If there is anything on earth which can be counted as a bare necessity apart from food, clothes and shelter, then it’s water. This gift of God covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface and comes with a bounty of benefits for every living organism on Earth. The magical bond between two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom has given rise to a wonder liquid which is loaded with essential minerals such as Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium etc as well as is the single-most thing that can prevent kidney problems, clears your skin, prevents obesity, removes all the waste and toxic substances from your body, helps in digestion, prevents constipation, improves your immunity power and the list goes on! And most importantly, it’s free! So next time you grab a glass of water and gulp it down out of habit, wait for a moment and think of all the goodness your are adding to your body and be thankful for this blessing.

As with almost everything around, the quantity of water you drink in a day is very individualistic and is highly dependent on your body weight, B.M.I. and other factors such as any particular disorder you are suffering from. While 8 glasses per day is the minimum, you can definitely go beyond that since the more you hydrate yourself, the healthier you will be. Now, this is one substance that we constantly intake and is absolutely devoid of any taste! So, if you are on the lookout to spice things up a little, just add a few sprigs of mint, or a slice of orange, or squeeze a little lemon or do whatever it takes to drink as much water as you can.

Apart from the benefits that have already been addressed, we enlist the top ten benefits that this wonder liquid can provide you –

• Contents hide

  1 Improves digestion and constipation

  2 Helps in weight loss

  3 Effect treatment for headaches

  4 Improves kidney function

  5 Acts as a natural anti-ageing remedy!

  6 Boosts intelligence

  7 Strengthens immune system

  8 Prevents sprains and muscle spasm

  9 Water uplifts your mood

  10 Fights sickness

  Improves digestion and constipation

Drinking lots of water will boost your metabolism and maintain the proper functioning of your gastrointestinal tract. When this happens, your body can break up food into finer particles and your stomach efficiently uses the bile juice from your pancreas, thus preventing any chances of suffering from acidity.

Inadequate water causes extreme dehydration which triggers your colon to extract water from the stools accumulated in your body, making the stools hard and very difficult to pass. Thus, water saves you from the problem of constipation.

But there are certain rules! You must not drink water while you are having your meals. You may drink before and after your meals but when you drink water along with having meals, this water interferes with the digestion process and inhibits food particles from getting broken down into smaller particles. And as for constipation problem, have a glass full of warm water first thing in the morning and it will definitely help you to have a better bowel movement.

• Helps in weight loss

Sounds unbelievable right?! Or maybe you have come across lifestyle blogs asking you to drink a glass of water before a meal but didn’t really consider it seriously! Well, if you are somebody struggling to lose weight this may actually help you!  This zero calorie drink with absolutely no side-effects fills your stomach and suppresses your tendency of binge eating, resulting in consuming fewer calories.

Moreover, it enhances the rate of burning fat within your body as well as degeneration of fat cells.

Sshhh! Want to know a secret about weight loss? Grind fresh flax seeds in a mixer till the seeds become dust. Mix one teaspoon of the ground flax seeds dust in a glass full of warm water and have it as the first thing in the morning! This will boost your metabolism greatly as well as your bowel movement. All this will definitely aid in weight loss!

• Effect treatment for headaches

A recent study by a renowned institute of neurology shows that dehydration is a leading cause of persistent headache and migraine. This happens because of a sharp drop in the volume of blood due to lack of water, which causes lesser amount of blood and oxygen to flow to the blood vessels of our brains. This causes the blood vessels to dilate and cause continuous pain.

Drinking plenty of water will help maintain the fluidity of blood in your bodies and proper blood circulation leading to a decrease in the intensity of headaches. Also, indigestion and acidity is often known to cause headache which can also be controlled by drinking plenty of water.

• Improves kidney function

Your kidneys are the filters in your body and perform numerous crucial functions such as passing away toxic wastes through urine and also filtering blood before sending it back to the heart. Since flushing out wastes is the main function of kidneys, hence obviously we need to drink a lot of water to keep them healthy and help them in efficient flushing out of wastes. Drinking insufficient quantity of water is the major reason for kidney stones and dark colored urine, signifying kidney disease.

• Acts as a natural anti-ageing remedy!

Is she mad? You might be thinking this right now! But to bust your disbelief I must tell you that before you reach out to expensive anti-ageing creams and complicated D.I.Y.s, drinking enough quantity of water should actually be counted as the first step towards your anti-ageing skin care regime! This one particular moisturizer that nature provides you is free of cost! And found in abundance! Water washes away the toxic wastes which are responsible for skin inflammations and acne. Try drinking 10 glasses of water every day and this will definitely help to keep your skin fresh and glowing.

• Boosts intelligence

Sounds shocking right? Recent observations have proved that there is a strong link between water and cognitive ability in a person. Just like every cell and body tissue needs to stay well hydrated to function properly, so does your brain. Mental performance and memory power can skyrocket when your brain is hydrated enough to function properly.

• Strengthens immune system

Water contains plenty of oxygen and so drinking lots of water will ensure that all the cells and tissues in your body are well oxygenated, which in turn will make your muscles and organs work better. Your internal system works best when you have your internals fir and healthy.

Moreover, water promotes the production of lymph which is responsible to circulate W.B.C. (white blood corpuscles) and nutrients from the thymus gland (a lymphoid gland at the base of your vertebral column) and your bone marrow to all parts of your body. All these functions are inter-related and help profoundly in strengthening your immune system.

• Prevents sprains and muscle spasm

Regularly indulging in too much coffee, alcoholic beverage, sodas and black tea makes your body chronically dehydrated. When your body has very less water, toxins accumulate and circulate in the blood, causing painful spasms and inflammation. Drinking enough water will lubricate your bone joints and keep your muscles elastic, thus keeping sprains and spasms at bay.

• Water uplifts your mood

Tension, stress, confusion and depression – everything has been found to score down when you have high water content in your body. Although the exact reason is yet to be known, but water has been found to ease anxiety and nervousness and help you to focus more on your work. Try and keep a check on the color of your urine. A light color of urine indicates a good level of dehydration.

• Fights sickness

Drinking enough water profoundly helps you to fight common cold, cough and running nose. Try drinking a glass of warm water mixed with lemon juice and a little honey every morning. This will not only aid your weight loss but also increase the level of calcium in your body and keep cough and cold at bay.

Well, even these ten points cannot sum up the immense benefits that water provides you. But in today’s life of unending competition, rushing and deadlines, our concern for health has taken a back-seat. Most of the times we are so busy with our work, that the only time it occurs to us that we should drink more and more water is when we notice the darkened color of our urine, or we have tidbits of bloody mucous coming out of our nose or when one fine day, we realize that our skin has lost the freshness and glow that it used to have. Hence, I am going to list some very easy ways that can help you in the long run :

• Always keep your bottle of water nearby. Always. So, that you can keep sipping some from time to time.
• Keep a track of how much water you are currently drinking and how much you should drink. Chalk it out in your mind that in every two hours you are going to have a glass of water.
• Do you have a desk in your office or a white-board where you can attach to-do lists? Well then, use it to remind yourself to do this task.
• Nowadays, we have mobile apps for everything right? In fact, there is a very helpful app called Water Your Body which takes into account your weight, B.M.I, habits and accordingly decides how much water you need to drink. It will remind you to drink water in every hour in case you forget.

I have tried sharing all the knowledge that I have in this topic with you all. I request you to share any another benefit that you know about and your take on this article.