It’s time to banish the myth of drinking "eight glasses of water a day"but we have a problem doing it

That we must stay well hydrated has become a mantra contemporary. No wonder: water is vital for the proper functioning of the human body. Not only can not drinking water kill us in a couple of days (in contrast, we can go weeks without food), dehydration can cause other symptoms without having to reach that extreme.

We have diverse studies on the short-term effects of dehydration. Problems associated with insufficient water consumption include fatigue, headaches, difficulty concentrating, and loss of reflexes, among others. It should be noted, however, that most of these studies were conducted with small samples of between eight and 25 participants.

In the long term, proper hydration can prevent us from problems such as constipation, urinary tract infectionseither kidney stones.

To stay properly hydrated, it is necessary to drink plenty of water, as our body “loses water” in different ways. Urine and sweat are the most intuitive, but we also expel moisture from our body through our breath or stool.

We have heard many times that we must drink two liters or eight glasses of water a day to maintain adequate hydration. This is not a bad approximationbut there are many who consider that this should not be the guide to follow.

According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the United States, the amount of water we should consume is 3.7 liters for men and 2.7 liters for women. But before we start refilling the water bottle, there is a big asterisk that we should keep in mind. Several, actually.

The first is that not all the water we consume is served in glasses. It is estimated that 20% of the water We consume water in our food. From fruit to paella rice, vegetables of all kinds, meats and bread. All these foods provide us with water, often more than we think. The 20% figure also includes other drinks.

The question of drinks has generated some debate in this regard. Drinks such as coffee or tea have a diuretic effect, which means that, while they hydrate us, they also make us lose water at a faster rate. It is worth keeping this in mind, but also that This diuretic effect It is not strong enough for these drinks to dehydrate us more than they hydrate us.

That is to say, a glass of tea will not hydrate us as much as a glass of the same volume of water, but it will hydrate us. Recently, a team of researchers observed that, in addition to water, the drinks with the greatest hydrating capacity were milk (especially skimmed milk) and oral serum for rehydration.

Various factors

But our sex and the other foods we eat are not the only factors that can affect the amount of water we should drink in a day.

The first has to do with our environment. The climate we find ourselves in, the time of year, the Meteorologywhether we are in a building or outdoors, can affect the thermal conditions and humidity of the environment. And this, in turn, can affect the amount of water we lose and therefore the speed at which we must replace it.

We’ve already mentioned diet, but when we were talking about the role of diet we overlooked foods that can actually increase our need for hydration. Spicy foods that can induce our body to sweat are another. Alcohol is another of the most important when we consume it in excess: one of the factors that contribute to the Hangover It is, precisely, dehydration.

Of course, physical activity should also take us to the tap. When exercising We sweat and lose water that we must replace. That is why it is important to hydrate ourselves before, during and after physical exercise.

Our general state of health can also affect the amount of water our body requires. Diarrhea or fever can make us dehydrate more easily, but there may also be other conditions that lead us to require a greater intake of water.

Other circumstances that may cause us to need more water include pregnancy and breastfeeding. This is logical if we take into account that in these cases we need to “hydrate twice as much.”

As with everything, excess also has its risks. In this case: drinking too much water can kill you. Or damage your kidneys. This intoxication from excess water causes what we call hyponatremiaa dangerous lack of sodium.

The kidneys are responsible for managing a large part of the water that leaves our body, especially when we have too much of it. However, these organs have a limited working capacity. If we drink too much waterwhether suddenly or over long periods, our kidneys may not be able to cope.

This causes water to build up in our body, in turn diluting electrolytes such as sodium. Sodium is precisely there to regulate the water that enters the cells. The absence of sodium ends up causing our cells to swell and fail.

So how much should I drink? There is no magic numberThere are so many variables that the best recommendation is to listen to our body and look for signs of dehydration. Thirst It is the most obvious clue that we need to hydrate, but it is not the only one.

The next clue is in your urine. Clear or light yellow urine is a good indicator that your body is properly hydrated. A darker, opaque yellow is an indicator that you need to hydrate.

It is also good advice attend to our circumstancesIf we are sweating, either due to heat or physical activity, we should pay more attention to our hydration. We should also do this if we are pregnant or breastfeeding. Older people should also pay more attention to their hydration, in this case because the thirst alert system tends to lose effectiveness over time.

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