Last month we identified that a person’s need for water could be determined by taking your weight in pounds divided by 2, then divide by 8, and the resultant number would be the number of glasses of water you should drink each day. It is important to know some of the ways the body uses all of this water, and with this knowledge maybe it would help solidify a decision to drink adequate amounts.
Considerable water is used by the body to make the secretions that digest our food. Digestion begins in the mouth with the teeth and the saliva. The body produces about 1,500 ml of saliva, approximately a quart and one half, to begin the process of digestion. This digestion is then completed through the bile liquids (500 ml), stomach juices (2,500 ml), pancreatic juices (700 ml), and the intestinal secretions (3,000 ml). So the total digestive juices produced by the body in a day are 8,200 ml or over 8 1/2 quarts of digestive juices.
Water is also used to cleanse the body of various waste products. Every time we exhale we are ridding the body of carbon dioxide. Water is also lost in this exchange. As water evaporates from our skin or as we perspire, wastes are removed from our body via the water that carries these products. At least 900 ml of water is lost daily through these three mechanisms. This can be greatly increased when the environmental temperatures rise and in the presence of heavy work or exercise. A small amount of water, about 100 ml, is lost daily through the colon.
The greatest daily loss of water, about 1,500 ml, comes from the kidneys. In order to remove waste products from our blood, it is continuously filtered through the kidneys. The kidneys are better than any filtration device that man has created. The two kidneys filter approximately 180 liters of fluid from the blood each day—this is nearly 50 gallons of fluid per day!!! They monitor and filter all of this fluid, making changes as needed to help us maintain fluid and electrolyte balance. By not drinking enough water, we hinder each of the avenues by which our bodies eliminate waste products. Eventually this will result in decreased health and even illness.
From just these few body functions it is easy to see why it is so important to drink adequate amounts of water to have a healthy body. I hope this knowledge will encourage you to drink adequate water for your health.