Importance of water is maybe not realised by most of us. What media are mainly emphasising is the importance of drinking 2 litres of water every day. Yet it seems only a few are explaining the ‘why’.
In addition water is much more than that. It is one of the most essential element of Earth for all living things. Moreover it is one of the main reason why our planet is habitable.
Water relationships with our planet and ultimately us humans are complex. But these processes are actually showing the importance of water.
Water for Good Health
For us all, water means good health. But this is only logical as 60% of our body is water. If there is lack of water in our body, we are not functioning.
In addition every single organ or tissue requires water to function. Without water our body loses many of its abilities. In extreme cases dehydration can even lead to death.
One important benefit for hydration is to optimise brain performance. On the contrary, lacking water can rank from headaches to anxiety and fatigue.
On the other part, drinking more water can help you losing weight. Because of increase in your metabolism, and also feeling ‘full’, doctors are consulting us to drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy.
Water for Good Mental Health
As mentioned above, hydration is important in brain performance. Therefore any lack in water has consequences in our mental health. So dehydration affect us how we feel and think.
Yet hydration level is sensitive for our brain. So even just one percent below optimal, it can affect our mood, making it difficult to concentrate and having a headache.
But water can also have an indirect effect to our mental health. In fact scientists confirm that living near water can improve mental health.
According to W.J. Nichols, a scientist and the author of Blue Mind, ‘Water in all its forms can be the quickest shortcut to mindfulness and a shift into what I call ‘blue mind’ that I know of. Psychologists refer to water’s changing uniformity as putting us in a state of ‘soft fascination,’ which can be highly restorative’.
Clean Water for Best Health
Yet what is the most important is the quality of water we consume. Drinking contaminated water will have the opposite effects for good health.
In fact unclean water can be lethal in countries, such as the most third countries, with poor sanitation and hygiene conditions.
Therefore a lot of organisation have campaigns for clean water. Their purpose is to educate the public about the health issues of consuming unsafe water.
For example, the World Health Organisation has maximum level for many substances we naturally find in water. If we consumer water with higher levels, the water is not clean.
Hence the water should not only look clean but also contains safe level of various substances.
Water in What We Eat
In addition we also take water into our body with an indirect way. By eating food, we are also input water.
However not every food has the same quantity of water. For example vegetables and fruits contain mainby more water than other foods. That is why, during the summer, doctors advise us to consume a lot of this specific food category.
Water Cycle shows the Importance of Water in Earth
Yet we maybe need to learn also the water cycle to understand fully the importance of water. If we are familiar with how the water is flowing around in the planet, we may realise on its impact in our health.
Therefore it is not only important the quality and the quantity of the water we consume, but also if the water is also available to us to do so.
For example, according to the water cycle, the water is stored as ice in the land. These are actually the storage of fresh water we can actually drink.
Therefore, if all the glaciers and snow melts, we will have a huge problem in drinking water. This is actually our main challenge we will face with global warming and climate change.
However, according to A. McIntosh and his book ‘Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition‘, politics alone is not enough to tackle the problem. He argues that our ‘addictive consumer mentality’ is the root of the problem. It is fascinating book filled with scientific facts from the early days (Plato and Shakespeare) to his spiritual and moral respond.
Originally published at www.konstantiaachilleos.com