Good hydration is about more than just “drink lots of water”, and in fact it’s quite possible for a person to drink too much water, and at the same time, be dehydrated. Here’s how and why and what to do about it:

Water, water, everywhere

Factors that people forget:

• Electrolyte balance: without it, we can technically have lots of water while either retaining it (in the case of too high salt levels) or peeing it out (in the case of too low salt levels), neither of which are as helpful as getting it right and actually being able to use the water.
• Gastrointestinal health: conditions like IBS, Crohn’s, or celiac disease can impair water and nutrient absorption, affecting hydration
• Genetic factors: some people simply have a predisposition to need more or less water for proper hydration
• Dietary factors: high salt, caffeine, and alcohol intake (amongst other diuretics) can increase water loss, while water-rich foods (assuming they aren’t also diuretics) increase hydration.

Strategies to do better:

• Drink small amounts of water consistently throughout the day rather than large quantities at once—healthy kidneys can process about 1 liter (about 1 quart) of water per hour, so drinking more than that will not help, no matter how dehydrated you are when you start. If your kidneys aren’t in peak health, the amount processable per hour will be lower for you.
• Increase fiber intake (e.g., fruit and vegetables) to retain water in the intestines and improve hydration
• Consume water-rich foods (e.g., watermelon, cucumbers, grapes) to enhance overall hydration and support cellular function (the body can use this a lot more efficiently than if you just drink water).
• Counteract the diuretic effects of caffeine and alcohol by drinking an additional 12 oz of water for every 8 oz of these beverages. Best yet, don’t drink alcohol and keep caffeine to a low level (or quit entirely, if you prefer, but for most people that’s not necessary).
• If you are sweating (be it because of weather, exercise, or any other reasons), include electrolyte fluids to improve cellular hydration, as they contain essential minerals like magnesium, potassium, and in moderation yes even sodium which you will have lost in your sweat too, supporting fluid regulation.

For more details on all of these, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

• Water’s Counterintuitive Properties
• Hydration Mythbusting
• When To Take Electrolytes (And When We Shouldn’t!)
• Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60)

Take care!

Mobility is critical for health living, but stretching isn’t the entire story:

Beyond just stretching

Liv Townsend, of LivInLeggings fames, recommends these four habits:

1. Sit less: prolonged sitting affects hip and shoulder mobility. Specifically, it affects it negatively. It is also a bringer of woe in many other ways beyond the scope of what we’re doing here today, but the important thing for mobility is to sit less. So, if you spent a lot of time at a desk, invest in a standing desk (writer’s note: I dearly love mine, which is technically a sit-stand converter like this one on Amazon but I just keep it in the up position all the time, so it’s easy to forget it has multiple settings. Anyway, it’s sooooooo much better for my back than sitting for hours at a time.). For how to deal with other (i.e. not desk-related) reasons you might be sitting a lot, check out: Stand Up For Your Health (Or Don’t*)
2. Take creatine: more than just for strength and muscle-building (and even aside from its brain-benefits that it bestows to older people, but not young ones), creatine also supports mobility and flexibility. Any brand is fine, so long as creatine monohydrate is the sole ingredient. Also, micronized or not is also fine—that’s just to do with whether it’s been pre-compacted into super-tiny beads (so small that it will still effectively be a powder), which helps it to avoid clumping when mixed in a liquid, that’s all. It shouldn’t have any additives either way (so, check labels to ensure it doesn’t).
3. Spend more time under tension: no, we’re not talking about texting your spouse “we need to talk”, but rather, this means that when we do stretch, we should spend longer in the stretched position. While dynamic stretching has its place, passive stretching (holding stretches for longer periods) is essential and shouldn’t be overlooked.
4. Incorporate “movement snacks”: this is about when we are going about our daily life, we should move more while doing everyday tasks. Get in some shoulder stretches while waiting for the kettle to boil, deep squat while petting the dog, etc. These are very important, because mobility is very much a “use it or lose it” thing, and so moving in many different ways, frequently, is the only way to ensure full coverage (no stretching regimen is going to be able to cover the many compound movements that we do in everyday life).

*That article also covers how to avoid the damage of sitting even if you cannot physically stand!

For more on all of these, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

Mobility As Though A Sporting Pursuit: Train For The Event Of Your Life!

Take care!