get too low, it can cause brain swelling and
neurological issues like seizures, coma or even death.

In 2007, a 28-year old woman died of hyponatremia after reportedly
drinking nearly two gallons of water over three hours
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taking part in a radio station’s “Hold Your Wee for a Wii”
contest, which challenged participants to drink water and then go as
long as possible without urinating. In 2014, a 17-year-old high school
football player in Georgia died from the condition
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reportedly drinking two gallons of water and two gallons of Gatorade.

The condition has become common enough among exercisers that when
someone collapses during a race, responders are trained to consider
hyponatremia, Dr. Topf said. Though developing severe hyponatremia is
rare for most healthy people.

How do I know if I’m hydrated enough?

Your body will tell you. The notion that staying hydrated requires
complex calculations and instantaneous adjusting to avoid dire health
consequences is just bunk, the experts said. And one of the best
things you can do is to stop overthinking it.

Instead, the best advice for staying hydrated, Dr. Topf said, is also
the simplest: Drink when you’re thirsty. It really is that easy.

_Christie Aschwanden is a writer based in western Colorado and the
author of “Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from
the Strange Science of Recovery.”_

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