Friday Reading Report: Water

Pretty much all nutrition advice includes the concept that we should drink more water, since most of us don’t get enough.  Want to know why we need so much?  Here are five things that water does in the body:

1.     Helps us resist environmental extremes.  Water has a high heat capacity, which means that it takes a lot of energy to increase its temperature.  Since we are 45 to 70 percent water (depending on how lean we are, our hydration status, etc.), we get water’s help with homeostasis.

2.     Helps us cool down when we do get hot.  Yep.  This is where the sweat comes in.  We can’t sweat if we’re out of water.  Then the sweat can’t evaporate and keep us from melting.

3.     Helps with pretty much all the chemistry.  Almost all of our metabolic reactions involve water.  It dissolves some things, reacts with others, and is the product of yet more reactions.

4.     Helps maintain our pH balance.  If our internal balance gets too acidic or alkaline, we die.  Water, being neutral, helps keep us neutral, too.  It also helps out with various reactions that produce acids or alkalis as needed to restore the balance when it tips too far one way or the other.

5.     Helps make up (all right, IS) all the bodily fluids.  We’re not getting far without blood, synovial fluid, spit, tears, and the like.  All those fluids have other ingredients, but water comes first.

So go drink some.