Water— To Your Health!

Hydration isn’t just vital when it’s hot. Drink enough every day and your whole body will benefit. (Your brain too.)

- Marissa Laliberte And Lindsay Tigar

IF YOU’VE EVER been pummeled by the gut-wrenching pain that comes with a kidney stone, your doctor probably handed you a surprisingly benign prescription to avoid another one: water. Stones often form when urine doesn’t have enough fluid in it to dissolve calcium and other substances the body regularly processes. When the body tries to move them along the conveyor belt of the excretion process, they get stuck—and it hurts. Doctors sometimes prescribe medication to keep stones from forming, but for many people, proper hydration is the first line of defense. As some urologists say to those patients, water is your medicine.

If the notion of simply hydrating yourself to health seems like magical thinking, consider the research that produced the claim. Study after study shows that drinking enough water fends off problems from head to toe. “Water is a basic need for cellular health,” says Ronald Navarro, MD, an orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City, California.

How much water depends on many factors: your weight, the climate where you live, how often you exercise. The old rule of thumb of eight 8-ounce glasses a day is not a bad place to start, but the Institute of Medicine actually recommends more for most people living in temperate climates. The clearest sign that you’re well hydrated is pale yellow urine. If yours is dark yellow, down more Hâ‚‚O.

An even better gauge may be how you feel overall. In fact, water can be a potent elixir for your mind and body. So pour yourself a nice big glass, sit back, and take a look at the many ways being well hydrated can help your health.