People say this so often, that few people pay attention. PAY ATTENTION! Many say that water is the single biggest deficiency in the United States. Soft drinks, coffee, and juices are NOT water.
Drink eight 8 ounce glasses of water a day, or 64 total ounces. That is 2 quarts of water per day. It is best to not drink within 30 minutes of meals, during meals, or right before bed.
Keep water with you and drink it all day long. Put a water container on your desk at work or a place that you pass often at home, and take swigs all day long.
Water is the most important nutrient, but WATER ALONE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH. Chemically speaking, the makeup of our blood is very similar to sea water. As anyone knows who has swum in the ocean, sea water is very salty. As we increase our water intake, we must make sure that we have adequate amounts of natural salts and other trace minerals available. Sea salt contains the other minerals that we need for keeping our blood chemically balanced, similar to the ocean.
All of these must be replenished daily along with water so that our blood, like the ocean, contains everything necessary for natural body chemistry balance. That is why so many people use sea salt (rather than just regular table salt.)
Dehydration in older people is a huge problem, even more important than in younger populations. Many patients in hospitals and nursing homes become dehydrated, and when the brain does not have enough water, dementia symptoms and other psychological changes may occur. In fact, many cases of dementia and rapid onset psychotic symptoms following surgery in geriatric patients are actually due to dehydration.
Dehydration in older people, especially common in nursing homes, can lead to hidden urinary tract infections that further add to dementia symptoms. Since these urinary tract infections are often painless, they are often misdiagnosed. The only signs of these UTIs might be a slight increase in urinary frequency or possibly a white blood cell or two in the urine (often considered to be normal.)
We all perspire daily, whether or not we realize it. And this “insensible perspiration” is a loss of water that also must be replaced. Simply measuring urinary output does not reflect the body’s total need for water. Make sure that you and everyone you care for is getting an adequate supply of water daily.
