Drinking sufficient water

On the other hand in some circumstances it is important to ensure you have an adequate liquid intake. If you are doing strenuous exercises, playing sport etc especially in hot weather if you wait until you are thirsty before drinking you are in danger of dehydration. Dehydration can cause memory loss and confusion amongst other symptoms, which can be mistaken for dementia. Everything in moderation I suppose. 3litres is excessive.

When we moved into our new house my OH picked up a bottle of orange liquid in the garden and said it was disgusting that a builder had peed in the bottle and left it behind. I replied that I would be very worried if my pee was that colour - it was a bottle of Irn Bru!

mumofmadboys

You can tell whether you are drinking enough by the colour of your wee. It should be a mild yellow colour.

Yes, a good tip MOMB.

My yardstick also MOMB

Read MaizieD's posts !

That wasn't addressed to you, Aldom as you agreed that 3 litres a day is too much.

It's to anyone who might think they need to drink that much water.

Aldom

Be careful not to overdo your fluid intake. Six to eight glasses of fluid (all types) is a healthy amount. Over drinking can dilute the sodium levels in the body causing serious issues even death. Many people end up in A&E as a result of drinking too much water.

The body needs salts too and 3 litres a day is too much

3 litres a day is ridiculous. You'd spend most of the day peeing it out again ...
Along with essential salts
Much of our food contains liquid too.
Read MaizieD's posts!

You can tell whether you are drinking enough by the colour of your wee. It should be a mild yellow colour.

I hate drinking water, I am over 60 and in my annual blood checks I have been told I have chronic kidney disease ( my GP says the majority of people over 60 have some sort of low/medium level kidney deterioration). No treatment at the moment but he says I must drink an additional 6 small glasses of water during the day. I find this incredibly hard. I drink about 6 cups of tea or coffee a day plus at the moment a large glass of elderflower cordial at lunchtime and a glass of ribena during the night. I am sure this is not enough. Must try harder,

MaizieD

It's nonsense.

Liquid intake is important but tea, coffee, wine, etc are all liquid and will do just as well from the 'liquid' point of view. There may be other objections to them, of course, such as containing toxins or extra unnecessary calories, but as a contribution to liquid intake they are fine.

I say this on the authority of a close relative who has a Master's degree in Human Nutrition. I do realise that this will be scoffed at in some circles..

3 litres a day is ridiculous. You'd spend most of the day peeing it out again...

My friend’s GP told her that any liquid should be counted in her daily intake.

Kate1949

I never drink water. I forget to. When I was working, I drank a lot as we had those water machines everywhere. Now I never think about it. I must try.

Why must you try? There's nothing special about water. For hundreds of years people avoided drinking water because it was vile and made you ill. The human race is still here.

and has now reached peak civilisation with a belief that they'll die if they don't have a bottle of water to constantly suck on

Yes, I know that thirst indicates that we are dehydrated -

I'm pretty sure that that statement is totally incorrect.

Dehydration is a serious state to be in. Your body control mechanisms would' if working properly, never let you reach that state before 'telling' you to drink. 'Thirst' is telling you to top up your liquid levels, not that you're already in a dangerous state.

It seems to be the opinion of Dr Google that the body can survive for 2 or more days without water. (Not recommended, just to give some proportion) The obsession with topping up every 5 minutes is ridiculous.

duckduckgo.com/?q=how+long+can+a+body+go+without+water&t=chromentp&ia=web

I never drink water. I forget to. When I was working, I drank a lot as we had those water machines everywhere. Now I never think about it. I must try.

If you intend to drink a lot I advise you to check your sodium levels when you have a blood test. I too believed I should eschew salt and drink plenty of water. I hadn’t realised that my sodium levels were decreasing year by year as nothing had been said and I didn’t realise the importance. That is until last year when I underwent a straight forward hernia op. I was unable to urinate and I couldn’t go home until I did so apparently (I remember nothing about that day) I began to drink a lot of water. I then hallucinated as I went into a seizure and had to be resuscitated. I woke up two days later in a different hospital in ITU where I stayed for a week. I was sent home with the instructions that I had to restrict my drinks to a litre and a half a day and no more than two litres. Since then I have made sure I add salt to my food despite being told for years you should cut it out. Thank goodness for the NHS app which shows test results and I can see that my sodium levels are now well within the normal range. They were below this before the op and had been for some time but when you ring for results the receptionist just says it’s alright. Thanks to the app I can read the results now and for some years past. Of course we should drink enough but don’t believe that it is always best to drink as much as possible.

If you are concerned you can just up the high water content foods. Fresh salad vegetables, fruit jelly to name but two ideas.

DiL has a bottle with hours marked on it to ensure she sips regularly through the day. It helps her to keep track of her fluid intake.

Agree about the danger of drinking too much or too cold suddenly; both have caused health alarms in the family.

My best friend (sadly now dead), was a hypochondriac. So, when she read something saying so and so was good for you, she never really tried to find out more.

One morning, she arrived at my house (we were due to go out for the day),looking decidedly poorly. Dizzy, and feeling nauseous. I asked her what she had done that morning (besides her normal morning run and trip to the gym!!!). She told me that she had drunk three litres of water, - in one go!!!! (She had read that she should have this each day and wanted to get it 'out of the way' before she went out!!!

I took her straight down to A&E. Concerned (and they were also), that not just sodium levels would be too low, but she could actually be 'drowning' some of her organs. Fortunately, after being kept in for observation for a few hours she was fine

One of my foster childrens fathers overdosed on prescription drugs accidently - he took double the dose as he felt that if one etc. was good for him then two must be doubly good. He died from this!!!

Just saying that we do need to have a greater understanding of what our bodies need and how it is supplied. Even on this thread there seem to be people who think that water is the only fluid that counts towards our daily intake. Anything, other than alcohol, is part of that fluid - tea coffee, etc. etc.

Fluid is important, too much fluid is dangerous. Drink when you start to feel slightly thirsty. Yes, I know that thirst indicates that we are dehydrated - but to drink when your body is not indicating any need for it can result in over-hydration.

The safest bet is to stick to about 2 litres of all fluids. We are told to drink more but not warned about drinking too much.

When I was having a lot of UTIs and kidney infections I upped my fluid intake from 8-10 to 12-14 and was told by my GP go back to 8-10 any more and you dilute your sodium levels to much. As I am counting calories I mark on my pad if I have had a drink that way I know I am having enough .

giulia

Riverwalk

Three litres is a lot - is that in addition to tea/coffee/juice etc?

Well, yes. I also drink tea daily. My reason for all this water is that I saw with horror how crepey my upper arms have become over the winter, despite applying cream whenever I remembe,. and I had read that moisturising and hydrating are two completely different things. Also read that drinking three litres/day for two months can be effective. Thought I'd give it a try as it costs me nothing.

The water I drink is filtered as it is very hard in my area.

So depending on how much tea you drink you'll be having around 4 litres of fluids daily - that's a lot of fluid.

It's nonsense.

Liquid intake is important but tea, coffee, wine, etc are all liquid and will do just as well from the 'liquid' point of view. There may be other objections to them, of course, such as containing toxins or extra unnecessary calories, but as a contribution to liquid intake they are fine.

I say this on the authority of a close relative who has a Master's degree in Human Nutrition. I do realise that this will be scoffed at in some circles..

3 litres a day is ridiculous. You'd spend most of the day peeing it out again...

Argymargy - I'm in a hot country, Australia. So important to drink water but of course not to overdo it. I drink a few cups of green tea a day as well

Be careful not to overdo your fluid intake. Six to eight glasses of fluid (all types) is a healthy amount. Over drinking can dilute the sodium levels in the body causing serious issues even death. Many people end up in A&E as a result of drinking too much water.

You can overhydrate , my sister ended up in hospital with low sodium levels . She is on restricted fluids , crepy skin is not due to lack of fluids

Riverwalk

Three litres is a lot - is that in addition to tea/coffee/juice etc?

Well, yes. I also drink tea daily. My reason for all this water is that I saw with horror how crepey my upper arms have become over the winter, despite applying cream whenever I remembe,. and I had read that moisturising and hydrating are two completely different things. Also read that drinking three litres/day for two months can be effective. Thought I'd give it a try as it costs me nothing.

The water I drink is filtered as it is very hard in my area.

That sounds interesting Lemsip