Hydration / dehydration: impact on health and productivity
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Print/PDFWe hear it all the time: drink 8 - 8oz glasses (we'll call it 8x8 from now on) of water each and every day. It's sort of a "Golden Rule" of good health.
But why? And is it the truth?
Well... let me be perfectly honest with you. I don't think it's "the truth," per se. All the medical experts agree that 8x8 is either a good idea or at least not a bad idea, but there is lots of discussion in the literature about how much water is enough water (ane even that "water" should not be exclusive: coffee counts in many studies!! YAY!). Some think it isn't enough. Most, however, resist the hard-and-fast rule of 8x8: there are too many variables (male/female, weight, percentage of that weight which is fat, other liquid intake, level of activity, the weather) that play into the formula to be able to simply state 8x8 as "the absolute truth."
There you go. The water guy shot himself in the foot! But now that we can at least sort of agree that the simplistic 8x8 formula isn't precisely the way to go... what is? Well... it starts to get pretty complicated pretty fast if you want to be accurate about it (which, I think, is why most doctors will agree with the idea of 8x8... simple is good) But proper hydration is central to good health and optimal performance, so it is probably worth doing some homework on, right? Let's do that!
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