How Much Water Should Residents of Falls Church
Be Drinking?

This is one of the most common questions asked in my chiropractic office in Falls Church by patients who are trying to become healthier.  The most used and common answer that you hear is 8 glasses of water per day.  You might ask, what if I\'m drinking juice or Gatorade, does that count?  How about coffee, I drink 3 cups of coffee per day, does that count towards my water intake.   I believe everyone is different, so we all have different needs.  For example, what if you exercise on a regular basis?  What if you have a sedentary job in which you sit all day?  What if you work a physically demanding job?  What if you live in a warmer climate rather than to a colder one?  These are all questions we have to take into consideration.
As we all know water is essential to health and wellness.  In fact water is the body\'s principal chemical component, since water comprises over half your body weight, at about 60%-70%.  The water in our body doesn\'t stay constant.  We lose water through normal bodily functions, such as perspiring and urinating.  The older one gets, the less water is retained in one\'s cells. As a result, old skin looks drier and wrinkles appear. Therefore, when you drink more water you will look and feel younger.
So where did this magical \"8 glasses of water a day\" number initially come from?  Nobody really knows.

According to Snopes:

Back in 1945 the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council stated that adults should take in about 2.5 liters of water per day (which is roughly the equivalent of eight glasses of water), but it also noted most of that intake level was already satisfied through the consumption of food without the need for the additional drinking of water.

So as you can see a large percentage of water we get comes from food.  Juices and Gatorade can also all count towards your intake of water.  However I would not recommend coffee, caffeinated teas and soda is that they contain caffeine with is diuretic, which makes you lose more.  I personally wouldn\'t count those towards my daily intake of water.  And there is also a whole host of problems with drinking sodas and energy drinks in general, so I would also try to avoid these sugary drinks.

According to the National Institute of Health, your primary signs of dehydration are:

• A feeling of thirst
• Dry or sticky mouth
• Low or no urine output; urine looks dark yellow
• Sunken eyes
• Lethargy

So the question is how much water do I need?  I believe that the body is an amazing machine.   It tells us when to drink, that\'s why we have the thirst mechanism, and a simple solution would be to drink when we are thirsty, but that should be the bare minimum as we can see its already a sign of dehydration.

I believe that we should drink before we get thirsty because thirst can a lot of times be mistaken for hunger, and then we eat more to satisfy our thirst.

My goal with my patients here at Rosa Family Chiropractic in Falls Church is to have them learn their bodies and recognize when and what makes them thirsty and to be hydrated before that happens.  I\'m a firm believer in keeping water bottles (ideally glass) handy at all times.  I prefer a glass water bottle because it doesn\'t leak out chemicals like plastic.

I personally believe that drinking adequate amounts of good quality water will make significant changes in one\'s quality of life.