According to recent scientific studies, healthy people drink more water. Doctors and scientists have set recommendations for how much water you should drink based on your weight and activity level, which you can read more about here. But setting water-drinking goals is one thing, meeting those goals is another.
Anyone who struggles to get their daily intake of water in has likely tried a few common tips and tricks to meet their water consuming goals. Chugging a glass before a meal, before bed, and when waking up are popular antics individuals who have water goals swear by. But, according to gastrointestinal, vascular, and general surgeons, this may not be the best way to go about hydrating yourself.
According to Dr. Smith, chugging water, especially when dehydrated, can cause your body to dilute your blood, resulting in the kidney’s excreting the water quickly. This means all that water you just took in takes the fast track right back out, and you are none the closer to hydration.
Further, chugging water constantly can cause water intoxication, also known as hyponatremia. Too much water in the body throws your sodium levels out of whack, causing body cells to swell and you to feel some seriously uncomfortable symptoms such as headache, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and exhaustion.
Instead of risking water intoxication and wasting your water, try sipping instead. Doctors say 2-3 ounce sips at a time, is the key to re-hydration. If you do this throughout the day, you’ll still meet your water goals and retain more water than your water-chugging counter parts. Give this new water-drinking method a try and let us know how it works!