Health Benefits of Drinking Water
...A Panaramic View

Health Benefits of Drinking Water

The body is this complex organism with multiple systems working together to make it run effectively. There's the digestive system, the circulatory system, and many more. What we find is that an adequate supply of water is necessary to make each system run properly. When the supply of water is insufficient or when it's quality is substandard, this can slow down and even break down the functioning of our bodies.

Let me be more specific. You may know something about how a car works. If you're anything like me, you don't know too much here! There is a fuel system which moves the gas from the tank up to the fuel injector where the spark plugs explode it and make the pistons and engine run. Then there is an exhaust system which removes the wastes, in this case exhaust. But a car also has an electrical system, a cooling system, a brake system, etc.

Let's take a look at our bodies as this complex of systems which work together. We'll look at each system and note the role of water to each system. We'll also observe what happens when there isn't adequate water. Systems slow down and even break down.

Water and the Digestive System

Begin with the digestive system. This is the fuel system which energizes the body. An adequate supply of water is needed to digest and absorb the vitamins and nutrients in our food. Water helps with weight control. When I'm feeling hungry but don't need the extra calories, a good glass of water can help suppress my appetite. I personally have some fat I'd like to take off! My body burns fat best when there is enough water. If I don't drink enough water, I can experience constipation. These are just a few of the health benefits of drinking water to the digestive system.

Common sense and a general understanding of anatomy tells us these kinds of things about water and the body. However, we tend to take them for granted. By going through these body systems briefly, you'll begin to sense the huge importance of drinking water to our everyday health.

Water and the Circulatory System

Once food has been digested, the circulatory system takes over. The circulatory system is the body's delivery system. It delivers nutrition, vitamins, oxygen, hormones and even antibodies to every part of the body. At the center of the circulatory system is the heart. A study revealed that people who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were less likely to die from a heart attack or heart disease than those who drank fewer than 2 glasses a day. This is because with dehydration, the blood thickens and is harder for the heart to move around.

Water and the Waste Removal System

A third system is the waste removal system. Here we can see further health benefits of drinking water. The blood not only takes nutrition to the many cells of the body, but carries off waste which is removed to the lungs or removed by the kidneys, liver, bladder and urinary tract. The intestines remove the food that remains. An adequate supply of water is needed to flush the body of toxins. But when we don't drink enough water...?

Water and the Defense System

The defense system of the body fights disease and health breakdown. Again this illustrates further health benefits of drinking water. Kidneys that don't get enough water may grow kidney stones and with it lots of pain! Adequate drinking water reduces the risk of colds, constipation, urinary tract infections and even bladder cancer. Drinking water is a kind of strong weapon against infections and a healing tool for other illnesses.

Water and the Cooling System

The cooling system of the body runs on an adequate supply of water as well. I am writing this on a hot summer day in June. My perspiration is cooling my body down and helping to regulate my body heat.

Water and the Lubrication System

Water lubricates our eyes, our mouths and our noses. Things we take for granted. I had an aunt who needed to put tear drops into her eyes every couple of hours, a real pain! These are but a few elements of the sixth system, the lubrication system of the body. Water helps cushion the body organs and provide lubrication in the joints. These are further examples of health benefits of drinking water.

Two Remaining Questions

You can see how the health benefits of drinking water begin to pile up one on another, don't they? This introduces two other subjects which we discuss in more detail elsewhere: l) How much water do we really need to drink for maximum health? You'll see that the pat answers usually given don't always make sense. 2) We talk about clean water or quality water as the kind of water we need to be drinking. So what are the things that contaminate our water? How do they affect us, and how do we get rid of them?

We discuss other aspects of the health benefits of drinking water elsewhere on this site.