Water Intake: Facts you must know

Dr. Shriram Savrikar M.D. (Ayu), Ph.D. 

Disclaimer: This article is aimed at people who purposefully use specific practices related to drinking of water to derive health benefits. The article nowhere addresses issues related to supply, storage and purification of water in general. 

Water major component of human body:

   One of the synonym of water is ‘Jeevana’ meaning life in Sanskrita, being an essential requirement of every living organism. The human body is composed of about  50 % to 70% of water in accordance with the age. Children about 75% and old people have 55% of water inside their bodies. The water is lost from the body regularly in the form of urine, stool, perspiration, and breathing. The fluid balance inside the body needs to be maintained with appropriate water intake. Apart from plain water, water requirements of the body arefulfilled by food, beverages like tea, butter milk, fruits, fruit juices and vegetables. The body needs to be kept appropriately hydrated. Too less or too much water is detrimental to health.

How much water should we drink daily? How much water we should take daily? This question is often asked. People have their own assumptions about their water needs, about how much and when they should drink water. Social media is very active on issuing advices on this issue. Funny explanations are also given in support. Some complementary systems of medicine ask people to drink as much water as possible during the day. In one of the sessions of a conference, I was chairing, listening different views of experts, people attending the session got confused. As a chairman of the session, to honour the speakers, I had to issue a clarification to follow the advice of the doctor, whom they visit.

There is no fixed quantity of water, which can be advised as appropriate. Water requirements vary from person to person and season to season. They are less in cold and more in hot temperate climate.
 On an average, adult men require 3.7 litres and women 2.7 litres of fluids during a day. It includes water received by the body from all sources. Talking about only water, the rule of 8X8 is very popular. This rule advocates drinking of eight glasses, each measuring 8 ounces (250) ml summing up to 64 ounces (2 litres) of water per day.

Water intake and Ayurveda: Ayurveda guidelines are more specific regarding water consumption. These guidelines not only tell us how much, but also tell us how and when the water needs to be drunk. The thumb rule regarding quantity of water to be consumed during a day is to follow your thirst. Too much or too little water, both are detrimental to health. Too little water will land you in dehydration, whereas too much water will lead to fluid overload and electrolyte imbalance leading to lowering of sodium levels, the condition known as hyponatremia. It causes nausea, vomiting, cramps in legs, fatigue etc. Too much water drinking is described as ‘Atyambupana’ in Ayurveda, which is the principal cause of indigestion.  Atyambupana is also a cause of increase in quantity and frequency of urine, the condition known as ‘Prameha’ in Ayurveda. 

Is it safe to drink water stored in copper container: 

Copper containers for storing drinking water, are very popular in health conscious people? But the health benefits can be drawn only with 100% food grade copper containers and limiting its use only to plain drinking water. Storage of water in copper container leads to slow release of copper oxide ions in the water. Overnight storage of water in foodsafe copper container leaches 0.475 ppm i.e. 0.475 mg. copper per litre of water, which is well within WHO recommended limits of 2 ppm. 
 The above described health benefit will turn into health hazard if the quality of copper container is not good or the container gets rusted due to inappropriate cleaning practices. Copper reacts quickly with acidic substances from pickled foods, milk, dairy products, lemon and other sour juices stored in it, to produce highly toxic copper salts. Heating also enhances the reactivity of copper, releasing large number of copper ions in the material stored in it. Therefore, hot water or any hot substance should not be kept in a copper container. Charaka has described water boiled in copper container as Ashivisha, a very strong poison. Considering the risk and probability of failure to get good quality and maintenance of cleanliness of coper container, it is better to avoid its use.

Time of water consumption: No doctor, except select Ayurvedic doctors, who know significance of time of water consumption, gives any advice regarding this issue. However, social media is very active on this issue.  Most of the times elderly people fall easy prey for this free advice. The advice is usually related to drinking of water following awakening in the morning, before going to bed in the night, and after taking lunch and dinner and likewise.

Drinking of water early morning: Drinking a glass of water, early in the morning is a most common and most popular practice. This practice is known as ‘Ushahpana’ in Ayurveda. Ushahpana has its own benefits. But it is contraindicated in certain conditions. Drinking of cold water in the morning is particularly not advisable for people suffering from loss of hunger, digestive dysfunction, tastelessness, cough, asthmatic bronchitis, running nose, hic cough, acute fever, skin disease, oozing wounds, swelling over the body, back ache, depletion of body mass and weight, abdominal rigidity and distention, diabetes and neurological disorders. However, these people can drink pre-boiled hot water. The hot water needs to be sipped like hot tea till it is tolerably hot.

Tips regarding drinking of hot water:

Boling of water is generally advocated for its sterilization. But apart from sterilization, Ayurveda advocates boiling of water to introduce therapeutic properties in it. Boiling of water to retain one eighth, one fourth, half or more than a half or simply boiling for few minutes makes it therapeutically effective.

 More the water is boiled, more it becomes therapeutically active and effective. Water boiled to retain one fourth is referred as ‘Arogyambu’ (healthy water) in Ayurveda. However, water once boiled should not be reheated. Such reheating makes it toxic. Similarly, boiled water stored overnight is also not good for the health.

Drinking of boiled water is specifically advocated for people who are ill. The boiled water can be drunk till it is tolerably hot or it can be taken when it becomes cold. Hot water is light in nature. It stimulates and enhances overall digestive activity and has a cleansing effect on urinary system. It is good for people suffering from low grade fever, hic-cough, gaseous distention of abdomen, cough, common cold, asthmatic bronchitis, back ache, indigestion and number of other conditions.  

People with Pitta constitution, alcohol addicts, people suffering from diseases arising from alcohol addiction, high grade fever, burning, diarrhoea, bleeding disorders, giddiness, poisoning, vomiting and intensive thirst should drink water after making it cold, and should not drink till it is hot.

Water and food:

 It is often asked when one should drink water at the time of taking food. Water drunk at different times in relation to food, produces different effects. Water drunk just prior to eating food, reduces digestion and depletes body mass leading to weight loss. Water drunk after completion of eating food, makes the person obese.

Water drunk frequently in sips during the meals mixes the food well in the stomach, facilitating its digestion leading to adequate nourishment to all the tissues in the body.  

Now a day most of the people don’t drink water during their meals. Many times water is never served with meals, particularly in buffet meals. People drink water after their meals on such occasions. Drinking of water after the end of meals is very common in western culture. May be it is one of the reason for obesity and metabolic disorders found very common in western world.

Indian meals are always served with a glass of water. That is the best practice. However, people are forgetting this practice and blindly treading the of western culture. There is a dire need to make regular habit of drinking water frequently during the meals. This practice will definitely improve your digestion and make you healthier.

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