Most health problems can be relieved by drinking water

Water helps to keep the body's cells healthy. Just as most plants need water on a regular basis, so do we. Stop watering your plant for a few days and see what happens. It begins to wilt. The same thing applies to humans, if we do not drink water we get dry mouth, feel dehydrated and countless other things that I will mention throughout this article. Also, water contains minerals and other trace elements that the body needs in order to function properly.

I was reading a paper and some news online about a week ago and one the subjects that caught my attention was some recent research into the benefits of drinking water and the myths associated with them. According to the scientists' research there are no proven health benefits to drinking water (8 glasses of it, in particular, but not all at once).

Well, I would have to disagree completely with the results of their research, here's why.....


1. I wear contact lenses and sometimes my eyes get dry, particularly if I have worn them for a prolonged period of time. I usually have some Blink eye drops and they can be used with your contact lenses still in your eyes. A lot of the time, I walk around with a refillable bottle of water in my bag and take a few swigs throughout the day. I personally find that when I started carrying water around with me, I experience less of the dry, grainy feeling and my contact lenses do not feel like paper when I take them out of my eyes at the end of the day. (I still take my Blink drops around with me, but I use them as and when needed).

A lot of the time, I drink tea, sometimes I drink caffeinated tea, sometimes decaffeinated and I find that when I drink a lots of caffeine containing drinks such as tea, cola, red bull etc I feel more dehydrated and my eyes tend to get dry (apart from the fact that they keep me up all night with insomnia). However, when I drink water my eyes do not feel dry and neither do my contact lenses dry up. Just my personal experience from wearing contact lenses for over 10 years now.

2. I find that if I do not drink lots of water, my stools can become dry and crumbly, or I generally feel constipated and find it harder to 'go'. Water as well as fibre rich foods help to improve bowel action, in my own opinion and personal experience.

3. In the winter, my skin can get really dry and sometimes itchy. Putting barrier creams on my skin and drinking lots of water helps my skin to stay soft and supple. It is a combination of things really. Hydrating the body and then protecting the skin by keeping the moisture in.

4. In winter, my nose usually gets dry as a result of the central heating. At this time, I keep a bottle of water next to the bed and drink some if my throat feels dry or if inside my nose feels all dry.

5. My hair can get dry from time to time and can feel brittle if I'm not drinking enough water. Again, for this reason, I drink lots of water and also use steam to add moisture to my hair with a hair steamer.

6. I have a young relative who has eczema and we moisturise her skin often with emollient type creams, aloe propolis cream (when she was younger) as well as give her lots of water to drink. She has grown up drinking water or "juice" in the form of fruit drinks or mixer drinks and these have really helped her skin to stay fresh looking as opposed to other people I have seen with drier looking skin. I always advise them to drink more water as I see the benefits in doing so.

7. Sometimes, especially if I have not eaten or had anything to drink for the whole day because of being rushed off my feet etc. I get headaches. This does not happen often, but many years ago, I read that drinking water can help if you are having a headache, and a lot of the time when I am having one of those bad episode headaches that just will not go away, I drink lots of water and I mean something like 1 litre (generally a big bottle) gradually and the headache just disappears. Could it be magic, or does water really work? Well, I have spoken to people and they seem to think that water or eating some food does the trick for a headache, a lot of the time without having to resort to taking any drugs such as painkillers.

8. Although my nails grow quite long, I used to get peeling nails or sometimes the white edges would look cracked and you could actually see the lines within the nail on closer inspection. I started drinking lots of water (about a litre, that is a lot to me) and this gradually helps with the dryness, although applying a hand cream often also helps to keep the nails hydrated.

So, to conclude, I think research is excellent, but I do not think the scientists always get it right, the problem with a lot of the things we read nowadays is that you can often guarantee that for some pieces of research there is a contradiction somewhere. For years scientists have said that water is good for you, then all of a sudden 8 glasses is not so good. Maybe we can agree that excesses of anything can be bad, but drinking water generally can be a good exercise with clear benefits to doing so. I certainly do not take everything I read at face value until I have done my own analysis of the situation, and neither should you. Each to his/her own, I suppose.


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