Water, the Coolest Kid on the Block
Water is a revitalizing force in the body, it increases the quality of all the body's operations. When I was in the military, if you saw a soldier who wasn’t feeling too well, the person in charge of him would say to the person, “It’s okay Soldier, take a knee, drink water.” I used to make fun of this scenario, thinking that the soldier's problem wasn’t even related to hydration. I remember making jokes with my fellow soldiers, “oh no, you broke your arm! Take a knee and drink water!” Little did I know that the military was on the right track when they were encouraging us to drink water. In this case, “military intelligence” was not a contradictory phrase.
I recently read a book titled, “Quench”, by Dana Cohen M.D. and Gina Bria. This book talks about the importance of water contributing to the revitalization of all the body processes. The pathway that water gets absorbed into the blood is as follows: When we swallow, the water is pushed into our stomach where a small amount of water is absorbed. After which, the bulk of the water being consumed, travels to the small intestine where the majority of the remaining water is absorbed into the blood. The last stop that water has before exiting our body is in the large intestine. It is here that the large intestine compresses our food waste to extract the water that was contained in our food.
According to an article written by the NIH the content of blood is 55% plasma and 45% cells. Over 90% of blood plasma is water. So our blood cells are constantly being bathed in water, and the water that the blood lives in is full of vital nutrients, electrolytes, vitamins, sugar, and amino acids. All of these components are vital to a cell's lifespan. As we drink water and water is absorbed into the blood, we are increasing our blood volume, making the blood and all of the nutrients easier to flow to all the parts of the body. So truly, if you have a headache, drink water!
One of the key components of water reaching the periphery of the body tissue is through movement, in conjunction with your cardiovascular system (ie. Heart). All of which happen to function better with adequate hydration and water. So right away, there are certain components in the body processes that create a positive feed-back loop.
A positive feedback loop is where one input into the system affects many other outputs that also link back to itself, to support its additional baseline functions. For example, when water enters your body and goes to your digestive tract, your digestion becomes more efficient. Also, the water that feeds into the other systems of the body (ie. Cardiovascular, nervous, lymphatic, and immune) eventually links back to the digestive tract through the different pathways. There are lots of redundancies in the body to keep it functioning properly. It is a unique web, all affecting each other and dependent on each other, both beneficial and reliant. If one were to break down, the system as a whole would be negatively impacted and only sustain its function for so long, until other systems begin to break down. This is the negative feedback loop. All parts of the body must function and do its part to be a well operating machine.
In the military, in order to test how your body will react in real world scenarios, you are sometimes given little food before an intensive training. This was to see if your body could withstand the challenging situations you may face in enemy territory. During one such training, when I was trying out for the Ranger Regiment, we did a rucksack march in the heat of the Georgia sun, during the peak of summer. We had been given little food and I knew I would sweat out most of my water so I was constantly drinking water. On these marches, and in training, the military also does forced hydration, where they make you stop and drink a lot of water. I had already been drinking a ton of water on this particular day and unfortunately, in conjunction with the limited food in my body, and the close to nonexistent nutrients in the water, my body was lacking the electrolytes, vitamins, sugar and amino acids that it needs to sustain proper function. You see, I had too much water in my body, and essential nutrients were no longer being pumped to my vital organs and tissue. As a result, my body began to shut down. I felt my limbs begin to go numb and was stumbling around. I was told to drink more water. But my face began to go numb and my eye site was fading in and out as I stumbled to the ground. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital bed. I had passed out mid morning, and when I woke up it was the evening of the next day. I had almost died due to water poisoning!
This experience was a negative feedback loop, where my body was no longer receiving the proper nutrients through the blood, and thus began to shut down. It can happen quite quickly. This negative feedback loop also happens when we don’t receive enough water. You can only live three days without water before your body will shut down and die. Why is this? Because your blood viscosity (thickness) becomes too thick and sluggish, and is unable to reach your vital organs.
Both of these scenarios are the extreme, but what are the signs and symptoms of dehydration? The number one indicator for dehydration is the clarity of your urine. If your urine is clear, you are more likely to be well hydrated. As your urine continues to get darker in shade from yellow to brown, this is indicative of your body’s hydration levels. Typically, another sign of dehydration is thirst, unless you are struggling with diabetes (which is associated with increased thirst).
What happens when we are properly hydrated? Proper hydration can positively influence muscular performance, and is said to increase strength, power, and endurance by as much as 10% (Journal of Sports Medicine, 2007). In the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, they assert that consuming about 250 mL of water 20-60 minutes before an academic engagement proved to be beneficial for children.
As a result of my brush with death, I have increased my electrolyte consumption by drinking more coconut water. When I am on the go I like to add electrolytes to my water. The ideal is always the most natural in my opinion. Improper hydration can be life-threatening, but proper hydration leads to optimal performance overall.
Works Cited
InformedHealth.org [Internet]. Cologne, Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. What does blood do? [Updated 2019 Aug 29]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279392/
Judelson, D.A., Maresh, C.M., Anderson, J.M. et al. Hydration and Muscular Performance. Sports Med 37, 907–921 (2007). https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200737100-00006
Almalki, J.A., Knight, S.N., Poulos, S.P. et al. Hydration and Cognitive Task Performance in Children: A Systematic Review. J Cogn Enhanc (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-022-00249-4