by Leonard Achan RN, MA, ANP

Your body is composed of approximately 60% water, which means that it makes sense to keep water flowing in your body. Water is essential to the overall health of all your vital organs and assists with essential roles such as removing toxins, maintaining the chemical balance within your cells, and helping nutrients as well as vitamins and medications to travel and be absorbed into your system.

Most people find themselves in a doctors office, an emergency room or at home feeling sluggish and depleted because of dehydration during hot summer months. It’s very important that during any time of the year, you do not get dehydrated. Remember that you lose water through urination, respiration, and by sweating and depending on your diet and exercise these losses can be more or less over the same period of time.

You may be asking us how much water you should be drinking each day, but this is an individual need and should be assessed based on medications you take, your health, how active you are, how exposed you are to the sun and heat. Even your living and work environment play a large role in how much water you may need to replace each day.

Some clinician’s recommend anywhere from 2- 3 liters a day. Some hydration calculators recommend that a healthy individual without major health concerns or pregnancy should take your weight in pounds and divide it by half which will tell you the amount of ounces you need to drink per day (so if you weigh 120 lbs, this would equal 60 oz or 1.8 liters per day).

Exercise, exposure outside to heat waves or very hot days, increased exercise or mobility can make this estimate vary especially when health concerns are taken into consideration.

Some very easy ways to stay hydrated are:

1. Keep moderate temperature water near you all day. Sometimes water that is on either end of the hot/cold spectrum will discourage you from drinking.
2. Consume fruits and veggies which have a high concentration of water in them naturally.
3. Drink flavored drinks, Iced teas or juices if you really need a break from pure water during the day.
4. Dress in lightly colored clothing if you will be exposed to the sun and protect your skin from direct sunlight.
5. Replace water throughout the day during long periods of activity or exercise.

Also, please don’t take your access to clean healthy water for granted. According to UNICEF, over 900 million people on the planet today do not have access to water and half of them are children. Please feel free to watch this video and donate at www.tapproject.org